Obama to Name Tom Wheeler, a Former Lobbyist, to Head FCC

It's interesting what the headline chooses to mention. He was a lobbyist from 1979-1984, but he's also a venture capitalist and entrepreneur who has founded multiple telecommunications companies: "Mr. Wheeler is a managing director at Core Capital Partners, a Washington investment firm with $350 million under management. He has helped to oversee the firm’s investments in an array of start-ups and small- to mid-size technology companies, including GoMobo, Twisted Pair Solutions and Jacked. He also is a member of the board of EarthLink, an Internet service provider that competes aggressively with Verizon and AT&#38;T." (From the NYT article).<p>The NYT article is a bit better: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/business/technology-investor-is-reported-choice-for-fcc.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/business/technology-invest...</a><p>Forbes has more info: <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/thomas-wheeler" rel="nofollow">http://www.forbes.com/profile/thomas-wheeler</a>.<p>BusinessWeek has a more complete profile: <a href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=533926&#38;privcapId=751092&#38;previousCapId=174438&#38;previousTitle=TARGET%20CORP" rel="nofollow">http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/pe...</a><p>He has a blog/website: <a href="http://www.mobilemusings.net" rel="nofollow">http://www.mobilemusings.net</a>.

Here's the story at the LA Times, which is not behind a paywall:<p><i>Obama to nominate venture capitalist Thomas Wheeler to head FCC</i><p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fcc-wheeler-20130501,0,213730.story" rel="nofollow">http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fcc-wheeler-20130501,0...</a>

This notion that each industry knows best how to regulate itself keeps ending us up in one disaster after another.

They told me that if I voted for Mitt Romney that lobbyists would be put in charge of the internet.

Does being a former lobbyist make him inherently evil, though? I'm no fan of lobbying from any aspect, but it's shallow to judge his priorities off of this one piece of his career -- especially with the article highlighting his history in favor of the government regulating telecom.

Hope. Change. Flushed.