That hubris made him a terrific target for Democrats. They hoped to use his personal misdeeds to point to the larger pattern of deregulation and industry friendliness at his department. Maybe, eventually, some day, when the public hated him enough, they could force him to resign.

Zinke went and resigned for them. “After 30 years of public service, I cannot justify spending thousands of dollars defending myself and my family against false allegations,” he said Saturday.

In resigning, Zinke reveals the power of Democrats’ new ability to oversee the Trump administration. Zinke is the first casualty of the 2018 blue wave: the first Cabinet official who stepped down in the face of subpoenas. He left, in fact, to avoid facing subpoenas. Yet in resigning, he also shows the limits of that same new power. Democrats can no longer use Zinke’s hubris to get people to pay attention to the Trump administration’s larger set of policies at the Interior Department.