Where on Earth Is Kevin Martin?

Cable World, July 8, 2002

Byline: ALICIA MUNDY

To vote or not to vote. That is the question.

All right, that's not exactly how Hamlet put it. But on the morning of June 13, Kevin Martin was doing his own version of the soliloquy, playing the deeply conflicted Prince of Denmark at the Federal Communications Commission. While the audience wasn't entirely enraptured, it was certainly attentive. The issue was the extension of the ten-year-old program access rules, and it should have been a routine roll call of the four commissioners. An extremely reliable cable reporter had already reliably reported that the majority would vote for those rules, which have helped make satellite TV the cable industry's competitor.

The vote began with an unusually strong dissent from Kathleen Abernathy, a Republican who had not broken ranks with Chairman Michael Powell at all in her first year. Next came Democrat Michael Copps, who supported the extension because he felt the DBS industry still needed this protection.

And then, almost as an afterthought, came Kevin Martin, the third Republican, the sure thing. But from the moment Martin opened his mouth, nothing was sure but the cold stare on Powell's face. To support or not support the rules - for several tense minutes, Martin outlined how he agonized over the decision, listing all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune weighing against the rules' retention. Congress had ordered them terminated; the Federal Appeals Court was demanding that the FCC be more specific when it decided a rule was "necessary." The FCC order wasn't following a high enough standard. "Specific evidence is needed to justify a conclusion that without the prohibition, competition and diversity in the distribution of video programming could not be preserved and protected," he said. By that time observers and the press were wondering whether Martin had gone south on Powell and produced an embarrassing 2-2 deadlock.

Wrapping up, Martin pronounced the matter "a very close call" and then anticlimactically voted for it. With that five-minute drum roll, Martin had definitely taken center stage away from the chairman.

Observers leaving the room huddled outside the chamber to ask "What is going on here?" As Shakespeare would have said, "Now that is the question."

These days there's a bit of friction up on the eighth floor of the Portals, the FCC's headquarters. The buzz is that Kevin Martin, the youngest and last commissioner appointed last year, is not filling the role of good GOP soldier on Lieutenant Powell's squad, and no one knows why.

Martin's surprising actions range from outright dissents to lengthy statements exquisitely detailing his disagreements with Powell to a new and weird alliance with the only Democrat on the commission. Taken together, they have served up a feast of factionalism to the media and the denizens of the Portals.

What's driving Martin? There is no shortage of speculation - he's crazy; he wants to stake out his own turf; he has ideological differences with Powell; he's leaning liberal; he's defending the one, true Republican telecom policy (deregulation); he's been taken in by Copps, playing the role of Tonto to Copps's Lone Ranger; and, finally, he's ambitious and needs to stand out in this crowd if he's going to go other places.

What to make of that speculation? Crazy? Hey, in the end, everyone on that eighth floor eventually needs psychiatric counseling. Next, Martin can't be both a closet socialist and the one, true Republican up there. As for ideological differences, that would imply a certain consistency to his recent actions, which simply does not exist.

"I'm not staking out my territory," Martin said in an interview. "In every area [Powell and I] agree the vast majority of the time. Individual members of the commission may diverge on policy issues from time to time, but I think we all get along very well...but there's going to be times when we differ on policy."

Powell himself is downplaying any dissension with a fellow Republican. "Serious debate is how we reach our very best decisions at the commission," he said recently. "I not only welcome such debate, I encourage it."

Unfortunately, there hasn't been much debate between Martin and Powell on issues, just reaction to style and to the overwhelming power of the chairmanship of the FCC. This leads to the final suspicion, fueled, it should be noted, by supporters of Martin affiliated with the White House. It goes like this: This is part of a strategy to secure his future. Is Martin ambitious? Well, if Cassius had a lean and hungry look, there are moments when Martin seems downright anorexic.

"Martin's being very strategic right now," said an industry lobbyist who once worked on the eighth floor but who would not speak for attribution. "He's not dissenting in ways the right wing can complain about. He is acting independently, but being careful not to be seen as an ideological threat to the GOP agenda."

Meanwhile, the division inside the FCC may not be supersized yet, but it has given the most loquacious lobbyists and lawyers laryngitis. Some are concerned that if they say something innocuous about Martin's skill as a legal mind - he is one smart cookie - they also must proffer a pleasantry about Powell, whom they also admire. It's easier to hide, and that's what most of the usual suspects did. The rift is even beginning to appear on the radar screen in some offices in the White House. Naturally, no one there would comment on the record, but it's rumored that President Bush said he would rather undergo a colonoscopy than address this little tempest.