A Los Angeles congresswoman's comments against the tea party movement have riled some feathers among conservatives, and one tea party activist says lawmakers should stay focused on important issues.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-California) recently made known her distaste for the conservative group at a forum in Inglewood, California. The Democrat addressed a crowd of about 1,000 at the "Kitchen Table Summit," most of them unemployed. Waters promised to pressure Congress to focus their efforts on job creation. She assured that she is not afraid of anyone, including the powerful grassroots movement. And noting that politics is a tough game, she said the tea party "can go straight to hell."

"I don't think it's an acceptable statement to make when you're demonizing any group of people, especially the tea party, when all we want is fiscal responsibility and we want the government to get out of the way," contends Gary Hahn, president of the North Bay Patriots...

Republican Rep. Allen West, describing himself as a "modern-day Harriet Tubman," said Wednesday he wants to lead black voters on an underground railroad away from the Democratic Party.

The Florida congressman, who is black, was responding to a raucous town hall meeting hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus Tuesday in Detroit. Participants vented to Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, who in turn voiced frustration with President Obama and asked the crowd to "unleash" her and other black lawmakers on the White House.

But West, the only Republican member of the CBC, told Fox News the Democratic Party as a whole has let black voters down...

House investigators on Monday charged Rep. Maxine Waters with "improperly" exerting influence to help bail out a bank in which her husband held stock, handing more ammunition to Republicans eager to blast House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for overseeing a "House of scandal."

The House ethics panel said the office of the senior California Democrat violated conflict of interest rules by repeatedly lobbying the Treasury Department for bailout money on behalf of minority-owned OneUnited in which her husband held as much as $350,000 in stock. The bank received a $12 million slice of the taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout.

Ms. Waters has fiercely proclaimed her innocence and asked the committee to make public the 10-page "statement of alleged violation" against her. Like Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York, she has opted to let the matter play out in a public hearing before the bipartisan ethics committee, demanding that one be scheduled as soon as possible...

The House ethics committee will accuse Rep. Maxine Waters of breaking the chamber's rules after a year-long investigation into allegations she sought the Treasury Department's help for a bank in which her husband was invested, the committee said Monday.

The announcement was made less than a week after the committee announced 13 ethics charges against Rep. Charles B. Rangel, and threatens to dog Democrats in the run-up to November's elections. With two senior black lawmakers facing charges, it has raised questions about whether black House members are being targeted by ethics officials.

Ms. Waters, a California Democrat in her 10th term in Congress, challenged the finding, saying she did not benefit from her advocacy. She said she's opted for a public hearing to try to clear her name...