The Bush Administration punishes Democrat backers

The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meets three times a year in
various cities across the Americas to discuss such dry but important issues as
telecommunications standards and spectrum regulations.

At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected for the
meeting have been bumped by the White House because they supported John Kerry's
2004 campaign.

The State Department has traditionally put together a list of industry
representatives for these meetings, and anyone in the U.S. telecom industry who
had the requisite expertise and wanted to go was generally given a slot, say
past participants.

The White House admits as much: "We wanted people who would
represent the Administration positively, and--call us nutty--it seemed like
those who wanted to kick this Administration out of town last November would
have some difficulty doing that," says White House spokesman Trent Duffy.

Those barred from the trip include employees of Qualcomm and Nokia,
two of the largest telecom firms operating in the U.S., as well as Ibiquity, a
digital-radio-technology company in Columbia, Md. One nixed participant, who has
been to many of these telecom meetings and who wants to remain anonymous, gave
just $250 to the Democratic Party.

From the May. 02, 2005 issue of TIME magazine