As previously mentioned, Maxine Waters has been accused of some questionably ethical dealings. The Congresswoman from California has denied that she’s violated any house rules and as a result, will take part in a public hearing rather than admitting to any wrongdoing. Naturally you can expect any hearing involving Waters to be an extremely entertaining event but today the Boston Herald takes one for the team, raising a few points that ensure there will be a minimum of, ballparking it, 5 delightful awkward exchanges, vis-a-vis a pal of hers named Kevin who allegedly has a coke, sodomy and Porsche problem.
The married bank honcho at the center of the Maxine Waters ethics firestorm was arrested for allegedly sodomizing a woman and possessing cocaine at a company-owned manse just months before U.S. Rep. Barney Frank arranged a controversial taxpayer bailout for the Hub-based lender. The charges against OneUnited Chairman and CEO Kevin L. Cohee, 52, who splits his time between Chestnut Hill and Santa Monica, were dismissed – including allegations of possessing cocaine, illegal narcotics and opiates in his company’s $6.4 million beachfront villa. Cohee agreed to participate in a “drug diversion program” in exchange for the drug charges being dismissed, according to Santa Monica Police Sgt. Jay Trisler.
It was completely without merit,” Cohee told the Herald yesterday. “No convictions. Not even any charges. Utter and complete nonsense that went nowhere.” In testimony to a House ethics panel, Waters called Cohee a “friend” and said she had been to one of his homes for a Christmas party and a fund-raiser.
Cohee’s legal plight played out until the drug charges against him were dropped in July 2008 – the month before he began working to secure a federal bailout for his bank, raising serious questions about the degree of vetting by federal regulators and members of Congress.
Frank has previously denied Waters had any sway over his efforts to help OneUnited, but admitted he was working on behalf of Cohee and disgraced state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson. In October 2008, federal regulators and the Bay State’s division of banks ordered OneUnited to sell its $6.4 million beachfront property in Pacific Palisades, a prestigious area between Santa Monica and Malibu, and sell its bank-owned Porsche and other cars – like the gray Jaguar that Cohee was driving at the time of his 2007 arrest. Regulators also demanded the bank end excessive payments and benefits for its executives.
At the time of his arrest on the sodomy accusation, Cohee told police he met his accuser, a woman he briefly dated, while she worked as a stylist on a photo shoot being filmed at the bank-owned home for an “MTV series,” according to a police report.
In January 2003, Cohee and his wife acquired a bank in Waters’ district after the congresswoman’s outspoken advocacy for Family Savings Bank to remain in African-American hands. The acquisition nearly doubled the size of Cohee’s bank, which he re-branded OneUnited. The following year, Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams, joined the board of OneUnited. He remained a member until April 2008, retaining shares worth about $350,000 in the bank. A spokesman for Waters, Mikael Moore, said the congresswoman did not know that Cohee had been arrested or that the charges were dropped.
So, as we suggested earlier, if Congress really wants this hearing to be an event people will pay good money to see, they should have Maxine question Maxine. Based on the above, what do you think some of her possible lines of questions would be? If you need a refresher on MW’s style, please review the following:
Hub bank honcho’s checkered past includes sex-assault and coke charges [BH via BI]
Let (s)he who has no coke/sodomy/porsche problem cast the first stone…
Luckily for Maxine, if she pleads ignorance it will be tough to disagree with her.
This Kevin character sounds like a real solid citizen with the blow and the sodomy…
Didn’t know sodomy was a crime
Maxine: What was your Vig? Tell me, dammit, what was the vig??! I demand an answer! I don’t have all day.
- Claire McCaskill
not guilty by reason of insanity
BTW: NY Post > Boston Herald
Maxine Waters is what the subprime is in trouble
@8 = maxine waters
omfghsdiofhsffhsodghsg MACE this bitch!
Maxine Waters recently referred to conservatives in the U.S. as the ENEMY.
She likely has nicer things to say about the Taliban (if she knows who the Taliban is)
“George W Bush, go to hell! And while you’re at it, we want you to take Ashcroft with you. And don’t forget Rumsfeld. And please carry along Condi Rice. . . I have to march because my mother could not have an abortion.” (at the televised March for Women’s Lives march, Washington D.C., April 24, 2005)
Mrs Waters: Who is your CEO!?!?!
Is anyone really surprised by this given who these people are?
-Guy who is now going to go examine his motives at a tavern in Soviet Russia
@ 14 is correct
No Porsche, no Problem since that tar slicer was already gone. Drugs are a kind of legal problem, but sodomy?
In Soviet Russia, sodomy charges you!
~Manager of Ass-less Sheepskin Chaps Sales at a Certain Tavern
How Would Maxine Waters Question Maxine Waters About Maxine Waters?
Maxine=completely without merit…Utter and complete nonsense
Sodomy? Illegal in CA? Really?
Kevin Cohee is a criminal banker who spends his time and other people’s money on schemes that generally fail. It is amazing that his seriously deficient operations are still open for business.
A few years ago he attempted to scam Carver Federal Savings Bank (CARV) in NY City. He offered Carver a bold idea. He and his wife wanted control of Carver. But due to their incompetence at running their bank in Boston, they had no money. So they tried a novel approach.
The Cohees pressed Carver to buy their bank — to save it from collapse — and then install Kevin as the head of the combined institutions.
The gambit failed. But it was amusing. I think Kevin Cohee’s role model is W.R. Lazard.
Was sodomizing a horse really required to get the point across?
@3 from here on out Barney and Maxine will be known as Sodom & Gomorrah.
any chance of getting the joke briefer or maybe the joke briefer’s fluffer on the “what the subprime is in trouble” joke
-South Carolinian who will be at MT’s punching himself in the face
@22 That’s beautiful, man
Why you gotta pull a knife on me? I ain’t be got no weapon
Did Henry Waxman know about the charges?
@4 & 19 In regards to the sodomy (I love starting sentences that way) the LA Times states “He was also arrested in 2007 after a woman filed a complaint alleging that Cohee had forcibly sodomized her, according to public records.” Apparently he disregarded their safe word.
Someone please tell me if @20 is worth reading. TLDR. Thanks.
@27 thank you force is almost always a bad word. almost
@ 12…best argument for abortion I’ve ever heard.