Note that that is an opinion (not even an editorial), and that the case itself is fascinating in its complexity. Even the Supreme Court justices could not weigh in meaningfully - they punted it back down in a 6-3 decision and told Haley to try to exonerate himself in a different way.
It would have been
nice if Cruz had chosen not to pursue the case, but 1) he may not have felt it was appropriate for him to pick and choose which cases should be dropped and which should be pursued, particularly in a case where another law suggested that it should be pursued and 2) taking the law all the way up the chain to the supreme court creates precedent, which may actually help future Haley's from running into this problem, or at least inform the justice system
how to deal with these difficult cases where laws may require the wrong choice to be made.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/06/11/lazarus.dretke/
At any rate, I don't think your vitriol is fully justified, and may have been inflamed by the media and Cruz's opponents.