Bloodless Coup

Not All of the CBC is Defending William Jefferson

Urgh - how I hate sloppy political reporting. I have only learned tonight - after a couple of weeks of stories in the press noting how the Congressional Black Caucus is opposed to removing Rep. William Jefferson from the House Ways and Means Committee - that two of the most prominent members of that group (and for that matter, of the US House) have been working to remove Jefferson, and one of them even made the motion to remove him. Those members are Charlie Rangel and John Lewis, who it should be noted are also two of the most senior members of the Democratic side of Ways and Means (Rangel is the senior Democrat). Now if the CBC's official policy is to defend Jefferson, the press stories haven't been wrong - but to omit that the organization was divided and that the two men who are arguably the most powerful and most respected African-American members of the US House want to strip Jefferson of his position strikes me as a rather big omission in those press stories.