Alaska's Stevens Left Out In The Cold

ALASKA'S STEVENS LEFT OUT IN THE COLD
[SOURCE: Forbes.com 12/12, AUTHOR: Jessica Holzer]
Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) boasted this summer that he had nearly all the 60 Senate votes he needed to muscle his massive telecommunications bill through Congress by the end of the year. But as the 109th Congress called it quits this weekend, his quest to overhaul America’s telecom laws ended in failure. As Network Neutrality became the main rallying point against the Stevens bill, the powerful Commerce Committee chairman offered nothing more than hollow gestures to address the concern. Ultimately, a rowdy coalition fighting for net neutrality helped kill the legislation. "This is a huge victory for real people and a clear signal to the next Congress that standing up for big bold ideas is a winning political proposition,” declared Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org Civic Action, a member of "Save the Internet" group that campaigned to sink the bill. But if his crowd is serious, it will have to do more than block legislation ­ it will have to get laws passed requiring net neutrality in the next Congress. That will be a great deal more difficult than thwarting Ted Stevens.
http://www.forbes.com/facesinthenews/2006/12/12/stevens-telecoms-congres...