Maxine Waters to face ethics trial in fall

Rep. Maxine Waters has indicated she will fight allegations that she violated congressional ethics rules, apparently over her role in going to bat for OneUnited, a Boston-based bank where husband, Sidney Williams, had been on the board. The Los Angeles Democrat's lawyers have said she made appeals to the Treasury Department not on behalf of the bank, but on behalf of the National Bankers Association. In any case, the New York Times says, an ethics trial for Waters and Rep. Charles Rangel threatens to "tarnish Democrats as they try to turn the midterm elections into a choice between keeping them in power or returning to Bush-era policies." More from the NYT analysis

The trials would also stand to remind voters that Democrats, who in recent years extended their reach into the traditionally Republican turf of the rural West and South, are still anchored by an urban, liberal base and led by entrenched veteran lawmakers from big cities.

And the cases could feed racial strains both inside the Democratic caucus, where black members are asking why so many investigations seem to be aimed at them, and out among voters, especially in rural and white districts where many conservative Democrats face tight races.

Messy for the Democrats, but Waters will have no trouble being re-elected to her eleventh term.