Federal Diary's Causey to leave Washington Post

Mike Causey, The Washington Post columnist whose "Federal Diary" is read widely by federal employees, will retire from the Post next month.

Causey's last column will run by May 8, when he begins working for ITC, a Fairfax, Va.-based technology company that is launching a new Web site targeted at the federal market.

"It's becoming an Internet world," Causey said. "It's going to break my heart to leave here, but at 60 you don't often get wooed."

Causey has worked at the Post for 36 years, where he started as a messenger in advertising and went on to write more than 11,000 articles and columns. The Federal Diary column, which appears in the Metro section of the Post six days a week, covers news of interest to the federal workforce.

In a message to employees, Washington Post management hailed Causey as "an institution" at the paper. "The man who coined the term 'Inside the Beltway' has turned the Federal Diary into a 'must read' for those who live in the region defined by that now universal phrase," management said.

Causey said he expects to write at least three columns a week for the new Web site.