Capital Watch
Interior Department official quits post

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS Groundhog Day mascot Punxsutawney Phil appears in Washington, D.C., yesterday to support Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., who has been cast in a shadow after corralling a $100,000 federal grant for the Punxsutawney (Pa.) Weather Discovery Center. The grant is supposed to help the museum develop exhibits on the science and, yes, folklore of weather predictions. Bill Cooper, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, holds Phil.

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WASHINGTON — J. Steven Griles, the controversial former timber and energy lobbyist who managed the country's vast mineral and land holdings as the Interior Department's No. 2 official, resigned yesterday and said he would return to the private sector.

Griles, a vocal advocate for drilling and logging on public lands as Interior's deputy secretary, won praise from industry but came under intense scrutiny for maintaining close ties to his former lobbying firm and its clients.

An 18-month investigation by the department's inspector general found he had dealings with energy- and mining-industry clients of National Environmental Strategies even as he continued to receive payments from his former firm. The report did not accuse Griles of violating any laws or federal ethics rules.

Griles defended his record yesterday, saying those who "came after me with a political agenda opposed this president at the very beginning."

"In 22 years of service, I have assured that the environment is healthier, the air is clearer, the water is safer and the land is being reclaimed," said Griles, 56, adding he planned to go someplace warm and work on his golf game before choosing his next job.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who defended her deputy when he came under fire, wrote to Griles that through their joint efforts, "We have improved the health of public land forests and rangelands and enhanced wildlife refuges and our national parks."

Environmentalists hailed Griles' departure, saying he had blocked wilderness protections and promoted energy interests since joining Norton's side in July 2001. Friends of the Earth program director David Hirsch, whose group obtained logs of his meetings with former clients and administration officials on regulatory issues that mattered to several of his old clients, mocked the idea that Griles was returning to private life.

"That's the whole problem, he never left private life," Hirsch said.

Prohibition relaxed on lobbying
 
WASHINGTON — On Nov. 23 — three weeks after the election and as a flurry of top Bush administration officials announced their departures — the Office of Government Ethics declared it was relaxing prohibitions on lobbying by former Cabinet secretaries and other top officials.

Until now, senior officials at Cabinet departments and agencies had not been allowed to lobby former colleagues for a full year after leaving office — a rule designed to prevent conflict of interest. But, in a notice in the Federal Register, the ethics office issued a new rule invoking its power to declare that "a former senior employee who served in a 'parent' department or agency is not barred ... from making communications to or appearances before any employee of any designated component of that parent."

Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security "requested that the (Ethics) Director designate seven distinct and separate components in DHS," including the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Emergency Preparedness and Response functions. The Justice and Treasury departments made similar requests.

The changes were so urgent that the ethics office found that "good cause exists for waiving the general requirements for notice of proposed rulemaking, opportunity for public comment and ... a 30-day delayed effective date."

Postal Service ends year in black

WASHINGTON — The Postal Service finished its fiscal year just over $3 billion in the black, helping the agency reduce its debt and keep a promise that postal rates won't go up until 2006.

Net income of $3.1 billion was down from $3.9 billion a year earlier, but was better than officials had expected because of cost cutting and an increase in advertising mail, according to postal Chief Financial Officer Richard Strasser.

But Strasser also noted a third annual decline in the volume of first-class mail — the cards and letters that account for most post-office income.

Baker to leave ambassadorship

WASHINGTON — Howard Baker, the former Senate majority leader, plans to step down as ambassador to Japan.

Through a spokesman, Baker told The Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel "it is time to come home."

Two Republican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity yesterday, confirmed Baker will leave the post. Tom Schieffer, the U.S. ambassador to Australia, is a possible replacement.

Baker had a long career in politics before being named ambassador by President Bush in 2001. He was a three-term Republican senator from Tennessee, Senate majority leader, presidential candidate and White House chief of staff to Ronald Reagan.