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Workin' It Out With Waters

pa href="http://www.banklawyersblog.com/.a/6a00d8341c652b53ef010536805d20970c-popup" onclick="window.open( this.href, '_blank', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0' ); return false" style="float: left;"img alt="Maxine_Waters" class="at-xid-6a00d8341c652b53ef010536805d20970c " src="http://www.banklawyersblog.com/.a/6a00d8341c652b53ef010536805d20970c-120wi" style="margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px;"/img/a Not to be outdone by Sheila ("Mama Bear") Bair in the race for the title of 2008's "Loan Mod Madam," California Representative Maxine Waters has not only stuck her toe in the loan modification water, according to a href="http://http://www.americanbanker.com/article.html?id=20081216HG0HCG2Z"an article in today's emAmerican Banker/em (empaid subascription required/em)/a, she's jumped off the high board and landed a tsunami-inducing cannonball./pblockquotepemstrongRep. Maxine Waters, a nine-term Democrat from California, one of the states hit hardest by the mortgage crisis, is personally calling servicers to help her constituents get a lower rate, a longer maturity or some other modification that will help them meet their payments and avoid foreclosure./strong/em/ppemstrongThe chairwoman of the House Financial Services? housing subcommittee said she is unconcerned that she may be leaning on companies she oversees, potentially creating a conflict of interest and violating House ethics rules./strong/em/ppemstrong?The Ethics Committee said we are not to get involved -- it?s a third party and contracts between citizens,? Rep. Waters said in an interview this week. ?I don?t care. Throw the book at me. Put me in jail. Do whatever you have to do. I am defying them.?/strong/em/ppemstrongSo far, Rep. Waters and her staff have succeeded in helping seven borrowers avoid foreclosure, and another 30 cases are in the works./strong/em/p/blockquote pIf they throw the book at her, I hope the book is emWar and Peace/em. That's about the only book large enough to take down a rampaging, enraged she-boar like Waters once she's got up a full head of steam. Knowing the spineless, hot-house flowers that grow in Congress, and with Barney Frank in charge of the committee Waters infests, the book will more likely consist solely of a short story, perhaps "Brokeback Mountain."/pp /ppWaters' nose-thumbing contempt for ethical rules would be breathtaking in an era not epitomized by the likes of Rod Blagojevich, Bernie Madoff, and Eliott Spitzer. Instead, it merely seems like business as usual among this country's political and business "elites." Her gall is exceeded only by her cynicism. She's doing something unethical, she knows it, and she knows that she's likely to get away with it, because in her case, she's posturing herself as the champion of "the little guy," the guy (and gal) no one else is going to help. In addition, she's effective./p blockquotepemstrongShe concedes servicers respond differently to her because she is a member of Congress. ?One of the reasons why I think we are able to kind of be successful at what we are doing is it?s kind of the threat of the member of Congress calling you and working on this,? she said./strong/em/p/blockquote pTony Soprano couldn't have said it any better. A threat is better than a reasoned argument any day of the week./p pWaters makes it clear that she's just getting started./p blockquotepemstrong?I am working on foreclosures here in the office today with my staff and to make sure that of the ones who have contacted us, that we have no homes that are sold between now and January,? she said. ?We are trying to do that so we can make sure that no one?s home is sold during this holiday season.?/strong/em/p/blockquote pMaxine Waters: a thug who believes that the rules exist only for the saps dumb enough to follow them. For those who believe that the ends justify the means, ethical rules exist only until they disappear in your rear view mirror./p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/typepad/banklawyer3/3_bank_lawyers?a=kYSY3N"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/typepad/banklawyer3/3_bank_lawyers?i=kYSY3N" border="0"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/banklawyer3/3_bank_lawyers/~4/487245912" height="1" width="1"/

Full post as published by Bank Lawyers Blog on December 16, 2008 (boomark / email).