Your tax dollars at work

[Ocotillo]

whole story

It seems that during the last six months of 2004, David M. Barrett, an independent counsel, spent $1.26 million of taxpayers' money on a case that was settled in 1999. What is more, the report noted, the total cost of Barrett's investigation over 10 years into allegations against then-Housing secretary Henry Cisneros is approaching $21 million, rivaling some of the most expensive inquiries in the history of the act, including Iran-Contra and the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton affair.

What makes this so outrageous is that Cisneros' crime, to which he pleaded guilty and paid a $10,000 fine more than five years ago, was lying to the FBI about how much money he paid a mistress over the years, not that he denied the affair but that he had underreported his support of her when questioned. By the time Barrett, appointed in 1995 to go after Cisneros, agreed to Cisneros' plea he already had spent more than $10 million, prompting Washington wags to comment in words that can't be printed in a family newspaper that the taxpayers were the real victims of this illicit affair without any benefit of love making.

[Newman]

Another #@$!@ Republican witch-hunt that went no-where. Whatever happened to that Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson Investigation anyway? And did the #!$W$ Republicans ever figure out who added that clandestine amendment to a spending bill that would have allowed them to see the tax return of anyone in the U.S.?

[Clandestino]

another sa public figure that shamed us all..

[Useruser666]

I don't think people should get away with crimes just because it costs too much to prove they're guilty. I also believe the whole Cisnero's thing was a waste of time. Cisnero's is a huge crook. His current dealings with certain housing developments are very su ious to say the least.