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God knows if I was the SEC DEF, I'd have someone "do email" for me.

Ray  | Monday, June 25, 2007 |  07:27 AM

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Why should the head of DoD spend hours fooling with email? That's what he has office assistants for! I want him to be thinking of the "big picture," not wading through volumes of email. As all of us email users know, much email is of little value. To judge the Secretary of Defense on whether he does email or not is a knee-jerk reaction that is not warranted. I don't know everything about Gates, and I am not passionately in his corner either, but I feel that this issue is not one to judge him on. I think the government in general might be better off if managers would turn off their email and Blackberrys and pay attention to their meetings and subordinates.

J Corbett  | Monday, June 25, 2007 |  06:46 AM

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We lived in a culture of investigate, probe and conjured allegations during Jan. 1995 - Jan. 2001; Congress and its supporters were apparently quite satisfied with this state of affairs. From Jan. 2001 to Jan. 2007, however, Congress abnegated its oversight responsibilities, primarily because one political party controlled all branches of fed'l govt. The new Congress would literally have to investigate 24-7 for a year or two just to make up for six years of snoozing. With all due respect to IGs, they also largely abnegated their statutory obligations during 2001-06 -- even those IGs who had been promoted up through the career ranks. To be more efficient, senior govt people need to focus more on program operations and policy and less on politics. And now we have many of the same people who developed and managed the 1995-2000 toxic culture claiming to deny responsibility for it now that they are safely in the exec branch. Rich irony there . . .

Schedule A  | Sunday, June 24, 2007 |  04:52 PM

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I hear what you're saying, Schedule C. But Secretary Gates didn't say he didn't use e-mail because he was worried about leaving electronic bread crumbs all over the place. He said he didn't because he's a "very low-tech person." Now maybe he just doesn't want to admit publicly that he's curbed his e-mail habits to avoid leaving a trail. But it seems more like he's just technologically challenged, which is a little worrisome. By the way, if he really isn't e-mail-phobic, I'm guessing the bigger issue in avoiding it would be the fact that people would cc: him on stuff that he'd never have time to read. But then later on he'd have a hard time denying that he knew about something, even if he really didn't.

Tom Shoop  | Friday, June 22, 2007 |  11:59 AM

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You do not understand why the Secretary does "not do emial". Let me explain it to you.. We now live in a culture of investigate, probe and conjured allegations. These are the modern strategies of political warfare when there are honest policy debates. The chief weapon in all of this is email traffic, which in the hands of an IG who can be sure to twist anything and everything if it can serve a larger goal. Expect it to then appear in the Wash Post, soon followed by the obligatory Congressional hearings. It is a shame that one of the most important tools for productivity (email) is now toxic to senior govt folks but that is the way it is. I wou.ld expect that the next President would absolutly forbid all of his senior people to ever use email....for sure the Cabinet Officers...most have already turned in the bberries and those that have not are just foolish. in order to survive politically, senior govt people have to learn to be less efficient.

Schedule C  | Friday, June 22, 2007 |  11:47 AM

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It is a disgrace. People who cannot keep up with modern communications are too dumb or lazy to be in high office.

wise Old Owl  | Friday, June 22, 2007 |  10:53 AM

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