Was Genachowski FCC nod a done deal pre-CES?

The Washington Post and other mainstream pubs reported yesterday that Obama transition team member Julius Genachowski is on tap for the new head of the FCC, but canny observers spotted an open bag and a leaping cat last Saturday at CES when CEA head Gary Shapiro cracked wise to ongoing chair Kevin Martin about giving Obama's old Harvard Law Review colleague "some advice."

Martin said that he'd tell Genachowski that "If you try to go back to some of the rules that were in place in, oh, 2001, you will depress the telecommunications industry. And you have to be prepared to make hard decisions." Observers of the civil liberties scene wonder if the "rules that were in place" include the restrictions against unauthorized wiretapping, but one supposes that the first crisis he's got on his hands would be the DTV switchover -- whether or not it happens as scheduled on February 17. (Martin stated at CES that he opposes any delay in the switch.)

A number of observers (me included) thought Genachowski might be bound for that CTO job the transition team still hasn't filled. But this is apt to be a good skill match, since Genachowski served as legal counsel to then-chair Reed Hundt during the Clinton administration. He's got a mighty impressive background -- he's the only guy on the planet who has worked for both Supreme Court Justice William Brennan and InterActive Corp. media mogul Barry Diller, and he founded LaunchBox Digital and Rock Creek Ventures, both of which assist
startups with getting their act together.

And somehow during his recent work putting together technology platform for Obama's transition team, he found time to blog. Not sure I'd want his job considering all the work ahead of the FCC this term, but I definitely would like some of whatever brand of coffee he's drinking.