There was a relatively innocuous note on the Postcom web site last week announcing the retirement of a Postcom board member. Now we’ve never harbored the virulent dislike for the ‘big mailers’ represented by Postcom that some postal people seem to have- they are, after all, our customers, a concept that is, unfortunately, foreign to some of us.

What caught the attention of a postalnews.com reader about this particular customer, however, was the brief description of his career- prior to joining Postcom’s board as a representative of UPS, he was ”a Commissioner at the Postal Rate Commission, and a long-time staffer in the service of Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK). While on the Hill, he served as Republican Staff Director of the Senate Post Office and Civil Service Sub-Committee of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, and the same position on the Senate Rules Committee.”

Nothing especially sinister about that career path- the gentleman did what any of us might do given the opportunity, and put his expertise to good use. It is, however, the kind of revolving door employment history that raises serious questions about how our government operates. (And don’t hold your breath while the Democrats fix things- a story on Bloomberg Radio recently described how drug company lobbyists are preparing for the change in Congress- they’re shifting their campaign contributions to the Dems. Doesn’t sound like a recipe for change.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 6:33 am and is filed under Politics, postal, Postcom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.