Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is our favorite mayor in the country, bar none. He is honorable beyond reproach. Prior to becoming mayor, he was one of the most esteemed criminal defense lawyers in the country. He has defended some very high profile clients--some connected, some not.

Oscar has been maligned in a new book called "Positively Fifth Street"--about a high profile Las Vegas murder trial. In the book, the author says that Oscar attended a meeting at a coffee shop during which the assassination of Texas federal judge John Wood was plotted. Wood was later assassinated.

Tuesday, Farrar, Straus and Giroux formally issued an apology to Oscar for the offensive statement in the book.

The company also agreed to publish a full-page advertisement with the apology in The New York Times Book Review on July 6, and remove the offending passage in any future printings of the book.

James McManus, the book's author, wrote that Goodman, a former mob attorney, was part of a cabal that hired a hit man for $50,000 to kill Texas U.S. District Court judge John Wood ''or so the lore has it.''

Goodman learned about the claims early last month, and said Tuesday that once he got his hands on the book, ''I began to seethe. I stewed and stewed.'' Anthony Michael Glassman, who represented Goodman in the case, said Wood's death had been investigated, and there was never a link to Goodman, who represented Texas drug kingpin Jimmy Chagra. Wood presided over Chagra's trial until he was shot to death.

We don't know if Oscar got any money or not, but we hope he did. We look forward to his second term as Mayor, after which we think he will become Governor Goodman. He's the best.