Republicans (Hastert) sneaky plan to kill bipartisan FCC rules rollback

[Democat]

Rollback may be nixed so Bush can avoid veto

If the White House and the big four nets get their way, congressional efforts to roll back the Federal Communications Commission's new media ownership rules will get lost in the end-of-the-year shuffle.

With President Bush's poll numbers slipping, Republicans leaders in the House and Senate are hoping they can jettison all efforts to repeal the FCC's looser rules allowing media companies to buy more stations -- and in doing so save the White House from having to make good on a veto threat.

The veto bill is now waiting for House action, but Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is sitting on it with no plans to take it up and only about two months left in the session. If he refuses to bring up the bill, it will die on the vine. Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the powerful Commerce committee, is trying to stall action on the FCC rollback by placing a hold on the spending bill containing the effort to restore the 35% cap.

With time running out in the legislative year, congressional sources say GOP leaders are planning to bundle all the remaining spending bills into a massive omnibus measure. If they do that, industry insiders believe House and Senate Republicans will strip the language restoring the 35% limit out of the bill in order to avoid any controversy and a politically damaging presidential veto.

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=story&articleid=VR1117893382

[w4rma]

1. It's still a veto. It's a veto without the actual veto.

And it'll still be just as damaging if they do all this anti-democratic behind the scenes crap. In fact doing it this way taints the whole Republican Party.

[UTUSN]

2. Kick for Alerting on Repuke Scoundrelism n/t