When Charles James took over as top trustbuster at the Justice Dept., he sent out signals he'd be plenty tough on Microsoft. He hired as his outside litigator and chief economist folks who would have made his Democratic predecessor, Joel Klein, proud. He kept on several Microsoft-bashers from among the career ranks at Justice. And in a brief filed in September with Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, he said the chasm between his department and the software giant was so vast that mediation would be pointless. Yet as three weeks of imposed mediation come to an end, he's beginning to look more and more like Bill Gates's new best friend. A tentative deal worked out between Justice and Microsoft is far from the tough medicine presaged by the unanimous D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the company ruthlessly extended its monopoly powers. Critics charge that the deal is a ``sell-out'' or ``capitulation.''
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