(FORTUNE Magazine) – Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole promised to get the telecommunications deregulation bill, which would let cable TV operators and local and long-distance telephone companies duke it out in the marketplace, on the President's desk by Christmas. Well, maybe next Christmas.

A legislative conference committee is laboring to resolve differences in the House and Senate versions. Staffers don't expect a bill before February, but once primary season begins, politics will take precedence. So various factions in the industry are lobbying furiously, if curiously, to shape and move the legislation.

Bill Clinton is still threatening a veto. The president claims the proposals would let the Baby Bells into the long-distance business before they themselves face real competition and give cable TV companies license to gouge. Clinton can't lose by killing a bill that might raise cable rates.

Even Dole, who supports the bill, might have electorally inspired second thoughts. According to telecom policy analyst Bradley Stillman of the Consumer Federation of America, which opposes the bill, Senator Dole is impatient with the legislative logjam, but candidate Dole might embrace it. Why? Campaign money. He might need to court Baby Bells and long-distance companies for his war chest, and, says Stillman, "The longer the delay in making a decision, the easier it will be for him to collect money from both sides."

The long-distance powers are trying to protect their industry with especially inventive lobbying. AT&T, MCI, and Sprint lack the arm-twisting torque of the Baby Bells, which have offices in every congressional district. So they hired a telemarketing company to help simulate--er, stimulate--a grassroots campaign by reaching out and touching a lot of people, phoning them and then sending telegrams on their behalf to Congress.

Problem is, some of the people the telemarketer reached out and touched were dead, which presumably makes communication with Congress difficult. Thousands more actual living persons unknowingly had telegrams sent without their consent. No criminal charges will be filed. And no bill will be forth-coming anytime soon. Says David Yedwab of telecom consultant Eastern Management Group: "Nobody's demanding this bill except for the people in the industry." And come next year, they don't count.

--Andrew Kupfer