DeWine’s bark is not enough, critics assert: Senator called soft on mergers

From Cleveland Plain Dealer:

[DeWine] gained a reputation in the late 1990s as a champion of competition and consumer choice - an appropriate position for his role as chairman of a Senate antitrust subcommittee.

Yet, DeWine's accomplishments on that front have slipped, according to a review of his second-term record and interviews with consumer-rights leaders who say that these days, the man who should be Congress' top watchdog rarely bites.

"The watchdog has turned into a lap dog," says Rep. Sherrod Brown, the Avon Democrat hoping to deny DeWine a third term in November.

Such an attack is expected from a political foe. However, consumer advocates also say DeWine, a Republican, is too passive, letting potentially anti-competitive mergers sail by without scrutiny. Records show DeWine's subcommittee, which was aggressive and sometimes antagonistic when run by his predecessor, Democrat Howard Metzenbaum, has cut back its oversight hearings.

...since DeWine's re-election that year, he has appeared less aggressive. DeWine spokesman Mike Dawson says that's because Judiciary Committee work related to 9/11, intelligence and the FBI, as well as appellate and Supreme Court confirmations, have taken up time and staff that otherwise would be spent on antitrust.

The problem is, mergers, acquisitions and potentially predatory business activity have taken no holiday.

Critics say it's noticeable in DeWine's oversight of telecommunications mergers. The number of major companies providing communications and entertainment has dropped dramatically while DeWine has run the subcommittee, with five corporations -- Time Warner, Disney, News Corp., Bertelsmann and Viacom -- dominating radio and television, movie studios and publishing, say media critics. Although the Senate subcommittee created a furor over EchoStar and DirecTV in 2002, that merely involved "a niche video market," says Brian Moir, an attorney who used to work on antitrust issues in the House.

"Yet we have huge monopolies of the major players that have content ownership" and that control cable TV, Moir says. "Sometimes they'll make a big deal out of a niche market and then take a powder on a big market."

Moir represents companies that use vast sources of computerized information -- "more data than we ever imagined, and that's what makes cutting-edge companies work," he says. But when the data gets to the factories and offices where it is needed, too often it can get in only one way: through the lines of a telephone company that is, essentially, a local monopoly.

And for that, Congress is partly to blame -- including DeWine, because, Moir says, "he does hold the gavel."

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06/19/2006 / Permalink / 2006, DeWine, (all tags)

Brown Responds to Bush Fundraiser for DeWine

LORAIN COUNTY -- Congressman Sherrod Brown (D-Lorain County) responded to President Bush's Indian Hill fundraiser this evening for Mike DeWine.

"President Bush is in Ohio tonight to thank Mike DeWine for his vote on the Medicare privatization bill written by the drug companies, his vote on the energy bill written by the oil companies, and his support for privatizing Social Security," said Brown. "But when I travel across the state, Ohioans thank me for fighting on the other side of every one of those issues."

Brown is returning home to Lorain County today after a statewide tour earlier this week. He met with senior citizens, students, teachers, workers, and labor and community leaders.

02/23/2006 / Permalink / Bush, DeWine, (all tags)

Media ignore differences in DeWine surveillance proposals

From Media Matters for America:

Despite multiple reports on the subject, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press have ignored several important issues concerning a proposal by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) to resolve any potential legal problems involving the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program by crafting legislation that would exempt the program from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

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02/21/2006 / Permalink / DeWine, (all tags)