Maxine Waters calls Republican leaders 'demons'

Rep. Maxine Waters speaks to the California Democratic Convention in San Diego.

Rep. Maxine Waters,  no stranger to controversy, is turning heads once again, this time for describing House Republican leaders as "demons."

The California Democrat's comments, which surfaced Wednesday, were made last weekend at a state party convention in San Diego. Video of her speech shows her rallying Democrats to win back control of the House in November.

"I saw pictures of Boehner and Cantor on our screens (at the convention). Don't ever let me see again, in life, those Republicans in our hall, on our screens, talking about anything. These are demons," she told the crowd. "They are bringing down this country, destroying this country, because they’d rather do whatever they can do destroy this president rather than for the good of this country.”

Needless to say, those comments didn't win her any friends on the other side of the aisle.

"That is a sad and unfortunate speech from a senior House Democrat, particularly at a time when we should be trying to find common ground on ways to get Americans back to work," Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring said Wednesday.

Waters, in her speech, also boasted that banks will be "shaking in their boots" if Democrats take back the house and she becomes the House Financial Services Committee chairwoman. She currently is the second-ranking Democrat on the committee behind Rep. Barney Frank, who isn't running for re-election this year.

Whether Democrats would let her chair the committee is another matter, given that Waters continues to face an ethics investigation into her potential role in securing federal money for a bank with ties to her husband.

And she sparked controversy last year when she told a partisan crowd, "as far as I'm concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell."