Tea Party Pushes Back Against Rep. Maxine Waters

After Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) told the Tea Party to go straight to hell, the Tea Party has been pushing back.

Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler, co-founders of The Tea Party Patriots, have called on President Obama and leaders of the Democratic Party to denounce the comments that the 11-term Democrat, made the comment in Inglewood, California on Saturday, reports the USA Today.

Is civility required only of their opponents? Martin and Meckler said in a statement provided by USA Today. ...The president's silence on these latest violations of civility has been deafening, but not surprising.

Waters has not publicly responded to the matter.

This is not the first time Waters, whose majority-minority Congressional district is based in Los Angeles, has made headlines. In 2004, the Los Angeles Times reported that Water's relatives had profited from companies in which the Congresswoman used legislative clout to help. In 2008, The Wall Street Journal that Waters organized a meeting between Treasury officials and executives of OneUnited Bank, where her husband was a director. Many watchdog groups chided the move, and the case was referred to the House Ethics Committee.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW, have frequently placed Waters on their list of most corrupt members of Congress.

Her comments have also raised eyebrows in the past. Last week, Waters told a gathering in Detroit that black lawmakers are often hesitant to criticize Obama.

You are very proud to have a black man as president, she told the group. However, she said some lawmakers are concerned that if we go after the president too hard, you are going after us.

The former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus generally aligns with the liberal wing of Democrats in Congress, and has been critical of President Obama for compromising too much with Congressional Republicans. She has also chided the president for not tending to issues important to the African-American community, including high unemployment. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the national unemployment rate is at 9.1 percent, nearly 16 percent of African-Americans are currently unemployed.