Hatch deflates Microsoft PR event news.com
A bit exagerated, perhaps, but the esteemed Senator from Utah is about as impressed as everyone else on this one.
"It strikes me as curious that it was only after calls from Microsoft that many of these individuals saw fit to sign letters and make public appearances," Hatch was quoted as saying in a floor statement. "Indeed, I have been told that some executives in fact hope to see the Justice Department pursue further its case against Microsoft, but have chosen to join Mr. Gates on that stage today because they feel they have little choice but do so in order not to jeopardize their relationship with the industry's most powerful and important player."
The word coercion comes to mind, but I leave it to the objectivists to deliver the properly nuanced definition that explains how the government enforcing the law is coercion, and what Microsoft does with OEMs isn't.
Since Hatch publicly took the offensive against Microsoft last November, a number of conservatives have followed suit. Just yesterday, for example, Daniel Oliver, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission under former president Ronald Reagan, published an article in the conservative publication the National Review that supported antitrust action against Microsoft.
Yeah, but we know that the head of the antitrust division in the Reagan administration is the guy who knows the score, while the former head of the FTC is clueless.
Not all conservatives, however, are taking positions against Microsoft. Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington, for example, has called remarks Hatch has made on the Senate floor regarding Microsoft to be "nonsensical."
Today, he issued a statement today criticizing regulation aimed at Microsoft. "The last thing the high-tech industry needs right now is to be lectured to by a bunch of bureaucrats in D.C. who don't know a hyperlink from a hard drive," he said.
Some might think Microsoft needs somebody better that Mr. Salvage Rider carrying water for them in D.C. though. Slade knows forest health, that's for sure. A clear-cut forest is a healthy forest. Now Microsoft is "the high tech industry". Isn't that special. Oh, I forgot, those 26 CEOs who got their arms twisted to sign a copy of Bill's last ad know better.
Cheers, Dan. |
