>>>So, JD, Bill was a gentleman and McNealy a thug. ... I didn't watch any of the hearings, of course, obsessed though I am.<<<
Gates blew it big time in the hearings. He just put that familiar smart-assed smile on his face and gave pompous, condescending, and sarcastic replies to the Senators at every opportunity. 'I already *told* you...!' Of course you wouldn't know this if you watched the MSNBC edit. (Thank God for CSPAN, eh?)
He was nailed to the wall by that impromptu survey of PC owners in the audience, and by many of the comments of the Senators, but still clung stubbornly to his fig leaves without a hint of apology or self-enlightenment.
Now US senators don't like being condescended to, they don't like being defied, and they like their questions answered. Their self-image is quite judicial, in fact, and this attitude is the one people people take in front of judges when they want to be sure to get a big sentence. Just treat the judge like a moron, and everything else follows. The Rockefellers and DuPonts and billionaire Emirs know this and behave with good grace when appearing. Just common sense.
It's likely that the DOJ gets tons of political cover after this, no matter that the Senators from Washington state and a few other politicians are in Gates pocket. I also wonder how the government procurement process is going to go after this for MSFT competitors. Better, I'm guessing. Ditto on standards bodies activities. The SEC and FCC, and so on. The technology export folks that have to approve what MSFT does with that new big Chinese national computer network they just signed the preliminary deal on. Cloudy weather ahead?
I bet a few Judges and potential jurists watched that on the TV too. While they may never see Gates in court personally, it will be just a little harder to let MSFT off the hook, however fair they try to be, from now on.
Meanwhile, all that's keeping them off him now is that money and power. He's been sharing more of that lately, but his lobbyists are going to have to speed things up considerably, I imagine. There isn't a state or territory that doesn't have a software business now, and in all of them but one, they think Microsoft is hurting them. So it's going to be constituencies versus the gravy train on capitol hill, and interesting to keep an eye on for the press, I bet.
Unless, of course, Gates publicly humbles himself, convincingly and in detail. Getting a pie in the face from someone else won't cut it. Remember Julius Ceasar. He didn't know how to do this either. He also had his Mark Antonys, defending him all the way. Even after the unfortunate end.
Cheers,
Chaz |
