The L.A. Times today takes a closer look at the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center, which could lose a $1 million earmark because it's named for Maxine Waters.
Recall that last week Waters got into a fight with (and may have shoved) Rep. David Obey, the appropriations chairman, because Obey is cracking down on so-called "monuments to me." Obey angrily rejected Waters' pleas to allow funding for the job-training center, which is in Watts.
Her argument is that while other politicians may use these earmarks for political advantage, that is not the case here. The center was named for Waters when she was a state legislator, and in her view it is urgently needed to combat poverty and unemployment in Watts.
All of which leads one to wonder: if it's that important, and if Obey seems unlikely to budge, then why not change the name? It could go back to being the Watts Skills Center -- which is what it was called from 1966 to 1989, when it was renamed for Waters -- or it could be renamed for someone else.
Well, they've thought of that:
Recall that last week Waters got into a fight with (and may have shoved) Rep. David Obey, the appropriations chairman, because Obey is cracking down on so-called "monuments to me." Obey angrily rejected Waters' pleas to allow funding for the job-training center, which is in Watts.
Her argument is that while other politicians may use these earmarks for political advantage, that is not the case here. The center was named for Waters when she was a state legislator, and in her view it is urgently needed to combat poverty and unemployment in Watts.
All of which leads one to wonder: if it's that important, and if Obey seems unlikely to budge, then why not change the name? It could go back to being the Watts Skills Center -- which is what it was called from 1966 to 1989, when it was renamed for Waters -- or it could be renamed for someone else.
Well, they've thought of that:
After Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) drew criticism for steering federal money to the Doyle Center for Manufacturing Technology, he asked that his name be dropped from it.
But Waters said that even if her name was removed from the vocational center, there was no guarantee it would receive federal money.
She added, "It would cost money to change the name."True enough, but think about how it would look. Waters might get more credit for removing her name from the building than she gets for having it up there.
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