House Postal Workers Call Operation ‘Cesspool’ : Congress: Interviews in 1992 report sloppiness. They cite signs of efficiency only when dealing with such powerful members as Rep. Rostenkowski.

Employees at the House post office described their workplace as a cesspool of sloth and disorganization that showed efficiency only when called on to do special favors for members of Congress.

And prominent among those who tapped the post office for help was Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), the former Ways and Means Committee chairman now under federal indictment on corruption charges, according to transcripts released Thursday.

The transcripts, from interviews conducted two years ago as part of an internal House probe of its own postal system, portrayed an operation where tens of thousands of dollars lay loose in drawers and even on the floor, where record-keeping was sloppy or nonexistent, and where some of the highest-paid employees spent their days reading newspapers.

“Any time a member (of Congress) wanted anything, I mean . . . just jump to it, you know, especially if it might have been a powerful member, you know, like Dan Rostenkowski,” said Inga Lawson, a mail clerk.

Former postmaster Robert V. Rota “pretty much would do anything for Dan Rostenkowski,” Lawson told investigators for the Committee on House Administration.

While other House members and former members were mentioned as taking advantage of post office favors, Rostenkowski was singled out by several witnesses as particularly well connected.

On one occasion, a postal clerk was sent to help answer telephones in Rostenkowski’s office while his staff attended a Christmas party. At another time, a postal worker spent “months” stamping calendars with Rostenkowski’s greetings and mailing them out. Post office drivers were dispatched to make special pickups for the Illinois Democrat, Lawson said.

“Whenever he’d call or wanted something, in fact everybody had to jump to it, you know, regardless of what it was,” she said.

Rostenkowski’s office referred a request for comment to Dan Webb, his lawyer in the corruption case, who did not immediately return telephone calls.

After the interviews were conducted in the spring of 1992, the House ended the political patronage hiring system at the post office and placed the operation under the control of a nonpartisan administrator, Michael J. Shinay.

The problems at the post office were central to the investigation that led to Rostenkowski’s indictment.

The two volumes of transcripts, totaling 3,293 pages, also provide glimpses into the partisan bickering that accompanied the panel’s probe, special arrangements with lobbyists, rides to the airport or other destinations provided to certain lawmakers and special pickups of campaign contributions.

One witness, former postal secretary Margaret Hatcher, told of a secret set of 66 postal boxes maintained by Rota that he used to collect “dear colleague” letters sent by House members to each other and forward them to favored lobbyists.

Rota pleaded guilty a year ago to conspiracy and embezzlement charges for helping one former and one current member of Congress obtain cash illegally for personal use by submitting vouchers. He agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of the deal that led to his guilty plea, and he is likely to be a principal government witness against Rostenkowski at the Illinois congressman’s trial.