Former FCC chief describes life as a political appointee

If you want the real story about life as a political appointee, you have to wait until the appointee resigns.

Enter Reed Hundt, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1993 to 1997. He spills the story of his tenure at the agency in a new book, You Say You Want a Revolution: A Story of Information Age Politics.

While Hundt's book chronicles the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, it also details the ups, downs, ins and outs of life as a political appointee. "Even when the path is clear, political journeys are torturous. My experience in public service was a battle, but exhilarating and rewarding," he writes.

During Hundt's tenure at the FCC, the agency was given the power to introduce competition to communications markets. Hundt details the lobbying, deal-making and decision processes that led to such reform.

Along the way, he also describes:

• Nomination politics:
  "Not only did I have no new or old answers, I could scarcely describe the issues. The White House staff assured me, however, that the confirmation process is when the nominee does not reveal the answer to any question."
• Newcomer's naivete:
  "I believed that, regardless of party labels, we at the commission would take our decisions judiciously, with a minimum of partisanship. I assumed that, as a career advocate, I could persuade the others to adopt my point of view, such as it might be on a given issue."
• The welcome wagon:
  "The FCC career staffers swaddled us in details, acronyms, procedural requirements [and] legal prohibitions. They told us little of the commission's inner workings. Their reticence suggested distrust."
• Congress' tactics:
  "To this end, they could pass laws, shrink our budget, abuse us in hearings, conduct investigations, berate us in public."