Fighting words...

How is it possible for a cabinet minister to remain in office with this sort of press coverage?

Jacqui Smith protests she's a victim of a smear campaign over her expenses because she's a woman with no independent wealth.

No, Home Secretary. You're receiving this unwelcome attention only because you're a liar and a thief.

That’s not a Heffer-esque fulmination from the opinion pages, that is the lead editorial from one of the highest-circulation papers in the country.  Normally you’d say she’s toast, but Labour ministers have astonishingly thick-skins for this sort of thing…