Michael Powell: FCC Commissioner Copps could 'blow things up' for Obama

Former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael Powell suggested that if FCC Commissioner Michael Copps votes against network neutrality, he is scuttling an opportunity for President Barack Obama.

"Mr. Copps has to ask himself, are you gonna be the guy who blows it all up?" Powell said. Referring to an Obama campaign promise to support network neutrality policies, Powell suggested that a "no" vote from Copps, a Democrat, would compromise the president's agenda. "He'd have to take that view to his own party and his own president," said Powell, a Republican who represents an association for phone and cable companies, Broadband for America. Powell called Commissioner Copps a "principled guy" and then suggested that concessions from the chairman's office to Commissioner Copps could show up in proceedings other than network neutrality. "Somebody could cut a deal with Commissioner Copps somewhere else and it wouldn't even surface in this proceeding," he said.