Senate Raises An Eyebrow At Google-Yahoo Deal, But Waves It Through (GOOG, YHOO)

We still don't have a good sense of whether the Feds are really serious about slowing down or stopping the Google/Yahoo search deal. But now we know one thing -- the US Senate won't be getting in the way of the deal. Reuters:

Sen. Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat and chair of the antitrust subcommittee, did not urge that the deal be blocked, saying on Thursday his panel was not privy to "confidential business information supplied by the companies to the department."

But he added that "should the amount of advertising outsourced by Yahoo to Google grow significantly, we believe the threat to competition will also increase."

He urged the department to step in "if, over time, you determine that Google is gaining a dominant market position as a result of the Google-Yahoo agreement."

It's this kind of manuever -- wagging your finger disapprovingly without actually doing anything -- that makes Washington-bashing so easy for certain politicians who would like to be sent to Washington.

Image via Danny Sullivan