Earlier this week, the Government Accounting Office released a report detailing the systematic misuse of government credit cards by public servants, who have used tax dollars to pay for everything from lingerie to gambling. One of the bigger price tag items was a $13,000 dinner for 81 people hosted by the U.S. Post Office. The dinner included over 200 appetizers, 40 bottles of wine, and assorted top-shelf liquor. The best part? Instead of letting a few people go and apologizing, the U.S. Postal Service is actually defending this expenditure. It’s taking its message to the press! To the people!

U.S. Postal Service officials said it was unfair to compare the dinner with other abuses cited in the GAO report. "This is not taxpayer money. What we spend is what we make. The Postal Service is funded solely by our products and services," said Gerry McKiernan, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.

McKiernan said the dinner was intended to help woo corporate clients of the U.S. Postal Service, which competes with carriers such as UPS and FedEx for business. "It was just the opinion of the GAO that the cost was excessive," he said.

Hearing U.S. Postal employees self-righteously proclaim their need to compete on fair terms with UPS and FedEx takes me back--all the way to libertarian youth camp. There I learned the Post Office doesn’t pay most taxes and isn’t subject to SEC filing requirements. If the U.S. Postal Service is so interested in leveling the playing field, perhaps it should voluntarily undertake such obligations. Until then, let me be the first to pooh-pooh the idea that wining and dining clients at Ruth’s Chris Steak House is all in day’s work for the fat cats running the U.S. Postal Service.