The short story is that running ARD (Apple Remote Desktop) Client is the culprit that is stealing the key sequence.
I don't know why ARD steals the key sequence, but turning it off (System Preference - under Sharing) eliminates this problem for me.
I open System Preferences, untick ARD sharing in the sharing prefpane, quit System Preferences, Relaunch TextMate, and it still doesn't work when I hit ⌃⎋.
Have you rebooted/logged out after turning it off or anything?
I'd like to run the ARD client, so if anyone knows how to have the ARD client run without it stealing the crtl-esc key sequence, I'd like to hear about it.
Possibly submit this as a bug to apple: http://developer.apple.com/ bugreporter/
Caius ____________________________________
Caius Durling UK Student tel: +44 (0) 7746 746039 email: inemo@mac.com nemo8686@mac.com web: http://caius.name/ http://qwert.us/ ____________________________________