Another dirt-bag dim skates....

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/092412-626834-maxine-waters-beats-corruption-rap-with-impunity.htm?fromcampaign=1

Culture Of Corruption:

A House panel has cleared Rep. Maxine Waters of ethics charges after her office used its clout to bail out her husband's bank. This is getting tiresome. Just what's it take to remove a corrupt Democrat?

Nothing to see here, move along" is what the House Ethics Committee effectively declared after a stalled, subpoena-blocked investigation that took three years came up empty.

But was there really nothing on Waters? The California Democrat was accused of using her position as a member of the House Financial Services Committee in 2009 to steer $12 million in bailout money to the failing Boston-based OneUnited Bank, in which her husband had substantial stakes.

The federal cash had been earmarked for solvent banks with good banking practices, yet OneUnited, which failed all such criteria, got an exemption from the FDIC accounting rules.

Maybe that's because Treasury Department bank examiners were subject to a barrage of calls from Waters' grandson, Mikael Moore, muscling into an operation that was supposed to be judged impartially. In the end, the bank got its cash, leaving FDIC investigators fuming about "a travesty of justice," and Moore is likely to get off with a slap on the wrist at most.

As for Waters, she skates. "This case is also about access," Waters said, unwittingly indicating that "access" means access to taxpayer cash, for herself.

With the ethics charge gone, Waters won't slink off in shame, but will now fail upward, poised to assume minority leadership of the Financial Services Committee.

So much for ending the "culture of corruption," with "the most honest, most open, most ethical Congress in history," as Rep. Nancy Pelosi pledged on taking up the House Speaker's gavel in 2006.

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But Waters is just the latest example of how impunity has accelerated among Democrats and Congress has become an open trough. The examples are piling up:

• Back in the 1980s, Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, was caught using his pull to fix his lover's 33 parking tickets as the latter ran a gay prostitution racket out of Frank's basement. The penalty? Promotion to the House Financial Services Committee chairmanship.

• House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles Rangel of New York, who in 2010 was found to be in violation of House rules by shaking down public colleges for funds and evading the taxman. He got a wrist slap and still has his seat.

• Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut got himself a sweetheart "VIP" loan from subprime lender Countrywide to buy himself a palatial "cottage" in Ireland. The consequences for him? None.

• Housing and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently violated the Hatch Act by campaigning on the job, yet skated instead of getting fired, which is the prescribed penalty.

• Attorney General Eric Holder was found to be in contempt of Congress for withholding documents on Operation Fast and Furious, yet merited President Obama's "full confidence" last week.

Any one of these violations would get a Republican fired or forced from office. But when a Democrat self-deals, power becomes its own justification.