If they read David Walker’s 44-page set of recommendations to the 110th Congress, the new incoming members might wonder what the heck they’ve gotten themselves into. Talk about gloomy reading.

Ironically, the low-key Walker in person is engaging and cordial. He laughs at jokes and looks you in the eye. But his report sounds like a battle-hardened nurse welcoming a new crop of orderlies to the insane ward.

Earlier this week the Washington Post had a hilarious story about one frosh rep, Democrat John Hall from New York. Hall was lead guitarist for the pop-rock band Orleans. (Yes, the Orleans of “You’re Still the One.”) Hall, like so many of the newbies, ran on the Big Issues: Nuclear power, minimum wage, universal health care, the war in Iraq. One wonders how such idealists will deal with, say, whether the Homeland Security Department is exercising adequate oversight and program management of performance-based contracts.

The republic somehow limps along with tattered cybersecurity, porous financial systems and people who don’t pay their lawful tax bills. Nevertheless, those nuts and bolts issues are part of governing too. Like other GAO publications, Walker’s recommendations are clear and concise. And, heck, it’s their job to be the skunk at the garden party. It’s not the 9/11 Commission Report, but the Walker letter is worth reading.

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I voted today in Montgomery County, Md. because I’ll be out of town Tuesday. We’ve got as many wacky races as anywhere and I hate missing a vote. (My wife is ready to pull the cables off the back of our TV sets, she is so repulsed by the campaign commercials. They really are appalling, patronizing collections of slickly-produced, er, lies. From both parties, thank you.)

May I ask a question? Why in the heck do you not need a photo ID in order to vote? With all the hyper-sensitivity about voter fraud these days, you’d think some basic authentication would be required in order to vote.

I faxed in my absentee ballot application earlier this week, two hours before the cutoff. Next day, I couldn’t verify receipt because the election board phone system put callers into an endless waiting loop. But I did punch other buttons and reached the Republican election judges office, just to talk to someone, anyone. There a nice lady had me re-fax my application and promised to walk it over. She explained that in our county, fully one third of voters vote absentee, and that the night before alone, 1,200 faxes had arrived. Who knew?

So this morning I drove to our county election board headquarters, located in an abandoned middle school that shows its age and neglect. But the election board offices, shabby and cluttered though they were, were populated by people who seemed to know what they were doing. They had record of my application. I was given a paper ballot and decided to vote then and there, to save myself 78 cents in postage. The hallway was lined with voting booths. The ballot required blackening ovals with a No. 2 pencil, so I presume it will be machine-read. On Election Day, the county will use an electronic voting system.

I put the ballot in the envelope, sealed it, signed it and handed it in. It was dropped into a box, and I presume will be counted. But at no time did I have to prove who I was.

Am I missing something here?

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I’ve personally known or met several felons. You live long enough... Most I can’t tell you about. But two are public figures: David Safavian and Sanjay Kumar. Safavian, of course, was the short-term administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. He was sentenced to 18 months for lying about his connections to the current political third rail, Jack Abramoff. Safavian visited our offices shortly after taking office for a sitdown with GCN and Washington Technology editors. He was blunt and possessed definite ideas of where to take OFPP. He didn’t strike me as felon material.

Kumar is the former chief executive of CA Inc. I met him briefly once or twice briefly over the years. Back when he was fraudulently inflating the company’s results, it was known as Computer Associates. Kumar will be grippin’ the bars for 12 years, until he is 56.

Forrest Gump-like though my acquaintance was with both cons, it still is both thrilling and sad to think of them heading for jail. If you’ve ever visited someone in prison—and I have more than once—you realize that the mere fact of incarceration is gosh darn fearsome.

There’s a sort of similarity between CA and OFPP. CA for a long time was an exciting company to watch only if you liked financial manipulation. It made a long string of acquisitions. From a product standpoint, CA is more like a hardware store. It offers a zillion prosaic products for the workaday world of keeping enterprise computer systems running. Nothing approaching the excitement of Grand Theft Auto, but all of it meeting basic, even crucial requirements.

OFPP is concerned with the driest of activities—rules for government procurement. But, as we all know, even a small adjustment in the rules can change markets. No one normal keeps the voluminous Federal Acquisition Regulation on the nightstand for evening reading, but anyone selling to the government misunderstands or ignores it at their peril.

It should be noted: Although Kumar and Safavian brought shame more to themselves than to their organizations. The nature of their crimes didn’t go to the heart of the organizations themselves. That is, Kumar’s CA didn’t cheat customers or make defective products. And Safavian didn’t personally gain by subverting contracting.

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At the Industry Advisory Council’s conference earlier this week, a typical conference dynamic occurred. Checked out of their hotels, many dashed for their cars once the first morning session was over to drive back from Williamsburg, Va.

It looked as if the last speaker would have no audience; luckily she ended up with a couple of hundred (out of a reported attendance of 850). She was Mary Margaret Graham, the deputy director of National Intelligence for collection. Graham’s office is one of four such DDNIs; the others are analysis (know it), requirement (want it) and management (build it). Graham is the “get it” person.

In some ways, she was the most original speaker at this year’s ELC conference.

Graham described DNI as a conglomeration of 16 agencies that haven’t melded into one, sort of a Homeland Security Department in miniature. Well, not so miniature: 100,000 people. She described a few of the measures the intelligence conglomerate is taking to try and unify.

These include publishing a catalog of analytic resources across the whole DNI. Or restricting promotions to people who have had their ticket punched in at least two components, in order to foster a more corporate culture.

Graham also said DNI is working to fix a broken-down procurement system.

“The intelligence community adds on requirements like candy bits on an ice cream cone,” Graham said. Instead of big, complicated, 15-year projects with endless change orders, the agency will be taking an incremental approach. She cited DNI CIO Dale Meyerrose’s philosophy, held since his Air Force IT days, saying, “Think big, start small, scale fast.”

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Last night was our annual GCN Gala where we honor agencies and individuals for terrific work in this field. It was our most far-reaching event, literally. Thanks to some resourceful people from Tandberg, our audience of 1,000 was able to see and hear one of our awardees, Brig. Gen. Susan Lawrence, speaking from Qatar. She’s the C4I director for Central Command. She's been working overseas to obtain bandwidth for troops in southwest Asia.

I, along with our tech support team, held our breath until the image of Lawrence popped up on our four large screens. She could hear and see us, and vice versa. Although it was 3 a.m. in Qatar, Lawrence was surrounded by fellow officers and later told us the room was filled with military folks wanting to see her receive the award.

Actually, we’re shipping the crystal to her. But in the meantime Army CIO Lt. Gen. Steve Boutelle accepted on her behalf here in Washington.

Before everyone walked around dripping with technology, you’d hear quaint words like “miracle” to describe certain modern advances. But it did seem miraculous, considering how many places the signals had to hop among before entering the touchy AV systems inside the Washington Hilton.

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