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Mississippi Yearning
by Ted Leventhal
Rep. Charles (Chip) Pickering's decision to withdraw his name from consideration to be the next president of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) was prompted by the Republican's ties to his home state of Mississippi and his desire to continue his public service.
"I just bought a place in Mississippi, and my wife and I want to be based there and raise our children there," Pickering said in a phone interview from his district office. "Fundamentally, I did not want to close the door on public service. I'm not ready at this point in my life to end my congressional career."
Pickering, in his fourth term and a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Agriculture Committee, confirmed last month that he was a candidate for the job. After working on the 1996 Telecommunications Act as a staffer to Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., Pickering was considered a telecommunications expert.
A knowledgeable source said that Pickering, though not officially offered the job, was a "serious contender" for the position. "Given that he is the chair of the [Congressional] Wireless Caucus, it just made sense," the source said.
Public-interest watchdogs questioned the ethics of a sitting congressman openly seeking employment with a trade group that has pending business before his committee. But Pickering said he broke no rules and contacted the ethics committee for guidance immediately after learning that he was being considered for the job.
"If I had accepted the position, ethics rules require [lawmakers] to recuse themselves from decisions affecting [the industry in question]," he said. "Since I have withdrawn my name, my role and responsibilities in Congress will not conflict with that industry or any other."
A Little Self-Promotion Never Hurts
A short list of potential nominees for cyber-security director at the Homeland Security Department has gone to the White House for vetting, said Michael Aisenberg, the director of public policy for VeriSign. Aisenberg said he got the tip from friends inside the department, and he is pretty sure his name is on the list.
"If there is someone out there who is industry's choice, I'm it," he said. Aisenberg said he has had "discussions" about the job with department Undersecretary Robert Liscouski and landed endorsements from former White House cyber-security official Howard Schmidt, the Information Technology Association of America and the Internet Security Alliance, among others.
Aisenberg wants the job and said he would be a vigorous and effective advocate for the need to protect computer networks as any other economic asset. "Folks need to understand our dependency on these networks," he said.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced appointments to two department committees that are designed to generate advice from local experts. Among the appointees to the emergency-response committee is William Gaughan, a vice president of e-business and information technology for Bayer and a local fire chief in Pennsylvania.
In other administration news, President Bush officially nominated Joel David Kaplan of Massachusetts to be deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Kaplan currently is the president's special assistant in the chief of staff's office. He was a policy adviser to Bush in the 2000 presidential campaign and joined the White House staff in 2001.
Electronics Group Hires Policy Executive
The Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) has tapped Douglas Wiley to become its new senior vice president of governmental affairs. Wiley comes to EIA from Alcatel Americas, where he launched its Washington office and ran federal and state campaigns, and the Telecommunications Industry Association. On Capitol Hill, he served as a senior legislative assistant for technology issues to former Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-Va.
Wiley will develop policy initiatives on taxes, trade, the environment, high-speed Internet service and homeland security. He replaces Brian Kelly, who left EIA for Comcast's Washington office in May. Kelly, meanwhile, is replacing James Coltharp as senior director for federal government affairs at Comcast. Coltharp was promoted to manage Comcast's FCC relations.
Sen. Lieberman Shuffles Press Staff
Dan Gerstein, the longtime communications director and a domestic policy adviser to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., is leaving the senator's staff to join Lieberman's presidential campaign.
Gerstein first came to Capitol Hill as communications director for Rep. Gerald Klezcka, D-Wis. He became Lieberman's campaign press secretary in 1994, then directed Lieberman's initiatives on education and cultural issues, especially the senator's interest in "media values." Gerstein was promoted to communications director in 1999 and was Lieberman's national spokesman when the senator ran for vice president in 2000.
Matt Gobush, communications director for the House International Relations Committee and ranking Democrat Tom Lantos, will succeed Gerstein. Gobush was former Vice President Al Gore's national security spokesman and speechwriter during the 2000 presidential campaign. And Rob Sawicki, a Lieberman staff assistant, has been named deputy press secretary. Deputy Press Secretary Casey Aden-Wansbury was promoted to press secretary in May.
Lucent Scientist Lauded For Innovation
Arun Netravali, Lucent Technologies' chief scientist and a former president of Bell Labs, last week was honored for his career of technological innovations by the Technology Management Education Association at a banquet hosted by the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey.
"Like Edison, Arun Netravali has looked for places in life where technology innovation could really make a difference," said Jerry MacArthur Hultin, dean of the Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management at the institute and the association's chairman.
"Looking at the computer-science literature and the mathematics literature, Arun has made some very fundamental contributions ... [that] have fundamentally impacted television cameras, models of human vision and HDTV [high-definition television]," institute President Harold Raveche said.
Bush awarded Netravali the National Medal of Technology in 2002. He is widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of digital technology and led Bell Labs' research into HDTV. He also holds more than 70 patents in computer networks, human-machine interfaces and picture processing.
The Wacky World Of EBay
The online auction site eBay monitors its pages for content and will halt auctions on suspicion of fraud, inappropriate material or jokes. Joseph Sullivan, senior counsel in charge of trust and safety at eBay, has the demanding job of establishing the rules on questionable content. And as he told attendees at the recent National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators conference, there are often no bright lines to guide his decisions.
Take, for example, an aggravated parent's recent auction of "my son Brendan." The parent offered the lad for sale, saying that Brendan "has become a monster" and that the parent "would like to sell him into slavery" as an alternative to a life in prison. Sardonic? Yes. Appropriate? No. Auctioning one's offspring is not permitted, Sullivan said, and while the sale was halted, the pestered parent's attempt at humor was not reported to police.
His short list of halted auctions included used underwear, a dead wolf and Nazi salt and pepper shakers. (After a public protest, eBay banned the sale of Nazi memorabilia). He admitted that he was stumped, however, over what to do about a woman's unprecedented but apparently legal auction of herself as a surrogate mother. There is no guiding precedent on the sale of reproductive services in cyberspace, he said.
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