"In 2004 and 2005, when my husband was still an equity partner, I assumed that I would have a financial interest in FTC matters in which Jones Day represented a party and recused myself in such matters," Deborah wrote today. This fact was even used as information in the petition filed by EPIC, so it wasn't as if she was running around with a big secret she wasn't telling. Furthermore, as is laboriously explained in the rebuttal on the FTC website, the type of participation her husband has at Jones Day means that other than a flat salary, there is no financial incentive for anyone at the FTC to rule in favor of a Jones Day client. This issue would never come up for DoubleClick, though, as Jones Day (as noted in the comments previously here at Mashable) only represents them on European matters.
I've never particularly closely followed Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) prior to this case, although I've certainly seen their name come up quite a bit in reference to privacy matters in the past. The association that more respectable groups like the EFF have had in their push for stupid and over-reaching governmental interference like the "do-no-track" list has caused my opinion of not only EPIC but the EFF to drop dramatically (not to mention the oft-repeated query: "Where was the EFF on Project Beacon?").
For some reason, there has been an all out witch hunt on Google and DoubleClick on this union, by non-profits as well as House Republicans. I'll admit to sometimes having Google-fanboy tendencies, but in my mind, the love I show for them is well-earned. In matters of privacy, they have shown pretty decent restraint and pro-activity in terms of protecting that data from prying eyes (both governmental and corporate). Why these groups of technology neophytes throwing are their weight around to stop this transaction is beyond me. For all their foibles, Google is the most responsible data protector we have in the technology-marketing space, presently.
I, and I suspect many others, would be fairly upset if Microsoft or Facebook suddenly became the industry leader in terms of private data held and marketing dollars made of and on the denizens of the Internet.