Is McCain a high-tech leader?

[Commentary] A look at Sen John McCain's opposition to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which he called a "mishmash of compromises", an "elaborate influence-peddling scheme" and "the biggest rip-off since the Teapot Dome Scandal." Later, when he became the chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee, he did not choose to expend political capital by revising the law's parts he found objectionable. But it would be wrong to dismiss Mr McCain's opposition as mere posturing. Mr McCain viewed the law as spawning too many restrictions, as regulating in order to deregulate and he wanted no part in this. He also believed that the Internet subsidy programme for schools, libraries, and hospitals would become a boondoggle. His proposal, for telecommunications, was instead to give all contestants a period of adjustment, with a date certain for deregulation. After that, it was swim or sink. The next years proved his foresight. After protracted upheaval, even under the new law with its numerous regulatory protections, the Bell companies prevailed anyway against their telecom rivals, as they gained advantages in the marketplace, the FCC and the courts. Such a result could have been reached under Mr McCain's approach faster and cheaper.