It doesn’t get much better than this. Both Kate Sheppard and Pete Altman have uncovered a memo from the Chamber’s COO David Chavern today.  The memo was addressed to the President’s Advisory Group and National Account Members.  I doubt Mr. Chavern would have been so candid if he realized his audience would be so broad.  In any case, I’ve emailed him requesting a statement and will update here if/when he responds.

Kate writes:

In a memo to members obtained by Mother Jones, Chamber of Commerce Chief Operating Officer David Chavern urges members to ignore the national campaign against them, describing it simply as proof of the Chamber’s awesomeness.

Here is the highlight of the memo:

Please note that these calls against the Chamber are part of a broad-based, multi-source campaign against us being carried out by our normal adversaries – trial lawyers, activist unions, environmental extremists, etc. It is a “corporate campaign” in the classic sense, where interest groups are looking for public leverage to force us to do things against our members’ interests. (In fact, we are going to be sending you some additional information in the near future about the scope and objectives of this campaign.) Frankly, these efforts are simply the result of how effective we have been in opposing Card Check, as well as certain aspects of proposed healthcare, capital market and climate change legislation.

Here is the memo: