Paul Begala connects the dots

via Atrios:

And the Democrats are going to have to point out that this is a classic Republican move, not a national security move. Big government is getting into bed with big business. We're talking about AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth. AT&T, by the way, wants to take over the Internet and start charging for access to the Internet, which Internet pioneers desperately oppose.

We need to grab this connection and not let go. As fortuitous as the timing of this story is relative to the Hayden nomination, it may be even more important in respect to net neutrality. I don't think the telcos are going to be able to get away with "trust me" right about now -- if we can make this connection stick.