Clinton Chief On Colombian Payroll Now Strategizing On Free Trade Deal

Ten months ago, I posed a very simple question right on this site: Can the Clinton machine deliver another NAFTA? I noted at the time that an army of former Clinton administration officials had been put on the Colombian government payroll to push a NAFTA-style free trade deal. These people -- many waiting to get back into government should Hillary Clinton win -- are making up to $100,000 a month from a murderous right-wing regime that is one of the worst human rights violators in the Western Hemisphere. Now, today, we see how high up the Clinton machine this corruption really goes.

Here's the Wall Street Journal's report today:

"Hillary Clinton's chief campaign strategist met with Colombia's ambassador to the U.S. on Monday to discuss a bilateral free-trade agreement, a pact the presidential candidate opposes. Attendance by the adviser, Mark Penn, was confirmed by two Colombian officials. He wasn't there in his campaign role, but in his separate job as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, an international communications and lobbying firm. The firm has a contract with the South American nation to promote congressional approval of the trade deal, among other things, according to filings with the Justice Department...A spokesman for Colombia's President Álvaro Uribe said the ambassador met with Mr. Penn to discuss the bilateral agenda. ..The spokesman said he didn't know if Mr. Penn was representing Sen. Clinton or Burson-Marsteller, which signed a $300,000, one-year contract with the Colombian Embassy in March 2007 to work on behalf of the trade deal and anti-drug-trafficking initiatives, according to the Justice Department filings." (emphasis added)

So there you have it -- the person running a major American presidential campaign is simultaneously on the payroll of a foreign government pushing a bill that the next president would have to confront. And what's truly telling about this is the part about the Colombian government not knowing whether Penn was representing the Clinton campaign or his business clients. Put another way, the two interests are apparently so similar, there's almost no discernible difference -- even to the foreign government lining Penn's pocket. Clinton for President is the same thing as Burson-Marsteller for President, with Mark Penn as the Secretary of State-in-waiting.

There was a whole media storm over Barack Obama's economic adviser meeting with the Canadian government. That storm erupted even though the story was leaked by a right-wing, pro-NAFTA government, and even though we have no idea what was said in that meeting. We will see if a bigger media storm erupts over the Clinton-Colombia connection, considering money is changing hands, and also considering Colombia is a far cry from Canada when it comes to human rights. It's one thing to meet with Canadian officials, it's another thing to be on the payroll of a government that is one of the murderous in the entire hemisphere.

The fact that this disgusting Clinton-Colombia pay-to-play relationship is happening, and nobody -- not the media, not rival campaigns, nobody -- has said a thing about it for almost a year shows just how rampant the culture of corruption is in Washington.

For more on Colombia's record, see this post I did yesterday refuting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (which, of course, is trying to ram the Colombia agreement through Congress).

UPDATE: I forgot about this self-righteous nugget from Clinton during the Obama-Canada flap as reported by the Tribune:

Peering at the 50 or so reporters packed into a small hotel conference room here, [Clinton] added: "I would ask you to look at this story and substitute my name for Sen. Obama's name and see what you would do with this story... Just ask yourself [what you would do] if some of my advisers had been having private meetings with foreign governments."

I guess we will see what the media will do...

Comments

[atila]

thank you...this is very serious...­we are talking here about the most dangerous country for union activists.­....Alvaro Uribe is the Bush closest partner in South America and he is known as a reppresor and is tied to drug cartels...­.this is not just a wink wink because even Bill Clinton has a very close relationship with this government­.....

[lisakaz]

There is so much crap from Camp Clinton I guess the msm can't keep up. Yeah, that's the ticket. Will they say anything about Penn? It seems to me he's part of her campaign because she would have a "change of heart" if elected and, screw the ppl, would push the deal thru.

[usapatriot1973]

And yet the middle class, blue collar workers in Ohio and Pennsylvania are foolish enough to think that Hillary Clinton will not wholeheartedly support trade agreements that are harmful to their own interests. Not to say that Obama will be any different, but all Clinton has done is pay lip service to the plight of the unemployed while reaping the windfalls of the typical corporate whore.

Side note: Watching Bill Maher last night and he had asked Arlen Specter why he thought the polls were about even between McCain and either of the two democratic candidates. The obvious and correct answer is that just as they have done over the past several presidential elections, the democrats have picked candidate from the bottom of the barrel. If Clinton gets the nomination, they will be continuing that track record. If Obama gets the nod, then it will be the second worst choice. It's no wonder that McCain is able to compete with these two. Rest assured that if people had not been foolish enough to play into the media's game and supported the best candidate, Edwards, he would be ahead in the polls by miles.

[GoodbyeKitty]

Hillary supporters:

Had enough yet?

Or are you going to be like the Bushies and stay the course no matter how criminal and corrupt it becomes?

[poco767]

Links to this story have been removed from Foxnews, Abc, Msnbc, CBS websites. CNN have a link on their politics page.
Now I am not a paranoid man but is this not odd? The story hasn't been bumped for more interesting or better news, it appears to have been hidden.

[simplify]

Thank you for reporting this. Its no coincidence that Mark Penn is part of this free trade deal and someone should force it on the media somehow. This needs to get to the main stream media.

[SLone08]

This isn't being talked about AT ALL on CNN or MSNBC this morning...

[Charmed]

I noticed that also......­..I've been waiting on the news about it but still there is nothing. Another reason why I will be glad when the primaries are over.

[scooperss]

This will be used against her if she wins the nomination. Then it will be presented by the MSM as proof that she speaks out of both sides of her mouth and it no doubt will be just *recently discovered*.

[dnorris]

The Wall Street Journal seems to have originally broke the story and MSM has been following it, but has failed to follow up the "Is this NAFTA all over again?" question.

Here is a google of the news coverage

http://news.google.com/?ncl=1148380088&hl=en&topic=el

[Kepps]

So where's the MSM outrage about this? Nothing in WAPO or NYT this morning and this article itself has practically fallen off this website. Had to scroll all the way to the bottom to find the link here. What's going on?

[scooperss]

Saving it for ammo against her if she wins the nomination. Two MORE reasons to tell her to go away.

[XYZ]

The only way this story will get legs if Obama pushes it. He needs to drive this home, as this could win him PA, and cause a delegate flood to him.

This isn't even an attack this is just the plain truth, Clinton got up and slamed him about NAFTA, he owes her the same favor.

[DiscerningEyes]

I'm curious if the timing of the clinton tax returns release was not to totally dilute coverage of meetings of her aides with the colombian government. A fact that could be very damaging when given the closeness of the ties of the said aide to her campaign, as well as the fact that money exchanged hands for lobbying purposes. I wait to see how much traction the story gets in the MSM

[XYZ]

Little they dismissed it like it was nothing. They said it's a side show, and no more no less.

[joja]

Gotta love it!

The Clintons take another page from Karl Rove's and James Carville's Dirty Book of Campaign Tricks! This time it's the smear-your­-opponent-­with-a-lie­-then-do-w­hat-you-ac­cuse-them-­of-FOR REAL!

In this case, the Clintons were whooping and hollering about Obama's "wink-wink, nod-nod," as Hillary infamously called it, in OH, and now, it's discovered that they were not only fabricating the whole incident, they were actually the ones who perpetrated the foul-smelling deed -- not Obama.

And I love their explanation for it, too! Nothing they ever do is a big deal -- only when the Obama campaign does it.

These people are surreal!

[mariemburns]

The story is two days old now & so far I haven't seen any MSM coverage of it. What is stunning is to compare this story not to the Canadian story but to the coverage of the Rev. Wright. I guess thinking thru the horrifying facts you bring out in your article, which, gosh, is several paragraphs long, is a bit much for the shouting heads. I have urged the Obama camp to give this legs instead of spouting their usual meaningless generic talk about lobbyists & special interests. Maybe the Teamsters' outrage will help.

Thank you for a very cogent article that points -- once again -- to Hillary Clinton's frightening hypocrisy.

[VivaZapata]

much as i fought with myself to not judge a book by its cover, i always had an aversion to penn (while admittedly only knowing tid bits of info about him). i feel better about not giving him a chance now that it is clear how vile he really is.

[Mesaywar]

Clearly, Mr. sirota, it is not in the best interest of the MSM to deal with the troubling facts of the Clinton campaign on any level.

They are simply not seeing what they do not wish to; much like the American public it serves.

[SharonB]

Shout this from the roof tops!

[RENREVARD]

THERE ARE MANY ADVISOR ON THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN WHO HAVE A CONFLICT OF INTERST.MA­RK PENN ALSO REPRESNTS BIG OIL OF SAUDIA ARABIA.THE­N THERE TONY PODESIA WHOS DAY JOB IS REPRESENTING THE PHARMACUTICAL COMPANIES SUCH AS MEREK AND PFIZER..TH­EN THERES JOHN A.MERRIGAI­N WHOS DAY JOB IS REPRESENTING GOLDMAN SACHS.ROY SPENCE WHO MADE THE 3:AM PHONE AD WHOS CLIENT IS MASTERCARD. THEN THERE IS STEVE ELMEN WHO REPRESENTS SHELL OIL.THEN THERE IS HOWARD WOLFSON WHO DAY JOB IS REPESENTING THE INSURACE CO. HILLARY TALKS A TALK ABOUT GOING UP AGAINST BIG BUSINESS BUT THE TOP ADVISOR ON HER CAMPAIGN MIGHT HAVE A THING OR TWO TO SAY ABOUT THAT.