Washington's revolving door is spinning again this week, with Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker's announcement that she is resigning to become a lobbyist for Comcast.An important point to make here is that she is not a Bush retread finishing out a term. She was appointed by Barack Obama.
Baker's last day on the commission will be June 3, a few weeks before the end of her term, and just over four months after she voted to approve the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal.
Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, shown at a hearing on Capitol Hill in March, is resigning to become a lobbyist for Comcast.
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Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, shown at a hearing on Capitol Hill in March, is resigning to become a lobbyist for Comcast.
Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, shown at a hearing on Capitol Hill in March, is resigning to become a lobbyist for Comcast.
Back in 2009, when the merger was proposed, Baker said on C-SPAN that the commission shouldn't try to regulate too much.
"You shouldn't attach conditions that are extraneous to the actual deal in front of you," she said at the time.
And when the vote came last January, Baker complained that some extraneous conditions were there. She said that FCC rulings were too regulatory and could discourage job-creating investment. Still, she voted with the 4-1 majority for the merger.
She pretty much had to be a 'Phant, the law requires that no more than 3 members of the 5 member commission belong to the same party, but she was hip deep in Bush policy and deregulation, and she is the daughter of the smarmiest bastard ever to hit Washington, DC, James Baker.
In a sane Washington, DC, Comcast would let her go now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag, but I think that sane Washington, DC is an oxymoron.
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