Lobbyists for big cable and phone companies like AT&T and Comcast are circulating a letter in Congress, targeting Blue Dogs and the Congressional Black Caucus, asking them to sign on in opposition to net neutrality and the FCC’s recent announcement that they’ll reclassify broadband services to they can protect the Internet.

The letter, which I’ve obtained [pdf], contains the usual telecom lies that protecting net neutrality -  a policy that is current tradition in this country and is just recently being violated by the telecom companies – would somehow cost us jobs or investment in Internet infrastructure. It then tries to convince the FCC that Internet services are more appropriate as "information services" as opposed to "telecommunications services," which the FCC is going to classify them as.

The letter skirts the core issue – if Internet services are left classified as "information services" then the FCC has no power to protect consumers according to the recent court ruling that started this round of lobbying. Any member of Congress that signs the letter is essentially saying it’s ok to leave the Internet completely in the hands of Comcast and AT&T and the other big telecoms, with no recourse for consumers if those companies, say, decide to start blocking access to blogs that are critical of their policies.

It’s likely that the lobbyists are targeting the members of Congress who signed onto a letter last fall against net neutrality for this letter, including 72 Democrats. The full whip list from the last letter is available here. After signifigant netroots pressure, some of the past signers dropped off that last letter.

To counter, Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA) is circulating his own letter [pdf] supporting the FCC strong decision and busting some of the telecom myths surrounding reclassifcation. In the coming weeks, pressure will need to be applied to Congress to get signers to this letter and support the FCC’s position.

And this all comes within a huge, crazy, astroturf/tea-bagger push against net neutrality. Members of Congress should know everyone on the Internet is watching their moves. If they sign on to the lobbyist letter against net neutrality, they’ll be showing us who’s side they’re on.