Waters

Even living in California and working in Washington, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters showed recently her fightin’ Vashon spirit is well intact.

Waters, a Democrat who represents South Central Los Angeles, is a St. Louis native and graduate of Vashon High. (That’s the old Vashon, a decrepit building nicknamed “The Factory,” not the $40 million structure that Vashon currently calls home.)

Waters was one of 13 children, and still has relatives in the St. Louis area.

In Washington, though, Waters made headlines last week after a shoving match on the House floor with U.S. Rep. David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Obey had made a pledge not to fund so-called “memorial” projects bearing the name of lawmakers. That means no cash for the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center in L.A.’s hardscrabble Watts neighborhood.

But Waters, who was a ranking member of the California legislature earlier in her career, argued that the job preparation center is not really a memorial project because it was named for her in 1989, before Waters was elected to Congress.

And when Obey disagreed with that line of reasoning, that’s when things got testy. From Politico:

Witnesses, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it appeared that Waters pushed or shoved Obey.

The pair were seen shouting at each other and had to be separated by members — who were crowded on the floor casting final votes before heading off to a party at the White House.

Waters, according to a Democratic staffer familiar with the situation, approached Obey to ask him to fund one of her long-standing earmarks, the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center.

Obey — no fan of funding projects named after the politicians that fund them — told her no.

The two veteran Democrats — each pugnacious and 71 years old — began shouting, with the L.A.-area congresswoman following Obey around the chamber, reportedly suggesting he channel the vocational money through a local school district.

At some point, they collided, witnesses say, with one Obey ally claiming the lean Waters “tried to shove” the stout Obey.

If the U.S. Capitol is as hot as the Board of Aldermen in June, it’s no wonder tempers flared. Later, Waters’ office released a long statement that didn’t confirm the shoving match, though didn’t deny it either.

“In my conversation with Chairman Obey, I tried to impress upon him the contradictions in an earmark process that funds projects and programs for private, affluent schools and other private, well-heeled organizations but denies requests for a successful public school program in such an impoverished community, particularly in these distressed economic times,” Waters said in the statement. “The earmark process is arbitrary and favors projects advanced by high-paid lobbyists, and this is a prime example of how the system often works against the well-being of the poorest and neediest people in our country.”