Cisneros Investigation Officially Over, I Think

The New York Times agrees with most people that the 10-year, 21 million dollar investigation of Henry Cisneros was a disappointed excess in abuse of power and not by Cisneros or the Clintons but the independent counsel.

The checkered history of independent counsel investigations of high-profile officials ended with a 746-page thud yesterday. After 10 years, some $21 million and a great deal of cheerleading from the Republican majority in the House, the investigation of Henry Cisneros, the former housing secretary, is finally over.

Mr. Cisneros admitted long, long ago to lying about payments to a former mistress when he accepted a cabinet post in the Clinton administration. He paid a $10,000 fine after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor more than six years ago. But critics accused the Clinton administration of a cover-up and demanded an independent search for the truth. Reasonable people differed on whether that was necessary, but no one expected a grinding, decade-long quest to find a bigger, more interesting crime.

Here is the rest of theNY Times editorial.