WASHINGTON -- As one of the longest-serving chairmen and members of the FCC, Michael Powell leaves a legacy fraught with contradiction. While he was at the helm of the agency, Powell earned a well-deserved reputation for glibness and a love of technology and brains, but he also was accused of arrogance, insensitivity and a lack of political acumen.

Powell, who was appointed as a minority commissioner by then-President Clinton in 1997 and elevated to chairman by President Bush in 2001, announced his resignation Friday. The son of outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell, he came into office with a deregulatory agenda and attempted to push through a series of rulings designed to make it easier for media companies to combine, ease the burden on companies that make Internet telephone technology and deregulate cable Internet services.

The 41-year-old former Army officer ran into controversy immediately after becoming chairman when his quick tongue got him into trouble. While making a point about technological migration, he tried to explain the gap known as the "digital divide" that falls between technological haves, who usually are well to do, and technological have-nots, who often are poor.

"I think there is a Mercedes divide. I would like to have one, but I can't afford one," he said during his first news conference.

Quips like that haunted him throughout his term, and many of his opponents on and off the commission used them to paint Powell as a pawn of the big businesses that run the various telecommunications industries.

"Michael Powell had the right goal: Expediting the introduction of advanced technologies," Media Access Project president Andrew Jay Schwartzman said. "He had the wrong mechanism: Letting the big boys do it. He was good at philosophy but bad at execution. He is a fine speechmaker but a poor politician."

Schwartzman won his case at the appellate level to overturn regulations approved by the FCC that eased most media-ownership regulations. That decision was a lightening rod for criticism as public-interest groups, lawmakers and even some media organizations opposed the changes. A federal appeals court in Philadelphia rejected them last year. Powell often said that the FCC should make decisions based on empirical evidence that could stand court muster, and on that score he so far has failed.

"To be fair to Powell, if that case had gone anywhere but the 3rd Circuit, it would have been upheld," one industry executive said, referring to the liberal nature of that panel. "But after that, he lost his nerve."

Powell also tangled with his fellow commissioners. He clashed not just with Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, but with fellow Republican Kevin Martin, who has been mentioned as a successor. Martin voted against Powell on a critical ruling requiring phone companies to share their infrastructure with competitors. That vote turned a Democratic minority into a majority on the five-member panel.

"He could do quantum physics, but he couldn't count to three," one communications lawyer said of Powell.

Despite Powell's political vote-counting problems, he was one of the most technologically savvy people ever to serve on the commission.

"He was among the smartest and most pro-technology chairs the agency has ever had," said Gigi B. Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a high-tech advocacy group.

Powell loved technological gadgets. More than one often hung from his belt, and he seemed most proud of his accomplishments in those areas. Decisions on Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) cq, freeing up unlicensed frequencies for things like WiFi and making it easier for power companies to offer video services topped his list of achievements. It was those highlights that he singled out in his statement announcing his departure, which will come in March.

"The seeds of our policies are taking firm root in the marketplace and are starting to blossom," he said. "The use of cell phones, digital televisions, personal video recorders and digital music players is exploding. These devices are increasingly connected anytime, anywhere by a wide variety of broadband networks enabling a host of competitive services and new applications. Our children will inherit this exciting future."

But even in praise, Sohn said Powell often overstepped.

"He sometimes allowed politics to get in the way of his pro-tech and deregulatory philosophy," Sohn said. "To the extent that we expect the next chair to share Mr. Powell's philosophy, we hope that he or she will apply that philosophy consistently, even at the risk of angering large, powerful media companies."

Technological innovation aside, the decisions for which Powell probably will be most remembered dealt with the oldest technology the commission regulates: broadcasting. His decision to crack down on indecent broadcasts on radio and television reverberated across the industry.

The crackdown accelerated after the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" during singer Janet Jackson's Super Bowl halftime performance last February. The FCC received more than 1 million indecency complaints last year in 2004, most of them involving Jackson. CBS is contesting a proposed FCC fine of $550,000 for the incident.

Fines for indecent programming exceeded $7.7 million last year, a huge increase from the $48,000 imposed the year before Powell became chairman. Powell has praised the record fines, saying the commission was "wielding our sword" to protect children and viewers who object to racy programming. The fines levied on shock jock Howard Stern drove him off local radio and onto satellite.

But it didn't start out that way. During the same news conference in which Powell uttered the words "Mercedes divide," he also said he didn't want "my government to become my nanny."

In his early days, he said he worried about five unelected people deciding what Americans should and should not see and hear.

"I cringe every time someone lets the KKK march down the center of your street and say stuff I find deeply offensive," he said. "Yet the First Amendment of the United States allows this. That is what the marketplace of ideas is."

Pressure -- not just from the right in Congress and among the public but from the left on the commission -- made him change course. Commissioners Copps and Adelstein were early anti-indecency proponents. Copps repeatedly jabbed Powell as being soft on the issue, saying the commission should start reviewing licenses over repeated violations. Republican commissioner Martin also wanted to go further, urging a return of the family hour.

"He started out as a First Amendment advocate, but he folded like a three-dollar accordion," one broadcaster said.

That change, more than any other, created animosity in an industry that in Washington chants the Republican deregulation mantra.

"That's the biggest disappointment," one industry executive said. "He didn't stand up for the First Amendment. Those decisions make no sense, and they reverse themselves every other day. It's got the entire broadcast system in an uproar. We don't know what can air and what can't. It's a sad commentary for free speech and the country."

Powell's decisions, however, aren't derided by everyone. Lawmakers and the Bush administration heaped praise on him.

"Chairman Powell was a courageous visionary while at the helm of the FCC," Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., said. "From aggressively tackling the tough issues of decency to deregulation, Powell never wavered in making the difficult decisions. I applaud his tireless efforts to wire America, and his bold approach to strip away regulatory burdens to spur competition and allow the marketplace to grow."

Upton chairs the House telecommunications subcommittee and was the primary author of legislation that would have increased the maximum fine for a broadcast license-holder from $27,500 to $500,000. Although the bill died in the last Congress, it is expected to re-emerge this year.

"Chairman Powell has been a valued member of the administration," White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said. "He has shown a strong commitment to expand the reach of new communications technologies and services and has helped advance the president's goal that all Americans should have access to affordable broadband by 2007."

Even Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Powell's most tenacious critic on media-ownership reforms in Congress, said his character couldn't be questioned.

"We've had our differences over issues like media ownership, but I respect chairman Powell's service, and I like him," he said. "I wish him the best in the future and look forward to working with his successor, who I hope will see things a little differently on the need for localism and diversified ownership of broadcasting stations."

Despite the criticisms, few people expect the direction of the commission to change when a new chairman is appointed. The GOP likes big business, and it is unlikely to give up on the indecency fight, either.

Aside from Martin, Becky Klein, a former head of the Texas Public Utility Commission; Michael Gallagher, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration; Janice Obouchowski, a telecommunications consultant who worked with Bush's father; and Pat Wood, the current chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, have been mentioned as possible successors.

No matter who gets the job, Powell will prove a tough act to follow.