He apparently hasn't learned much from this exercise, has he?

Former state Sen. Cal Kawamoto, whose mishandling of campaign money will now become the subject of a criminal investigation, still maintains that he's done no wrong.

Far from owning up to the way he used his campaign assets for personal purposes, this week he lashed out at the state Campaign Spending Commission for what he called its "Gestapo tactics."

What a disgraceful slur to sling!

This agency has done nothing more than expose Kawamoto for his self-serving practices. His constituents had no trouble slicing through his web of excuses, voting him out of office last fall.

It was satisfying this week to see the commission, which already fined Kawamoto more than $21,000 for the abuses, underscore that action with a unanimous vote to seek a criminal probe by the state attorney general's office.

Kawamoto countered: "Being an elected official, you are campaigning every day," he said.

That's rubbish, and it's typical of the attitude that got him into trouble in the first place. Being an elected official, he should have been serving the voters every day; costs he racked up doing that job do not equate with campaign expenses.

Contrary to what Kawamoto said, his "fall from grace" did not start with the commission. The ex-senator engineered his own demise.