Bold_Fighter
03-04-2007, 05:57 PM
For those of you who like to know who we're up against now and in the future, this is a fine article to read, from Washington Monthly:
Let’s Do Lunch
Twenty-one new power players you wish you’d been nicer to.
By Zachary Roth and Rebecca Sinderbrand (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0703.roth-sinderbrand.html#Byline)
Last November’s Democratic victory catapulted party leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Rahm Emanuel into prominence. But it’s not just those with a capital D after their names whose fortunes are on the rise these days. The changeover on Capitol Hill has reordered virtually every aspect of Washington’s political culture. In so doing, it has strengthened the hands of a slew of unelected Democratic power players—Hill staffers, lobbyists, political consultants, activists, fund-raisers, even socialites—whose sway is often all the greater for being wielded largely behind the scenes.
Of course, almost every Democrat in town is feeling pretty good about himself lately, and coming up with a comprehensive list of those who’ve seen their power enhanced in the new Washington would keep us here through 2008. But some of the capital’s new influence brokers haven’t received a level of attention commensurate with their clout. As we gear up for the major political battles of the next two years—from Iraq to congressional oversight to the presidential race—here are a few of this city’s under-covered inside players who’ll now be getting their calls returned more quickly than ever.
The Resistance
Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps
FCC commissioners The Democratic takeover of Congress won’t change the composition of the executive-branch
commissions that write and enforce key regulations, and that remain largely majority Republican. But that doesn’t mean the shift on Capitol Hill won’t dramatically affect those commissions’ balances of power.
Perhaps the best example is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is gearing up to address a host of thorny issues, from media consolidation to net neutrality. The FCC’s two Democratic commissioners, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps, will still be going up against three Republicans, including Chairman Kevin Martin, but they’ll have a lot more weapons in their arsenal. That’s because they’re close with newly powerful Democratic committee chairs like John Dingell, Ed Markey, and Daniel Inouye, who’ll use high-profile hearings to advance the Democratic commissioners’ priorities. With the help of their allies in Congress, Adelstein and Copps will “put [the Republican commissioners] in a vise in the hearings,” according to one Washington Democrat who follows communications issues. “It’s like the cavalry coming over the hill.”
What will that mean in practice? On media consolidation, it should allow Adelstein and Copps to begin laying the groundwork for reversing former chair Michael Powell’s 2003 round of deregulation, which made it easier for big media companies to own multiple outlets in a single market. And it will almost certainly ensure that additional GOP deregulatory efforts are dead on arrival.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0703.roth-sinderbrand.html
Let’s Do Lunch
Twenty-one new power players you wish you’d been nicer to.
By Zachary Roth and Rebecca Sinderbrand (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0703.roth-sinderbrand.html#Byline)
Last November’s Democratic victory catapulted party leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Rahm Emanuel into prominence. But it’s not just those with a capital D after their names whose fortunes are on the rise these days. The changeover on Capitol Hill has reordered virtually every aspect of Washington’s political culture. In so doing, it has strengthened the hands of a slew of unelected Democratic power players—Hill staffers, lobbyists, political consultants, activists, fund-raisers, even socialites—whose sway is often all the greater for being wielded largely behind the scenes.
Of course, almost every Democrat in town is feeling pretty good about himself lately, and coming up with a comprehensive list of those who’ve seen their power enhanced in the new Washington would keep us here through 2008. But some of the capital’s new influence brokers haven’t received a level of attention commensurate with their clout. As we gear up for the major political battles of the next two years—from Iraq to congressional oversight to the presidential race—here are a few of this city’s under-covered inside players who’ll now be getting their calls returned more quickly than ever.
The Resistance
Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps
FCC commissioners The Democratic takeover of Congress won’t change the composition of the executive-branch
commissions that write and enforce key regulations, and that remain largely majority Republican. But that doesn’t mean the shift on Capitol Hill won’t dramatically affect those commissions’ balances of power.
Perhaps the best example is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is gearing up to address a host of thorny issues, from media consolidation to net neutrality. The FCC’s two Democratic commissioners, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps, will still be going up against three Republicans, including Chairman Kevin Martin, but they’ll have a lot more weapons in their arsenal. That’s because they’re close with newly powerful Democratic committee chairs like John Dingell, Ed Markey, and Daniel Inouye, who’ll use high-profile hearings to advance the Democratic commissioners’ priorities. With the help of their allies in Congress, Adelstein and Copps will “put [the Republican commissioners] in a vise in the hearings,” according to one Washington Democrat who follows communications issues. “It’s like the cavalry coming over the hill.”
What will that mean in practice? On media consolidation, it should allow Adelstein and Copps to begin laying the groundwork for reversing former chair Michael Powell’s 2003 round of deregulation, which made it easier for big media companies to own multiple outlets in a single market. And it will almost certainly ensure that additional GOP deregulatory efforts are dead on arrival.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0703.roth-sinderbrand.html