According to house aides present, Rep. Maxine Waters got into a verbal altercation with house Appropriations committee chairman Dave obey after he declined to support an earmark for a career center in her l.A.-area district. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Witnesses: Waters shoves Obey on House floor

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) engaged in a late-afternoon shouting match on the House floor after Obey reportedly rebuffed Waters on an earmark request, aides and witnesses said.

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.

A call to Waters’s Capitol Hill office wasn’t immediately returned.

DOJ tells Harman she’s not being investigated

The Justice Department has informed the lawyer for Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) that she’s not under investigation — despite being wiretapped in connection with a probe into two pro-Israel lobbyists.

The wiretap reportedly picked up a conversation between Harman and donor Haim Saban, who wanted her to press the Justice Department to go easy on American Israel Public Affairs Committee staffers Steve Rosen and Ken Weissman, who were accused of espionage on behalf of Israel, according to a CQ report in April.

Soon after the report was published, DOJ dropped its cases against both men — and Harman asked the department to clear her name.

Apparently it took a while.

On June 16, Attorney General Eric Holder’s acting primary deputy, Rita Galvin, punched out a one-paragraph letter to Harman lawyer Reid Weingarten:

“I write to inform you that your client, Congresswoman Jane Harman, is neither the subject or target of an ongoing investigation by the Criminal Division.”

I found the use of the word “ongoing” interesting. Weingarten didn’t. He said the department had never informed either him or Harman of any previous or dormant probes into her behavior.

Kerry: I wish Palin had gone missing



John Kerry wishes Sarah Palin had pulled a Sanford.

Rachelle Cohen of the Boston Herald picks up the tale:

“The Bay State senator was telling a group of business and civic leaders in town at his invitation about the ‘bizarre’ tale of how South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had ‘disappeared for four days’ and claimed to be hiking along the Appalachian Trail, but no one was really certain of his whereabouts.

“‘Too bad — if a governor had to go missing, it couldn’t have been the governor of Alaska,’” Kerry said. “‘You know, Sarah Palin.’”

The crowd laughed. We threw a call into the Alaska governor’s office just to ask if Palin thought it was amusing, too. No word back.

Remember the midterms!

President McKinley had “Remember the Maine!” — and James Carville has “Remember the Midterms!”

Cajun Carville, the former Clinton hand and vet of the ’90s wars, is raising the specter of the disastrous 1994 Clinton midterm in a fundraising letter for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — targeting North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr.

“It happened in 1994. It could happen again,” he writes. “Things were a lot like they are today. A young, exciting president. Big majorities in Congress. We figured we’d have plenty of time to build the America we wanted.”

Then: “You know what happened next. Fifty-four new Republicans elected in the House. Eight new Republicans elected in the Senate. Our moment of opportunity had passed.”

The kicker: “Republicans are hoping 2010 is the new 1994. But heck, they don’t need eight new senators. If they gain just one or two, it’s going to be that much easier for them to scuttle vital legislation.”