Funny how that works out

U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, was on the panel that decided his party's House committee appointments. That means you shouldn't be stunned that he got the assignment he most desired Tuesday: a seat on the Ways and Means Committee.

Davis will be Alabama's first member of the powerful committee since the last time Democrats controlled the House, unless he has to vacate to reclear the path for U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. -- he of "$90,000 in a freezer" fame -- if Jefferson ultimately is cleared in a corruption investigation.