‘In your face’ Waters gets notice on Hill

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) had just been invited to the White House for the first time in 1999 when, strolling through the Rose Garden, he spotted Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).

Blunt asked if she planned to attend an upcoming bipartisan retreat.

{mosads}‘The best thing I can do for bipartisanship is to stay away,’ ” Blunt recalls Waters saying. “I’ve liked her ever since then, and she has the added advantage of being raised in Missouri.”

Fast-forward eight years.

Waters is frustrated that a Hurricane Katrina-related public housing bill has passed in the House but languishes in the Senate. She blames Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) for delaying the measure.

“I think he’s trying to rehabilitate himself on the backs of this issue,” Waters said, referring to Vitter’s admission earlier this year that he frequented brothels in New Orleans and Washington.

Vitter’s spokesman did not return a phone call for comment.

The accusation is vintage Maxine Waters, who in 16 years in office has not shied away from an in-your-face, take-no-prisoners political style that has made her a rare species in the House of Representatives: a household name — at least in political households.

“The funny thing … everyone in Alabama seems to know her,” Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) said. “People talk about Maxine Waters in Alabama like they know her.”

Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) said, “People know her everywhere.”

With Democrats in control of the House, Waters is one of its most powerful members. She is the Out of Iraq Caucus chairwoman, the House Financial Services Housing Subcommittee chairwoman and a chief deputy whip.

Despite her climb up the political ladder, some lawmakers allege that her style can alienate allies and raise opponents’ ire.

“That in-your-face approach is very effective within the community,” a California lawmaker said, referring to voters in her district. “Here, the approach is less effective. You don’t do that here. It’s a turnoff.”

“No one wants to run afoul of her,” Anthony Willoughby, a Los Angeles-based lawyer and Democratic activist, said. “She’s very good at screaming in front of the cameras.”

Willoughby lost a race last year for the California Assembly to a protégé of Waters.

She receives surprisingly high marks from Republicans on her subcommittee, who said that while they might not always agree with her, the outspoken congresswoman is not disagreeable.

“I enjoy getting her perspective on issues, because she represents and understands a constituency that I might have a blind spot [to] at some point,” Bachus said.

Waters grew up the fourth of 13 children in St. Louis, where she attended a segregated high school. She started her political career as a Head Start organizer and won a seat to the California Assembly in 1976. She is married to Sidney Williams, a former linebacker for the Cleveland Browns and former ambassador to the Bahamas.

Official Washington met Maxine Waters during the 1992 Rodney King riots. She was a ubiquitous presence on cable television. She cemented her reputation by crashing a subsequent White House meeting on urban policy with then-President George H.W. Bush, some Cabinet secretaries and congressional leaders.

She was the only black politician in the room.

Between her willingness to talk about issues that few other politicians will and her fiery rhetoric, Waters might appear harsh or rigid. But in person, wearing her trademark Ted Baker eyeglasses, she is warm and charming.

Waters has a long history of involving herself in state and national political races, a propensity that in some cases has exposed divisions within the Democratic Party.

Waters has had a longstanding relationship with Bill and Hillary Clinton. In 1992, then-Arkansas Gov. Clinton courted Waters for her advice and political acumen. Waters said she considers Sens. Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) the two front-runners and will endorse a candidate before California’s Feb. 5 primary.  

In California, it is well-known that Waters warred for years with the late Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D) over style and turf.

She and Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) have never had a good relationship because Waters backed Watson’s opponent when she first ran for Congress. Watson declined to comment for this article.

Waters always has been suspect of Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), too, even though they share a generational bond and have served as chairwomen of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“I’ve never had a cross word with her,” Johnson said. “People tell me it’s just jealously. I say, ‘Of what?’ and they just laugh.”

Earlier this year, Waters supported Richardson, who defeated Millender-McDonald’s daughter, Valerie McDonald.

Watson, CBC Chairwoman Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.) and Johnson supported McDonald in the race.

“When she jumps into a race, she gives 200 percent. Her presence makes people take a second look,” Richardson said,

adding that she is on good terms with Millender-McDonald’s allies.

Waters has also feuded for years with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). She helped Democrat Ned Lamont defeat Lieberman in last year’s Democratic primary race and, in 2000, she hesitated to endorse then-Vice President Al Gore after he selected Lieberman as his running mate.

Despite her record as an avid campaigner, Waters has only $18,000 left in her campaign account. Her People Helping People political action committee has virtually no money, according to public records. Still, she is renowned for her direct-mail operation, which she has steered — amid criticism from government watchdog groups — to a firm that employs her daughter.

On policy issues, Waters is among the most liberal members of the House, but she has managed to work well with Republicans at times and there is a libertarian bent to her political philosophy.

Moreover, she is not afraid to involve herself with issues well outside of her jurisdiction, especially foreign affairs.

As a leader of the Out of Iraq Caucus, she has pushed the Democratic Caucus to the left on the issue of the Iraq war.

Earlier this month, she led nine other liberals in a meeting with Pelosi demanding changes to ensure the latest funds Bush wanted for the war in Iraq instead would be used to fund the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

“We want our caucus to come to the conclusion that we must [have] a date certain for withdrawal, but we must do it over and over and over again until we’re successful,” she said.

Waters is a longtime critic of the CIA — accusing it of selling crack cocaine in Los Angeles in the 1990s — and an ardent opponent of the Iraq war and measures to give the government more power to spy on its citizens.

She opposes giving more authority to the National Security Agency to track phone calls. Asked why Democrats proceeded so cautiously on the Iraq war and a bill to revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), she said: “Many of our newer members are anxious to be in step … with their constituents and they don’t want to take chances.

“We should not worry about being thought of as unpatriotic. We don’t think that our membership pulled the rug out from under the soldiers. We think that those fears are unfounded,” she added.

Waters scored one of her biggest bipartisan victories seven years ago when she enlisted 26 Republicans to join most Democrats in passing an amendment granting $225 million in debt relief to poor nations (House Republicans leaders initially wanted a $69 million bill.)

In 2004, she flew to the Central African Republic to arrange for the return of her friend, the former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Many observers believe Aristide was ousted in a U.S.-backed coup that year.

Waters makes no apologies about her aggressive style and rejects any notion that her efforts on foreign affairs have hampered her work on domestic policies.

“I perhaps have the most successful subcommittee in the House,” she said. “You don’t do that and do it as smoothly as we’ve done if you don’t know how to manage relationships.”