Qwest is the single largest donor to both conventions' "Host Committees" - the soft money sinkholes that the FEC foolishly deemed to be exempt from campaign finance regulations - at $6 million a pop.  Six million dollars from one company. AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast are all among the host committees' major donors, putting the total telecom tab at somewhere in the ballpark of $10 million per convention (no disclosure is required for the Host Committees).  No other industry appears similarly invested.

The host committee contributions buy the biggest access packages - dozens of tickets to the convention itself, private receptions and social outings to rub elbows with leading lawmakers.  You don't see that stuff unless you're part of it, but all these elements reinforce each other - the neck bands, the parties, the schmoozing at lavish receptions around town - and quietly change the way decisions get made in this country.

Why care?  Because the telecoms know that they've got a ton at stake in 2009, as do the American people.  A free and open internet has become a critical component of our economy and our culture, yet the telecoms want to do away with "net neutrality" and create high- and low-speed lanes of traffic on the internet.  It means profits for them, but it also means that a company like Chevron can pay the fee to make its site load quickly while an organization like Oil Change International loses traffic because its website loads slowly.  It means that Google, YouTube and Craigslist might never have developed because they started as big ideas on a tiny budget.

The telecoms have collectively spent $50 million in lobbying and campaign contributions in Congress since 2000.  They're making their voices heard like never before.  And we're watching all that money and effort being further reinforced here in Denver.

So will we keep the internet free, open, and democratic for the future?  I hope so.  We're working on it, with lots of great allies.  But at this convention - and throughout the year - the telecoms are funding the political system and winning greater and greater access to lawmakers.

Most folks who attend the parties or wear the Qwest lanyards or meet the industry lobbyists will say that it doesn't change their mind.  Heck, when a couple bloggers from Firedoglake and Salon asked attendees of an AT&T-sponsored party earlier this week why they were there, none of them could even muster a real response.  But that's not the idea.  It's not about winning people over.  It's wearing them down.  It's getting them to see AT&T and Verizon and the others as their friends, or at least someone who did them a good turn--remember that spread and the open bar?--and being willing to hear them out or cut a better deal when it comes to policy-making time.  It won't affect everyone the same, but these things affect people.

And the end result is that the industry and its lobbyists tilt the playing field ever so slightly in their own favor.  It signals to the public that access comes at a price and injures the trust in our public institutions.  It corrodes democracy.  And unless we start changing this system--closing the convention loophole, passing public financing, engaging more citizens in the fight for a free media and a fair and open democracy--it will continue to tilt our democracy away from the public interest.