A New Era of Dirty Tricks by the Right Wing - Nixon Era Redux?

The more things change, the more they remain... insane.
Michael Fry and T. Lewis,
Over the Hedge,
05-09-04

According to the American Bar Association, in their Law Journal in an article

Law Firms
E-Mails Suggest Law Firm Considered ‘Dirty-Tricks’ Plan to Discredit Chamber Critics
Posted Feb 15, 2011 7:40 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The Hunton & Williams law and lobbying firm considered proposals from three data security contractors to undermine opponents of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, according to e-mail released by hackers angered by the CEO of one of the security firms. 

The Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post have stories on the e-mails, first revealed last week by the liberal blog ThinkProgress. According to the Post, the e-mails reveal plans for a “dirty-tricks-style campaign” against Chamber critics. The security firms, which called themselves “Team Themis,” hoped to win a $2 million Chamber contract with their proposals.

Hunton & Williams declined to comment when contacted by the Washington Post. According to ThinkProgress, the law firm earned $1.1 million from the Chamber in 2009.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. Chamber is denying everything, even talking about doing this, emphatically; although the emails suggest the contrary is true.

The Chamber said in a statement that it never requested such a plan, nor was it discussed with anyone at the Chamber. However, some of the e-mails apparently refer to contacts made with Chamber personnel, according to the stories. One e-mail refers to a demonstration session that “sold the Chamber” and another discusses briefing the Chamber on results that could get the organization to “pony up the cash for Phase II,” according to the Washington Post.

The e-mails show that Hunton & Williams first began discussing the proposals with Team Themis last fall. One proposal e-mailed to two Hunton &; Williams lawyers suggests giving anti-Chamber groups a false document that could later be exposed as a fake. The proposals also suggest launching cyber-attacks.

Then we veer into Wikileaks and Julian Assange territory, or at least,  wikileaks inspired.  (Are we entering a new age of hacker heroes - or at least, heroic anti-heroes?):

Hackers obtained the e-mails after breaking into the computers of one of the security firms, HBGary Federal. The hackers were angered after HBGary Federal's chief executive said he had identified leaders of the hackers’ group and he would sell the information to Bank of America, thought to be a target of WikiLeaks. GBGary Federal declined to comment to the Post, while the other two security firms released statements distancing themselves from the project.

For those of you who are wondering where the name 'team Themis' might come from, let me save you wear and tear on your search engine of choice; if you aren't a mythology buff, it offers some insight into the motives and thought processes (such as they are) of these right wingers who apparently have failed to learn the Nixon lessons of history.
 
According to the good ol' Wikipedia entry on Themis:

Themis (Greek: Θέμις) is an ancient Greek Titan. She is described as "of good counsel", and is the embodiment of divine order, law, and custom. Themis means "divine law" rather than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the verb τίθημι, títhēmi, "to put". To the ancient Greeks she was originally the organizer of the "communal affairs of humans, particularly assemblies".

The ability of the goddess Themis to foresee the future enabled her to become one of the Oracles of Delphi, which in turn led to her establishment as the goddess of divine justice.



Ashcroft in front of
the DoJ statue of
Themis / Justice



That would be the same figure of Justice that AG Ashcroft was embarrassed to do news conferences in front of, until some $8,000 worth of drapery was provided to cover her naked breasts. Themis was a word that was not only a name for a Greek goddess figure (Justitia was the Roman version) but it meant a certain societal and cultural standard, what 'was and was not done'.
 I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees the humor in that, but I suspect that 'Team Themis' missed the meaning entirely, or grandiosely believed that they were somehow by this name representing how they were above and beyond the reach of the law the rest of us mere mortals have to obey.  Apparently on the Right decency is only about not having naked classical statutes of the human form (divine in this case); but dirty tricks, cyber attacks and fake documents to discredit are perfectly allowable.

It makes sense that idiots like Glenn Beck see conspiracies everywhere; it is because at least some on the Right are perfectly willing to engage in them apparently, having failed to learn the lessons of history and dirty tricks from the Nixon era.  (Tricky Dicky thought he was perfectly justified - and above the law - as well.)

It begs the question, what else don't we know that is waiting to be uncovered.  I'm not persuaded this is a one-off (allegedly) or that it is specific only to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (allegedly) either.  Somebody tell Beck!  The enemy is not his silly one world order or an Islamic Caliphate; it's the U.S. Chamber of Commerce! (allegedly)  Apart from it being appalling, it's kind of funny.