KOHL MAY BE KEY TO INTERNET NEUTRALITY

Herb Kohl does not face a lot of political pressure this year.

The three-term senator is running for re-election against a Democrat
primary challenger best known as the organizer of the Great Midwest
Marijuana Harvest Festival and Weedstock, a Republican who couldn't
muster 5 percent of the vote in his own party's Senate primary two
years ago, a Libertarian who couldn't get enough signatures to
qualify for the ballot, and a Green who is mounting an impressive
campaign but will never be able to match the campaign spending of the
wealthy Kohl.

So the question is not whether Kohl will be scared into doing the
right thing on any particular issue.

The question is whether he will be persuaded.

Anyone who has ever talked with him knows that Kohl takes issues
seriously. But he is a confirmed moderate whose career has been
defined by caution - and, of course, by the fact that he is a very
wealthy man who can and does fully finance his own campaigns.

What persuades him? More often than not, a desire to do what's best
for Wisconsin.

And what's best for Wisconsin is an Internet that serves rural and
urban areas, rich and poor, young and old with equal quality and
equal access to all of the technology's promise.

Today, media reform activists will attempt to get the senator to
recognize this fact.

The message of those who visit Kohl's office will be that Wisconsin
and the rest of the country need an Internet defined by the free flow
of ideas and genuine competition.

Internet users in Wisconsin and across the country are concerned that
the telecommunications bill pending in the Senate represents a
massive giveaway to cable and telephone conglomerates that want to
establish monopoly - or cartel - control of Internet service in
communities such as Madison, Milwaukee, Mellen and Manitowoc. If the
corporate giants get their way, the most fundamental consumer
protection - the network neutrality requirement that currently
ensures equal access to all sites on the Internet - will be lost. And
with it will go the vision of the Internet as a tool for
democratizing communications and opening up the public discourse.

Kohl, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee's
Subcommittee for Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights,
can play a critical role in the debate. Indeed, his reputation as a
moderate who works with Republicans could make him one of - if not
the - most essential Democrats in the looming fight. As of now, Kohl
has not taken a stand on the telecommunications legislation in
general or on the particular question of Internet neutrality.

Activists were to visit his downtown Madison office today to ask that
their senator join their fight to save the Internet. They want Herb
Kohl to use his position and his influence in the Senate to defend
the Internet that still holds so much promise for rural and urban
Wisconsin, for honest debate and for American democracy. They won't
scare him into doing the right thing, but let's hope they can persuade him.