Jonathan Newman resigned as chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board last week in protest over Gov. Ed Rendell's backroom deal to install a former state lawmaker as chief executive officer of the LCB, a position that did not exist until Rendell decided to install his hand-picked candidate over Newman.

Newman resigned because he said the appointment of former Sen. Joe Conti, R-Bucks County, undermined his authority. Newman also said that the newly created CEO position left him, as chairman, with such diminished job responsibilities that he could no longer, in good conscience, accept his $65,500 salary.

What a refreshing — and rare — attitude.

Newman might be genuine in his feelings, and his resignation should shine a spotlight on the wrongness of Rendell's backroom deal. But the 44-year-old Newman, it should be noted, can afford to walk away from the LCBjob because his family is financially well-off, and, as a University of Pennsylvania-educated lawyer, he can certainly command a larger salary in the private sector.

Appointed by Gov. Tom Ridge in the late 1990s, Newman's tenure at the LCB was broadly praised for making the State Store system much more responsive to customers and for improving the selections in the stores. So, Newman could probably make much more than his $65,572 LCB salary by finding work elsewhere in the wine industry.

Still, Newman is right to focus public attention on Rendell's creation of a political patronage job. Newman noted Rendell only told members of the Liquor Control Board of his intention to place Conti in the job on a Monday — with the additional stipulation that he wanted Conti in the job by Wednesday.

Newman said he never saw a resume for Conti, and he makes a legitimate point in suggeting that if Rendell wanted what's best for the state's liquor agency, he would have conducted a nationwide, and public, search for a CEO. Pennsylvania's state-run liquor business is, after all, a $1.5 billion organization with 4,500 employees.

Defending Conti's selection, Rendell's office notes that Conti served on legislative committees dealing with the state liquor board and, more importantly, has experience helping to run his family's two restaurants near Philadelphia.

That defense of Conti's qualifications is laughable.

One columnist from a Philadelphia newspaper compared it to the notion that a guy who operated two gas stations was therefore qualified to run ExxonMobil. Ridiculous.

Conti, who supported the controversial July 2005 pay-raise vote, made a name for himself by responding to public requests that he return the pay-raise money by saying that that was impossible because he'd already spent the money on a hot water heater for his home.

That lame excuse earned him the nickname Senator Waterheater with a Philadelphia newspaper columnist. And after the columnist rounded up a small army of registered plumbers and other tradesmen in Philadelphia to remove Conti's water heater (at no cost), the senator agreed to return his pay-raise money. It later turned out that there was no new water heater to remove.

Given these facts, it is impossible to believe that Conti is the most qualified person for the newly created $150,000-a-year-job. By most accounts, he is a nice man, but his appointment as CEO of Pennsylvania's massive state-run liquor business is nothing more than backroom politics, political dealmaking and patronage — exactly the sort of thing that voters have been saying they want to see ended in Harrisburg.

A politician as experienced as Rendell must understand that. But now that Rendell has been elected to a second term (and is prevented by term limits from running again), perhaps he believes he can do anything he wants, no matter how much it offends voters.

The slap at Newman, who by all accounts was doing an excellent job of bringing the stodgy LCB into the 20th (not quite the 21st) century, was undeserved. And the cushy job for Conti, who decided not to face the voters after his close associaton with the pay-raise vote, was equally undeserved.

The state legislature should examine what went into the Rendell-Conti deal — and to correct matters, the appointment should be undone.

If the LCB needs a CEO, then a transparent process should allow the public to see that the most qualified candidate is selected — not the person that the governor wants to reward.