SHAME SHAME ON YOU MAXINE

IF AMERICANS ARE angry at Washington, it may be because of episodes like the federal coddling of OneUnited Bank. A minority-owned institution with close ties to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) of the House Financial Services Committee, OneUnited got $12 million from the Troubled Assets Relief Program in December 2008, thanks in part to a provision inserted in the TARP bill by the committee's chairman, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). OneUnited has since failed to pay the government the $900,000 it owes -- not surprising, given its history of mismanagement, which TARP officials elided to approve the money in the first place.

Ms. Waters now faces a House investigation on charges she improperly aided OneUnited, whose past directors include her husband; she denies it. Mr. Frank faces no such proceeding, but this is not his finest hour, either. Aware of Ms. Waters's potential conflict of interest, he told her to steer clear of the bank's plea for aid and said he was "taking care of it." This was not a "handoff," Mr. Frank says. OneUnited was active in his home state; having heard of its plight from others, he was already inclined to lend a hand. OneUnited's capital had consisted largely of stock in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; like other small banks, it suffered when the Bush administration took over the insolvent mortgage giants. All his bill did, Mr. Frank says, was give such banks a shot at TARP cash: Funding them or not was Treasury's call. read on---