A few days ago FCC Chair Julius Genachowski suggested that the administration was seriously considering abandoning the president’s uncompromising pledge to enforce net neutrality. Some suggested at the time that the comments had the vague odor of trial balloon about them. If so, the president found out, quickly and unequivocally, what folks thought. Some reasoned, some entreated, while others of us nard-stomped for all we were worth.

If, in fact, Obama was using Genachowski to test the waters, the conclusion had to be that it’s full of alligators. So today, it looks like the administration might complete the 360:

FCC to Overhaul Regulation of Internet Lines

WASHINGTON–Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has decided to reregulate Internet lines to protect net neutrality, siding with consumer groups and Internet companies worried that Internet providers have too much power.On Wednesday, Mr. Genachowski’s staff began briefing the FCC’s commissioners on how they will propose to regulate Internet lines under rules that were written for traditional phone networks. Some of those rules won’t be applied to Internet networks, FCC officials say, but others will be used to enforce net neutrality, or regulations that require Internet providers to treat traffic equally and not slow or block websites.

If this is in fact the course the administration intends to pursue, we applaud them. It’s a shame that they can’t be counted on to do the right thing for the right reasons. It’s discouraging that they can’t be trusted to do what they said they were going to do without jacking us around. But it does provide a valuable object lesson.

This is why some of us are so quick to reach for the whip where BarryO is concerned. The only thing he seems to respond to is pressure, and the more the better. This is the mistake that progressives made in the health care battle. The insurance industry and its hired Congressweasels (Dem and Republican) brought the house, beginning before the game even started. The progressives played like good children and got the hell kicked out of them.

The progressive caucus could have stopped the show, but they didn’t. So now maybe the lesson is clear: when you want something out of Obama, beat him like a rented mule and keep on flogging until the ink is dry.