The IT people at CoM decided against Microsoft because, in commentator David Wheeler's words: 'If you choose Microsoft's XML format, you have decided against open competition, in perpetuity. A na've reader might not realize this, but Massachusetts has been researching this issue for a long time, and has learned that the details matter.'

Soon after the announcement when Microsoft's XML found itself out in the cold, the CoM IT people responsible were hauled in front of a senate committee, where, amongst other displays of pretended ignorance, the head senator in charge displayed a touching and almost believable na'vet' about how lobbying works (this was before Representative Randy Cunningham pleaded guilty to bribe charges).

When counsel for the hapless IT department, Linda Hamel, described how all opposition to ODF had come from Microsoft-funded front groups, Senator Pacheco responded with: 'So you are saying Citizens against Government Waste or Americans for Tax Reform are a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft? Is that what you are saying?'

Naturally, she did not say that. I urge you to read the entire hearing if you want to see what Microsoft-sponsored bullying looks like. But if Pacheco thinks Microsoft does not lobby, then he is misinformed. Microsoft's budget for lobbying eclipsed even Enron's in 2002, and the company has been so successful at it that even the dead wrote letters to the Feds back in 2001, asking them to go easy during the anti-trust trial.

It is all too convenient, methinks. The IT guys go with ODF, Microsoft leaves itself out of contention, and then the CoM staff suddenly get hauled in front of a senate committee for supposedly violating some obscure procedures (which, actually, they did not).