Three years ago, a senior researcher at the Department of Education distributed a memo blowing the whistle on a pretty major student-loan loophole. For his trouble, he received a hastily rewritten job description ("barring him from further research into the subsidies") and a pretty harsh rebuke ("In the 18 months you have remaining, I will expect your time and talents to be directed primarily to our business of conceptualizing, competing and monitoring research grants," his boss wrote).

Three years later, the researcher's retired, the memo's been proven entirely correct, and the boss is backpedaling:

"Plus, I didn’t understand the issues," Mr. Whitehurst said recently. "In retrospect, it looks like he identified an important issue and came up with a reasonable solution. But it was Greek to me at the time — preferential interest rates on bonds? I didn’t know what he was doing, except that he wasn’t supposed to be doing it."

Wherefore dost thou stop, buck?