Talk all you want about the wonderful telecom revolution, but don’t mention it around District of Columbia pols. They’re irked. Big time. First it was mobile-phone towers in Rock Creek Park, which opponents decried as a blight on the landscape and an affront to migratory birds everywhere.
Now it’s underground fiber optic cables, which require streets to be dug up so residents can enjoy lightning-fast Internet service. But the streets above the fiber info-highway never get repaired. D.C. and its residents are stuck with the bill, not to mention oblong pot holes. All this is a big deal for a city that has trouble collecting trash, plowing snow and keeping manhole covers from exploding skyward.
Then again, it’s hard to get excited about public service duties in a city that lacks democratic representation enjoyed by other Americans and that is otherwise patronized by lawmakers in an apartheid-like manner.
Perhaps D.C. pols should team up with Winstar and Teligent, folks capable of providing broadband wireless access without ripping up roads.
Speaking of pols, never in his wildest dreams could Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) ever imagine a challenger like Jack E. Robinson III. Robinson, president of National Telecom PCS Inc., gained headlines in RCR for his dogged lawsuit against bankrupt Pocket Communications Inc.
Now, Robinson has resurfaced as a political gadfly. Robinson wants to unseat Kennedy. To pull it off, Robinson decided to pre-empt Kennedy and the Boston media by releasing an 11-page dirty laundry list on his past. Robinson’s past.
In doing so, the 39-year-old Robinson accomplished something unimaginable. He stole the character issue from Kennedy. Imagine that!
The Robinson list, according to the Associated Press, includes being arrested (but later exonerated, he says) in the mid-1980s on suspicion of driving while under the influence and carrying a dangerous weapon.
Then there was the sexual assault allegation that Robinson denies. Robinson doesn’t deny flunking the New York bar exam twice and the Texas bar exam once. He said he didn’t study. Robinson also was accused of plagiarism, and a court agreed.
But that’s not the worst of it. Robinson has a Hillary problem. He lives in stylish Greenwich, Conn., but he wants to represent Massachusetts. A carpetbagger, you say? No way, replies Robinson. He was born in Boston and educated in the state. Massachusetts GOP leaders are not impressed.
Well I am.
Digging up dirt on himself and publicizing it was bold enough. Now, the ultimate sacrifice: Robinson plans to move into his folks’ home in Boston. If he can hack that, he deserves to succeed Teddy.
