Granholm isn't "Selling Out" on Net Neutrality

UPDATE: In retrospect, I may have overreacted a bit. The "selling out" title seemed kind of provocative, and I replied without thinking first.

Their argument for doing this now is that once the cable/telecom companies get franchising rights, they will no longer have an incentive to "trade" anything for net neutrality, and we'll be locked out of th process. What do you all think?

Anyway, here's the original post:

This is my response to Matt Stoller's post on MyDD implying that Governor Granholm is somehow "selling out" the Internet. I look up to Matt (I'd even added him as one of my Facebook friends), so reading that post on MyDD was disappointing.

WTF.

I read MyDD religiously. I consider it to be one of the best sources of political information for progressive activists, and the philosophy and approach of this site played a very key role in my own development as a blogger.

That's why it really bothers me to see this kind of unsubstantiated attack coming from here about Granholm. To refer to the article and imply that she is "Selling Out the Internet" is ignorant at best and disingenuous at worst.

First, we don't know what Granholm is going to do with this bill yet -- to my knowledge, she hasn't given any indication as to whether she is going to sign it into law in its current form or seek changes after Google raised its concerns. When her spokesperson says that they don't want to "disadvantage consumers," they could be referring to some of the other drawbacks to the bill (such as the loss of revenue to local government). By saying that she is "selling out," you're insinuating that she wholeheartedly supports the bill and is opposed to net neutrality, which is clearly not the case.

Secondly, you can bet that the net neutrality issue will be pushed next legislative session regardless of what happens with this bill. The Google announcement was one of the major turning points of the campaign (I was there), and she is likely well aware of the critical role that Google played in her re-election. Right now (in the lame duck session), we have Republican majorities in both the MI House and MI Senate that want to concede as little territory to her as possible. Ken Sikkema (the current Senate Majority Leader) is on the record opposing net neutrality, and I'm almost positive that Craig DeRoche (current speaker) is opposed to it as well. Now that we have taken back the House and made substantial gains in the State Senate, its going to be a lot easier to deal with issues like net neutrality next term. Sikkema is term-limited (I don't know Bishop's position on the issue) and the new House Speaker has a good relationship with the Governor, so we have a much better chance of getting this through. Offhand, the Chair of the Michigan Republican Party is on the record as supportive of net neutrality.

For the record, I support net neutrality and would like to see it adopted here in MI as soon as possible. If we were able to tie it to this bill, I'd be thrilled. Given the current political environment (everything is about jobs), it is simply not realistic to block this bill because net neutrality has suddenly become an issue. The bill does have several other drawbacks unrelated to net neutrality that need to be addressed, but that's another debate entirely.

You do not have the unanimous support of the Michigan netroots on this. There are a lot of progressive bloggers here in Michigan who support net neutrality but don't think that this bill is the place or way to do it. Matt of Michigan Liberal is probably the most widely read progressive blogger that talks state politics -- he thinks that net neutrality should be a should be dealt with separately from this bill. Also worth reading is InterrupT's thoughts on HB 6456 from the day the article you refer to was released.

Its also worth noting that while a lot of people perceive Granholm to be a "DLC" or "establishment" type, she understands the potential of the netroots and is more supportive of us than any of the rest of the party establishment here in Michigan. She reads us every day, reaches out to us personally, and supports our work while understanding that we aren't under her control and are going to be critical of her from time to time.

When the time comes, I look forward to fighting for net neutrality in Michigan. I just don't think that this is the way to do it.