There’s been plenty of worthwhile analysis already about what state Senator Guy Velella’s guilty plea means for his district in the Bronx and for the future of the Republican majority in the New York State Senate. But amid all the scandal in public life today — from Abu Ghraib to Velella to the police and fire leaders being hauled before the September 11 commission — it’s worth taking a moment to tip our hat to the hero of the Velella case, the district attorney of New York County, Robert Morgenthau.

Mr. Morgenthau may not be the most popular man in Manhattan at the moment. The New York Post doesn’t like him because in their judgment he’s insuffi ciently bloodthirsty when it comes to the death penalty. A former judge, Leslie Crocker Snyder, who wants his job, has been running around town claiming that Mr. Morgenthau, 84, who has been the D.A. since 1975, lacks the “energy” and “vigor” for the job, as she told New York 1. Well, anyone entertaining doubts about Mr. Morgenthau’s energy and vigor might check with Velella during his year in prison. Or he might ponder the question of why the person that caught this powerful politician wasn’t the district attorney in Albany, or in the Bronx, or a U.S. attorney or the FBI, but Manhattan’s own Robert Morgenthau, who at any age is a prosecutor with whom to be reckoned.