Figuring Out Who Your Friends Are On SOPA and PIPA Is Not That Simple

[Commentary] Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island is a Democratic torch-bearer. He is a stalwart progressive, a reliable vote for an economic agenda aimed at helping people. But at the recent Netroots Nation, it was what he didn't talk about that was more important.

The crowd, generally of the progressive mind-set, likes him, but are stumped when asked this: Did you know that Senator Whitehouse, a member of the Judiciary Committee, supported the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (aka PIPA), the Senate copyright bill last year? A sample of responses to that question: "I didn't know that." "Really?" "I'm surprised." It was, to be sure, the one topic he didn't bring up voluntarily in discussion in the middle of the crowd of people who more than likely helped to kill the copyright bills (PIPA and its evil House cousin, the Stop Online Piracy Act, aka SOPA.)