Nobody is painting him as any kind of man of honor here. Pointing out that whether pushed or not, he resigned when it became apparent he was at fault.
I've not seen Alf, the former Treasury Minister who signed off on a good portion of our current complete clusterfks, even acknowledging he had a hand in them.
Usually they storm out with vitriol about others on Comin, or get flat out fired by the CM. Ashford is the first i can think of that had a resignation speech that bordered on actually admitting he was at fault (though if i remember correctly he worded it that he felt he was a "Distraction" because of the ongoing Ranson case and respectfully stepped down. Spinning to the very end.)