Oh, to hell with it. Who wants to move to New Zealand?
At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected for the meeting, sources tell TIME, have been bumped by the White House because they supported John Kerry's 2004 campaign. The State Department has traditionally put together a list of industry representatives for these meetings, and anyone in the U.S. telecom industry who had the requisite expertise and wanted to go was generally given a slot, say past participants, TIME reports.
Only since the start of Bush's second term did a political litmus test emerge, industry sources say. The White House admits as much: "We wanted people who would represent the Administration positively, and—call us nutty—it seemed like those who wanted to kick this Administration out of town last November would have some difficulty doing that," says White House spokesman Trent Duffy. Those barred from the trip include employees of Qualcomm and Nokia, two of the largest telecom firms operating in the U.S., as well as Ibiquity, a digital-radio-technology company in Columbia, MD, TIME reports.
(emphasis mine)
It's great when Republicans accuse Democrats of being partisan, and when George W. Bush demands that his political appointments, the "people's business," not be held up by "politics." Then they turn around and restrict attendance at a telecom conference based on political contributions.
The quote from Trent Duffy is unbelievable. There will be a policy discussion, and "call them nutty," they think it's totally reasonable to exclude anyone who didn't support the president's reelection. Because, really, the 49% of the population that those people represent have no place in the discussion over the regulation of bandwidth.
This amounts to an Enemies List. This is really fucked up.
As Atrios notes, can you imagine what the response would have been if Clinton had done something like this? Sure, it's a tired comparison, but that's only because it keeps happening.
Via Kevin Drum and Atrios.
