Maxine Waters, bipartisan compromiser extraordinaire

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: August 24, 2009

You gotta love Maxine Waters. True to her district, she’s all about the entertainment factor.

The kooky, longtime Los Angeles congresswoman was at it again this weekend while hosting a town hall meeting on health care reform.

Waters was making her case that further attempts at bipartisanship are futile because, and this is a quote: Some U.S. senators “are Neanderthals.“

Here it is in context, just so the good congresswoman can’t whine about her remarks being misinterpreted:

“Not only are we going to do everything we can to organize and put pressure on the senators — some of whom are Neanderthals — we’re going to say to the president, ‘We want you to use every weapon in your basket in order to get those senators to do what they should be doing,‘ “ she said.

Yes. I know that my ideas feel welcome at the table when I am being called a caveman. Hooray for true attempts at bipartisanship!!

And did you catch the last part of her statement—“Get those senators to do what they should be doing”—? Gee, Congresswoman Waters, I bet if you talked to their constituents, most of them would say they that by exercising caution on this issue and opposing a government health care plan, they are doing what they should be doing.

I hate to break it to you, Maxine, but you only represent the good folks of the California 35th. You say you seek to represent the values of your constituents; more power to you. But how dare you seek to substitute those values for anyone else’s?

Actually, there’s irony in Waters’ statement. Disrespecting and actually seeking to tamp down the perspectives and values of fellow Americans?

Talk about your backwards way of thinking.