Exit Not Hevesi's Only Legacy

There was something a bit jarring about the Daily News's Dec. 22 front-page sneer at departing State Comptroller Alan Hevesi: "For He's a Jolly Good Felon."

Later that day, Mr. Hevesi resigned his office as part of a plea deal for misusing an employee of his office who served as his ailing wife's chauffeur. It was an inglorious end to a 35-year career in public service, but it should not obscure all the good work he accomplished over that period.

It is the Comptroller's role as the state's chief fiscal watchdog that prompted many public officials, led by Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer, to argue that Mr. Hevesi was too compromised to be passing judgment on whether other government entities were spending money inappropriately.

Mr. Hevesi, who had earlier paid the state $206,000 as reimbursement for the time his aide spent ministering to Carol Hevesi while he was supposed to be working for the Comptroller's Office, initially contended that others should not undo the will of the voters, who knowing most of the details of his transgressions had nonetheless re-elected him by a 17-point margin.

It turns out that there was a certain amount of hypocrisy in that stance: if the will of the voters and a belief that what he had done was a serious error but not a criminal one were his utmost considerations, Mr. Hevesi might have chosen to fight the criminal charges brought against him by the Albany County District Attorney's Office. Instead, he opted to plead guilty to a felony for misuse of a state employee to spare himself the possibility of a jail term.

But even understanding the nature of tabloids, it was unseemly for the News to mock him in such fashion after years of looking the other way while then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani misused police details to guard women other than his wife.

And some of the elected officials who had called for Mr. Hevesi's head would have difficult standing up to scrutiny themselves. Chief among them is Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, who called for Mr. Hevesi to resign in October - at a time when state Republicans were desperate for a political issue to head off an electoral landslide - but acknowledged last week that he is the subject of a Federal investigation for business transactions that look a lot worse than what brought Mr. Hevesi down.

The deposed Comptroller served in that role, and as City Comptroller and an Assemblyman before that, diligently and intelligently. He will always be remembered for his fall from grace, but his good work in service to this city and this state should not be forgotten.