Commentary from Greg Gordon posted by the Benton Foundation…

Sen John McCain (R-AZ) broadcasts his affection for President Theodore Roosevelt (R), but his opposition to regulating the local telephone industry suggests that he may not share the former president’s passion for busting huge corporate trusts. Unlike President Roosevelt, who railed against “malefactors of great wealth,” McCain’s positions frequently have echoed those of the giant regional Bell phone companies, now consolidated as AT&T, Verizon and Quest, the big survivors of the telecommunications wars of the last quarter-century. McCain’s opposition to the 1996 Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act, intended to spur competition by pressuring the Bells to lease their lines and switches to competitors cheaply, offers a window into how he might view regulation of other markets as president. The Arizona senator characterizes his unsuccessful stand against the measure, and his later attempts to thwart its implementation, as in keeping with his commitment to free markets and his maverick positions on behalf of American consumers. He was the only Republican senator to vote against the legislation. Critics charge, however, that McCain backed an approach to telecommunications that’s limited competition and kept prices high. They note that executives of the big three telecommunications giants and their lobbyists have raised and donated millions of dollars for his political committees.

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