10 Years and Counting
Like some jungle soldier discovered primed for battle years after the war is over, an independent counsel continues to work in Washington obscurity - at a taxpayer cost of $2 million year - on a footnote scandal of the Clinton administration: the fall of Henry Cisneros, the former housing secretary.
This inquiry has already consumed a decade and $21 million in vetting personal misbehavior that Mr. Cisneros confessed to six years ago, when he paid a $10,000 fine after a misdemeanor admission of lying about how much he paid a former mistress.
A 400-page report on this crime of the century was completed a year ago and awaits possible release by a special court. Anti-Clinton diehards, yearning for a time-warped return to their Top 10 scandals of yesteryear, are speculating something murky will emerge, or be alleged, or be hinted at - and, imagine that, just in time for Senator Hillary Clinton's next career move.
The United States Comptroller General's Office, working on a tighter sense of accountability, has begun looking into the latest "pretty substantial" overhead bills submitted by David Barrett, the independent counsel. It's a six-month tab for $930,742, including $24,000 for travel and $103,000 for outside lawyer contracts for something supposedly wrapped up.
Conservative polemicists successfully demanded that House Republicans keep Mr. Barrett's budget line open last spring after the Senate zeroed it out, embarrassed that his operation was proving to be not so much independent as perpetual.
Mr. Barrett has kept his own counsel about his work while denouncing "political posturing" by unnamed critics. Count us among the critics asking, What price justice? Or, at least, Are we there yet? |
