Maxine Waters: 'I don't pretend to be nice no matter what....' (congresswoman) (Interview)

AuthorMills, Kay

Maxine Waters had no sooner arrived in Washington as a freshman in Congress in 1991 than she plunged into the debate over U.S. military action against Iraq. She spoke with considerable passion, as is her custom, and she not only voted ahead of time against using force but was also one of six negative votes on a resolution supporting President Bush's decision once war began.

Last year, this outspoken African-American woman, who had for a time been the most powerful woman in California politics through her role in the state legislature and alliance with Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, strode even further into the national spotlight during the disturbances in Los Angeles. She wouldn't use the word "riot" to describe the violence that broke out after the acquittals in the first trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating Rodney King; she called it a "rebellion," and she wouldn't let Sam Donaldson or anybody else badger her into condemning the people who participated.

Waters was an early supporter of Bill Clinton during the Presidential campaign after having strongly backed Jesse Jackson's two previous bids. Waters said she didn't agree with every position candidate Clinton took, but she wanted to have some ability to influence a Democratic President if he won. Besides, she thinks he's smart and "a wonderful, personable guy."

Waters, who turned fifty-five in August, greeted me warmly when I arrived at her district office at 102nd and Broadway in South Central Los Angeles. We've known each other for fifteen years now, and she speaks candidly to me, although I suspect she does that with most people. She doesn't plan what she's going to say to improve her image or position herself. Her memento-filled office, with blinds drawn against the sunlight, is new to her; the old one was destroyed when an adjoining bank building was torched during last year's violence.

Q: I sometimes think that you have almost a political sput personality. In L.A. you're kind of an in-your-face person, but in Washington or Sacramento you're the legislator.

Maxine Waters: In Washington and in Sacramento they thought I was an abrasive, in-your-face woman.

Q: And at times you were.

Waters: Yes. I have this thing about life: You fit your lines of action. If I am at a cocktail party, talking nicey-nice, I talk nicey-nice. If I'm in a back room where the fight is on, I know how to say son-of-a-bitch as well as anybody, and will fight as hard as anybody. But it really is fitting your lines of action. I don't pretend to be happy all the time. I don't pretend to be nice no matter what. I don't take insults no matter what. Some people are trained to do that better than others. When you've basically come from a poor background, you're not really trained that way. I didn't go to finishing school.

This is not planned. I really mostly work from the gut.

Q: I heard you were annoyed when Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Sonny Montgomery called you by your first name.

Waters: It was the first day that I was there. With a Sonny Montgomery, I'm thinking Mississippi, state trooper, runs his committee with an iron hand, no blacks on this committee, I'm going to be the only black on this committee. I'm thinking, better not mess with me.

First day, I go to Cannon [Office Building). I'm late for the committee meeting. Not purposely, because I simply don't know where the room is. Mr. Montgomery had a rule where he did not want anybody to propose anything that cost money. I thought that was a little bit too much. You don't get elected to office to be told not to be a legislator. What difference should it make to him if I propose something that costs money? If it can pass the committee, fine; if it can't pass the committee, fine. But don't stop me or anybody else from simply proposing.

So I said what I had to say - well, the idea that I should say that...

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