The House Ethics Committee has cleared Rep. Devin Nunes of the scurrilous charge that he disclosed classified information.

In the course of this investigation, the Committee sought the analysis of Representative Nunes’s statements by classification experts in the intelligence community.  Based solely on the conclusion of these classification experts that the information that Representative Nunes disclosed was not classified, the Committee will take no further action and considers this matter closed.

So there was nothing there all along. And the howls from Democrats, suddenly concerned about protecting classified information after years of coddling traitors such as Ed Snowden, now stand as what they were - efforts to shut down a congressional investigation into Russian collusion which it turns out, has been largely on the left. It was nothing but partisanship that motivated this complaint on one of our finest congressmen.

Because anyone who knows Nunes knows he's hard-nosed almost to a fault on Russians. If something were going on between anyone and the Russians, he'd come down hard on any collaborators, no matter who they were.

But in the case of this investigation, the aim was explicitly partisan. Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff made a big deal about ethics when Nunes got information from the White House about surveillance and he wasn't the first to hear about it. Suddenly, he was concerned about classified information, something that didn't bother him when news came out about Hillary Clinton's illegal private server and her aide, Huma Abedin's emailing of classified documents onto Anthony Weiner's computer. None of this was an issue, but Nunes hearing something Schiff didn't hear first was a problem. Can you say 'ego'?

Much to Schiff's surprise, Nunes, ever the scrupulous one, recused himself from the congressional investigation into Russian electoral meddling, despite not being guilty of anything. Schiff wasn't used to that kind of valor, and of course was taken off guard.

Now he's been cleared (after a delay that went on too long) and the facts are continuing to play out - about unmasking, about Fusion GPS, and about the FBI's skeevy double standards, and Nunes can take up as before with none of his facts changed and the storyline proceeding as it had been before he recused himself.

Democrats wanted this, as a means of stopping Trump. With Nunes cleared, they should be careful what they wish for.