Suddenly, the balance of power in official Washington has swung to The Outlyer.
Who could’ve predicted Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) would become such an unabashed Bush cheerleader or that Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) would ally himself with Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) on a $1.35 trillion tax-cut bill that most Dems claim favors the rich. The bill will pass, notwithstanding the fact that Bush is counting on billions of dollars from a 3-percent telecom tax that likely will be repealed this year.
Sen. John Breaux (R-La.), whom Bush early on considered for a cabinet slot, flirts at times with being an outlyer. Like last week, when he joined Republican Sens. Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.) and Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on a compromise patients’ rights bill. The White House no doubt viewed Jeffords as an outlyer when the lawmaker’s education bill didn’t include E-rate reform or school vouchers sought by Bush.
Then there’s Rep. Jim Traficant (D-Ohio), exiled by Dems to political Siberia for helping Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) become House speaker. But you really can’t consider Traficant an outlyer since Republicans don’t want him either. Beam him up.
In the mobile-phone industry, there is no greater outlyer these days than Sprint PCS. At a time when most of industry is trying to convince Congress and the administration they should force schools, churches and the Pentagon to hand over frequencies for 3G, Sprint PCS breezily declares it has plenty of spectrum to roll out third-generation wireless services. Not that it matters or anything, but Sprint Corp. holds $1 billion worth of licenses at 2500 MHz, one of several bands globally earmarked for 3G.
When it comes to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association’s campaign to repeal the spectrum cap, Sprint PCS isn’t on the bandwagon. While other carriers seek regulatory leeway to get out from under the October deadline for providing location-based E911 service, Sprint PCS boasts it will not need a waiver.
Verizon Wireless, too, has played the outlyer role. The nation’s top mobile-phone operator, breaking with its brethren, also vows to meet the October E911 deadline. And the firm has seen fit to move beyond industry’s “education, not legislation” position on driver distraction. Verizon Wireless supports statewide bans on handheld cell-phone use, a posture now embraced by New York Gov. George Pataki.
The outlyers are an interesting bunch. No doubt, these declarations of independence can be self-serving. But they can also represent the voice of enlightenment.
