Welcome to 1999 and woe to pols that haven’t discovered the digital age.
No wonder House
Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley (R-Va.) counts cellular privacy as a top priority in the 106th
Congress.
Analog cellular phones are wrecking political careers left and right.
First, it was the Robb-Wilder
eavesdropping episode several years back. More recently, a Dem couple from Florida overheard Newt and the Boys
scheming to get cute in advance of an impending congressional ethics ruling against the-then House speaker.
You
see, congressional Republicans are terrorized by the prospect of having extramarital affairs exposed in the coming issue
of Hustler magazine. Some of the goods Flynt claims to have on GOP pols come via cell phone conversations.
Publisher Larry Flynt makes no bones about his Democratic sympathies and his desire to highlight hypocrisy of GOP
lawmakers going after Clinton. White House flack Joe Lockhart said the White House has no plans to interfere with
Flynt’s First Amendment rights.
But Clinton best not gloat. New rumors abound about an illegitimate son by an
Arkansas hooker. Digital is definitely the way to go.
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… Breakfast at Denny’s? The wireless industry may have a
friend in the new House speaker. Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) hates taxes about as much as regulations. Look for the
industry to make reservations shortly.
Meanwhile, the man who really wanted Gingrich’s job-ex-Rep. Bill Paxon (R-
N.Y.)-has joined the D.C. law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.
AT&T’s hottest new hired gun
perchance?
… RF health activists have CTIA’s Jo-Anne Basile, Motorola’s Norm Sandler and CWTA’s Carrie
Moussa hopping in the new year-hopping mad that is. Flash points everywhere. In Cape Cod, where a siting dispute
rages. In South Africa, where a new RF health effects lawsuit has been filed. In England, where a BBC expose
capitalizes on consumer fears of possible mobile phone health risks. In Scotland, where Friends of the Earth have
rebelled against mobile phone base stations. And up in the clouds, where balloonist-cum-mogul Richard Branson
preaches the evils of pocket-phone emissions.
On the plus side, industry can chalk up a victory in New Zealand,
home to activist Neil Cheery, and in the U.K. where kindred spirit Roger Coghill’s cell phone warning label crusade
recently went down in flames.
All things considered, none of the sex scandals or RF scares could dampen the New
Year for Motorola’s Rusty Brashear and your’s truly. We’re Vols, and the world is one great Big Orange.