This is being tough?

In an extraordinary show of toughness against one of their own members, Democrats voted 99-58 Thursday evening to strip Rep. William Jefferson, a Democrat from New Orleans accused of accepting bribes, of his seat on the Ways and Means Committee. The vote allows Democrats to maintain that they do not tolerate impropriety, yet the sanction already has placed a strain on the caucus.

This is a dude who was caught with $90,000 in marked bribe money in his refrigerator and it takes someone tough to vote him off a committee? Christ, what did this writer (and the Democrats) use for brains?

You know what bothers me? The 58 voters who didn't see any reason to remove Jefferson from the committee. That's how tough Democrats are.

The article doesn't mention the Black Caucus specifically, but I suspect none of its members voted to expel Jefferson. And solely because he is black.