After months of hearing the claims about the Education Department's payments to Armstrong Williams being illegal and unethical, a report cleared both Williams and Paige of any illegal mischief.  The report is online here, in both Acrobat and MS Word.  Considering that I checked the Washington Post early this morning, I haven't had a chance to read the report in full, so I'll hold off my opinion about it until this afternoon.

Most of the report criticized the Education Department for essentially wasting money.  HELLO, it's the government.  That's what governments do best.  There was no question that this money was wasted by the Education Department.  That isn't news, especially when Armstrong Williams has never been considered a big name media figure to promote anything by any means. 

For Higgins - the inspector general of the Ed Department who investigated this matter - and Spellings to lay the blame exclusively at the Education Department's feet might work for someone who doesn't keep up with the goings on within government.  This has never been a problem exclusive to the Education Department; it's widespread throughout the federal government.  It's not something that's exclusive to this administration; the administration is simply like all of the others.

Hopefully this will quiet the knee-jerk reactionaries that have been calling for the heads of both Paige and Williams, but I doubt it.  It'll be interesting to see who speaks up, and who doesn't.

And note:  this comes a day after Congressman George Miller accused the Bush Administration of "stonewalling" the investigation by not allowing White House officials to be interviewed by Higgins.  The problem with that is the inspector generals are only obligated to interview people within the respective department they are in, and White House officials are totally optional.  He was allowed to interview one official, which happened because he temporarily worked at the Education Department.