It pays to be a friend of Ed — Gov. Ed Rendell, that is.

As of last week, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has a new chief executive officer. The agency that oversees 600 state stores selling liquor and wine, as well as licenses for some 20,000 bars and restaurants that sell wine and spirts, has functioned without a CEO since it was created in 1933. But, without public comment — and apparently without discussion with LCB Chairman Jonathan Newman — Rendell appointed recently retired state Sen. Joe Conti to the job.

The newly created job, by the way, comes with a salary of $150,000, which is more than twice what Newman, who holds a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, is paid.

It is not unreasonable to think that the LCB could use another top-level executive. After all, Rendell noted that the agency oversees state stores that do about $1.6 billion a year in sales and also has some 4,500 employees.

Rendell says he put Conti in the job because he is concerned about rising expenses at the agency. But there never was any public discussion about escalating expenses at the LCB. And, apparently, Rendell did not even discuss the issue with Newman.

Newman, who opposed Conti's appointment, is correct to suggest that if a CEO is needed at the LCB, a national search would have been the way to find the most qualified candidates. There is little doubt that someone more qualified than Conti would have surfaced in a serious search for qualified applicants to manage a $1.6 billion enterprise.

Conti, 52, whose related work experience amounts to the fact that he once helped run his family's two Bucks County restaurants and served on some Senate committees that dealt with LCB issues, can hardly be seen as highly qualified. And it's hard to see why he is being paid twice as much as Newman, who, as chairman, has earned high marks for transforming the LCB into a more customer-friendly and progressive organization.

In the past, Rendell has praised the changes Newman has brought to the State Store System and the LCB. So, why the quick appointment of a retired state politician to a job created at the whim of the governor?

It appears to be either a slap at Newman by Rendell — or some sort of political payback to Conti. But why Democrat Rendell would toss Republican Conti such a big, fat job is unclear, at least outside of Harrisburg's halls of power.

Conti's unexpected good fortune looks like nothing more than an old-time patronage job. No hearings, no public process, no other candidates considered or interviewed, and no input from the key person already running the LCB.

Conti, who decided not to run for re-election, was one of many state lawmakers who angered voters over his involvement in the pay-raise scandal of 2005.

As one of the lawmakers who initially refused to return the extra money, gained through unvouchered expenses, Conti gave columnists and talk show hosts some rich material in 2005 when he said he could not return the pay-raise money because he used it to buy a hot water heater for his home. (He eventually returned the money after a Philadelphia columnist wrote about a small army of plumbers who had offered to remove the water heater at no charge to Conti.)

Conti's new job at the LCB, with its $150,000 salary, will do wonders for his already healthy pension benefit, which will be based partially on his prior years' salary levels.

It clearly helps to have friends in high places, particularly a governor who can create a job that did not exist (and might not need to exist) and fill it without the normal legislative review and evaluation process.

But maybe, if enough people register their complaints, Rendell will reconsider this return to old-school politics that is precisely the kind of behavior voters have said they want to see stopped in Harrisburg.

Rendell should undo the Conti appointment and allow the process to occur in the light of day — to decide if the LCB needs a CEO and, if so, who is best-qualified to serve.