Is the Obama White House Developing an "Enemies List"?

The Latest Events Are Reminiscent of Richard Nixon's "List"

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) accused the White House last Wednesday of brawling with opponents and following Richard Nixon's infamous practice of creating an "enemies list". His comments were made after last weekend's and later comments by high level White House Staff that Fox News is not really a news organization but just a talk show and then later followed by an attempt to bar Fox News from attending a News Pool interview with the Fed's "Pay Czar", Kenneth Feinberg. Fortunately, other members of the pool refused to attend unless Fox News was given their turn. In addition, White House Staff has publicly criticized the US Chamber of Commerce recently and has even been accused of planning to "neuter the Chamber" for opposing a consumer protection agency and being against its health reform bill.

This is a pretty short list compared to what Richard Nixon built back in 1971. But it is interesting to look back and see what "Tricky Dick" did and where it took him.

White House Staffer, John Dean, at the behest of his superiors, sent the following memorandum to a Lawrence Higby, former assistant to then White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, then Richard Nixon's adviser for domestic affairs for their approval on Aug. 16, 1971, entitled "Dealing With Our Enemies".

"This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration. Stated a bit more bluntly--how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.

After reviewing this matter with a number of persons possessed of experience in the field, I have concluded that we do not need an elaborate mechanism or game plan, rather we need a good project coordinator and full support for the project. In brief, the system would work as follows:

-Key member of the staff (several named) could be requested to inform us as to whom they feel we should be giving a hard time.