The halls of the senate were no place for the faint of heart last week. Inside committee rooms, senators sparred in dignified debate on what may prove to be the most important economic legislation of the 1990s: a bill that's supposed to unleash a dogfight for access to every phone and television set in America. Outside, though, dignity barely contained greed. While the politicians talked about deregulation, the hired guns of broadcasters, phone companies, TV networks and cellular-phone purveyors were dealing frantically for dollars. Pacing the anterooms, they grabbed the sleeve of any Senate aide wandering near, proffering amendments, proposing compromises and pushing for an edge in the reshaping of the $400 billion-a-year telecommunications business.
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