As your friendly neighborhood FiOS salesperson likely informed you, Time Warner Cable and Comcast are readying to birth one giant miserable cable company with Comcast's recent $45 billion acquisition of TWC. But before this multimedia Rosemary's Baby inflicts its pain and presumable 8 hour installation windows upon the world the deal has to be approved by the monopoly watchers in Congress, and it looks like one of the acquisition's biggest champions won't be there to cheer it on; Senator Chuck Schumer has had to recuse himself from weighing in on the merger after it was revealed his brother was one of the deal's top attorneys.
Apparently, an article in American Lawyer on Friday named Paul Weiss attorney Robert Schumer "Dealmaker of the Week" for helping close Comcast's TWC acquisition. It just so happens that Schumer's big brother is Senator Schumer, who has voiced support for the deal, so, naturally a few eyebrows have been raised.
A spokesperson from the elder Schumer's office claimed the Senator had no idea his kid brother was involved with the deal, and he'll stay mum on the subject from now on. "As Senator Schumer and his brother had never discussed the matter before, the piece in American Lawyer was the first Senator Schumer learned that his brother had worked on the deal," spokesman Max Young said in a statement. "Now that he’s aware of his brother’s involvement, Senator Schumer will recuse himself from Congressional consideration of the matter to avoid any appearance of bias."
So, that's that. T-minus nine to 12 months until Kabletown snatches Netflix away from us and forces Pat Kiernan to shave off his hair and read Milton Friedman aloud onscreen.
