Monday, August 12, 2002

The Process at Work I spoke today with Ed McDonald, chief of staff for Howard Coble. He says that Coble got a lot of questions about the corporate hacking bill (as described in my column) while making the rounds of civic clubs and such here in his district last week. McDonald also called News & Record editorial-page editor Allen Johnson this morning to discuss Saturday's editorial on the subject. Coble's office has gotten about 50 emails about the bill so far--anything over a dozen makes them really sit up and pay attention. Coble will probably publish a response soon in the N&R--judging from what I heard from him and from Ed McDonald, the argument will be that the bill is written tightly enough so that private files on your desktop won't be open to attack. I don't think that addresses the technical issues at hand, or the privacy and property issues either. But it is the next step in the conversation. McDonald says Coble would like to hold hearings on this bill in September, and that both sides may be able to participate. It is important that the public response continues (howard.coble@mail.house.gov). Some people are pushing back via email that I'm playing too nice here, that I should be blasting Coble as an ignoramus or a sell-out. There are a couple of reasons that I'm not doing that: it isn't what I think, and it wouldn't be effective. I think Howard Coble respects privacy and property rights, and that he is willing to listen and learn, and that making laws is often a long process. But even if I thought his stances were cynical, I would exploit his public image as a champion of the regular guy to make him live up to it. Dave Winer quotes Tip O'Neill that all politics are local, and the local truth is that polite conversation can be very effective in this district and with this congressman. I think the bill will be altered and that the public will come out of this better informed and better connected. That's critical: regardless of what happens in the November elections, Coble will rotate out of his chairmanship next year, and the battle will shift to someone else's district. The biggest story to come out of this won't be the specifics of the legislation, but an important evolutionary step in the interplay of Weblogs, print journalism, and old-fashioned constituent-level politics.   12:57:17 PM   comment []

Travel Notes *Good news/bad news. The good news: US Despair is still going to fly me out this afternoon to report a Baseline article. The bad news: They are flying me to Akron. Aspen to Akron in one week. *Last night at the US Airways bag claim in Charlotte, a blow-dry guy with a big microphone asks me what I think about the airline declaring bankruptcy. He was local TV news, and his camera dude fired up his big light and pointed the lens at me. Have you ever done the classic no-comment gesture of putting your hand in front of a TV camera? It is really fun. *At the Denver airport last week, the Dollar people wanted me to take a Camaro convertible instead of the Sebring I had carefully reserved after researching the backseat and trunk specs of rental convertibles on the Web. They told me it was a comparable car. I asked how it was comparable, since the Sebring is big enough to carry two adults, two kids, and their bags for a week, and a Camaro is not. They are both convertibles, I was told. Rather than leaving the kids in Denver we waited an hour and got our car. It was worth it. 12:13:57 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2002 Ed Cone.