Maxine Waters: I've been denied due process

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Politico

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is calling on theHouse ethics committee to schedule her ethics trial on three counts of violating House rules before the end of the lame-duck session.

That trial was set to begin on Nov. 29, but Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the ethics committee, announced 10 days ago that it would be delayed after the panel uncovered new evidence. No date has been set for the hearings, signaling the case could drag on into 2011.

The delay has infuriated Waters, who wants the trial to take place before Congress adjourns for the year.
"I have been denied basic due process," Waters told a group of reporters early Monday morning. The combative California Democrat, who questioned whether the ethics committee "bungled this case," appeared outside the hearing room in the Longworth House Office Building where the trial was to be held.

"I had consistently called on the committee to schedule the hearing before the November elections and that request went unanswered," Waters said. “All of this is to say that the ethics committee had ample time to prepare their case against me. As I stated just 10 days ago, I believe this cancellation demonstrates in no uncertain terms the weakness of their case against me.”


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45669.html

[WizardLeft62]

1. Bogus Charges Against Maxine Waters

This is total nonsense and an ongoing attack on the Congressional Black Caucus....

Maxine Water's biggest snafu was criticizing the CIA's covert drug activities in Los Angeles, which turned out to be true. Must be payback time for her now.

Bring all of them up on ethics charges then.

[bluedigger]

2. That will cause the Republicans to delay dissolving the ethics committee.

They are likely to take out their frustration on her.:sarcasm:

[Lance_Boyle]

3. Must be nice to be able to set your own trial date.

Must really, really suck to only *think* you get to set your own trial date.

[Hissyspit]

4. Right to speedy trial is in the Constitution.

Anyway, it's a witchhunt.

[The Second Stone]

5. It's called a right to a speedy trial

and it is a right in criminal cases. I doubt that it is a right in an ethics matter. But she kinda has a point.

In a criminal case most accused waive the right to a speedy trial. That waiver can be pulled at any time and then that case has precedence for trial setting in front of all non-criminal cases without a waiver. If such principles are applied here, the committee should have tried her case when Rangle applied for a continuance to get new counsel. But like I said, it isn't criminal, even though it is accusatory.

[demigoddess]

6. charlie rangel and maxine waters, are the powers that trying

to purge all people of color from the congress??