Ten Years Ago... What has Furchtgott-Roth?

Out of Commission
[SOURCE: Washington Post 2/21/1997; AUTHOR: Al Kamen]
Ten years ago, then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) indicated that his choice for the open FCC seat was Harold Furchtgott-Roth. DC wonks were reading Furchtgott-Roth's book, "Cable-TV: Regulation or Competition?" to figure out the House Commerce Committee aide who helped pass the 1996 Telecom Act. Furchtgott-Roth would be nominated by President Clinton, confirmed by the Senate in November 1997 and served until May 2001. He would hire a bright, young lawyer from North Carolina, Kevin J Martin, who would serve at the FCC before departing to work on the presidential campaign of then-Texas governor George Bush. President Bush hired Martin to serve as a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and was on the staff of the National Economic Council -- and then nominated him to serve as a FCC Commissioner on April 30, 2001. The rest, as the saying goes, is a made-for-TV movie.