If you want to figure out the truth about the Clinton Campaign, you have to look beneath the surface.
The recent headline in The Huffington Post reading "Mark Penn Resigns From Clinton Camp" doesn't tell the whole tale, which is revealed farther down in the story. Penn has given up his position as Chief Strategist of the Clinton campaign, but as Clinton Campaign Manager Maggie Williams states, "Mark [Penn] and Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc. [the marketing firm of which Mark Penn is lead partner] will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign."
Mark Penn may have lost his Chief Strategist title, but he continues to be a political advisor to Hillary Clinton. Penn, Schoen & Berland will continue to be paid by Hillary for "polling and advise" after having already collected $10,800,000 from the Clinton Campaign (i.e. Hillary has paid Penn and his firm close to 10% of the contributions she's received from her donors).
In other words, this all looks like a sleight of hand, when its really business as usual with Clinton. And when it comes to business as usual involving ultimate Washington insider Mark Penn, it means advising Hillary Clinton, even while Penn earns millions heading a communications, lobbying, and "crisis management" firm whose other clients include:
• Military mercenary firm Blackwater USA, for whom it coached Blackwater CEO Eric Prince for his Congressional testimony about Blackwater's killing of Iraqi civilians.
• Ahmen Chalabi, the former Iraqi exile who did as much as anyone to promote America going to war in Iraq and was responsible for providing the phony intelligence from "Curveball".
• ATT in it lobbying activities for immunity from assisting the Bush administration in its warrentless wiretapping program.
• New Era Cap (and many other corporations) in its efforts to fight unionization.
• Proctor and Gamble is its campaign to defend itself from charges that Olestra causes anal leakage.
Those are just a few of a long list of horribles represented by Penn's firm. See Ari Berman's article in The Nation for many more:http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070521/berman
Until now, Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton's Communications Director has defended Penn for working simultaneously for such clients and for the Clinton Campaign, saying "I don't think it reflects on her at all. Mark's work away from the campaign is Mark's work, and his campaign work is separate from that".
It all became too much for the Hillary only when Penn was caught last week lobbying on behalf of Columbia--where labor leaders are routinely murdered by paramilitary death squads--for a free trade agreement with the United States which lacks strong labor and environmental protections.
So now Mark Penn has resigned from the Clinton campaign. Only he hasn't. Penn and his firm continue to get paid by the Clinton campaign for polling and advice.
Penn represents the very worst kind of Washington insider who simultaneously takes millions from Democratic politicians and lobbies for some of the worst special interests in the world. This is exactly the kind of old politics that typifies the Clintons and John McCain, which John Edwards and Barack Obama have vigorously criticized.
What kind of favors does Mark Penn hope to gain for his special interest clients if Hillary Clinton becomes President?
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Figures. He isn't even fired. He's just given a behind-the-scenes task. How Rovian and typical of the Clintons. I thought MAYBE she was shamed into having some standards. I should have known better.
Hey when it comes to the Clintons, it depends on what the word 'Resign' mean
This is an indictment of the Clinton's that can't be ovelooked. It goes to character, as they say on Law & Order.
She has lost me completely.
If they think someone who represents Blackwater (what a perfect name) is morally proper to represent them to the public, they don't think much of the public.
I now agree that the long slog of so many years of bush-clinton-bush must be broken.
Also, her visit to Jay Lenno was so phony it made my teeth itch.
They're selling this country down the river. It's just that Republicans have a bigger paddle, that's the only difference.
Total disgust with this "election." We who blog are just fodder for their dramas. Unplug if you can.
From a strategic standpoint, I would think this is politically wise on Hillary's part. He needs to go, frankly, due to his consulting gaffe. He also has already seen her bring on a new polling team. Yet there should be some umbrella so that the campaign doesn't derail.
The problem will be that once gone, he'll be gone for real. He will not be involved in the daily campaign. That may work best anyway. He was a problem for others, or so it seemed.
Hey Hill Schill -
Soooooo tired of the BS you throw here ... what about this:
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/04/penn_out_then_in.php
Penn: Never Out, Still In
07 Apr 2008 01:39 pm
Demoted Hillary Clinton strategist Mark Penn may no longer have the coveted title of chief strategist, but he remains a key member of the campaign's senior staff.
Mr. Penn took part on the campaign's morning message call this morning, as usual.
This afternoon, he is also scheduled to be on a call with Clinton and other aides to begin to prepare for Saturday's presidential debate in Philadelphia.
Mr. Penn "is still going to be very much involved," a senior campaign official said.
Indeed, it is not clear precisely what Mr. Penn's title-change entails, other than a public rebuke, although the official said that "there is a difference between being in charge and being one of many voices.
gangrene - chop it off
So how long do we have to wait for Slick Hillie to "denounce and reject" Mark Penn?
HuffPost's Pick
"What kind of favors does Mark Penn hope to gain for his special interest clients if Hillary Clinton becomes President?"
I guarantee you that today, he's calling current and prospective clients explaining that he and Hillary are still tight and promising them the moon if she's elected. Hillary's still paying Penn the big bucks (and his firm is most assuredly not one of the vendors that's being stiffed), and still acting as his enabler.
You nailed it, Miles. My wife has known both Mark Penn and Hillary Clinton since the early '90s, her summary of the situation is almost verbatim of your post.
How will this affect her union support in PA? Will the folks in the "Bama" areas of PA care?
wake up guys this is all a considence.... Make this connections. In Ohio Clinton Aide when to talk to the Canadians, Suddenly the Canadian prime minister was attacking Obama. it was supposed to agitate the Union workers... They were trying to pull the same with Colombia and Penn when and talked to Them and the President of Colombia was attacking Obama over the Free trade agreement. Could be this time around someone sold penn out... you dont know why either to kill his deals. The person got what they wanted Penn lost the deal with the Colombians.... and now on the Hillary side if you read the resignation letter its like Penn wrote it aimed at his detractors..but not at the larger Hillary supporters. This is what Penn wrote..."It points out that although you made blow the whistle on me I will resign but am not down I still keep the Position as Pollster and thats what he was supposed to be in the beginning.
So Who wins? lets what the events for the next days. Hillary cannot do without penn they are birds of the same feather...All the good people left the campaign ,look at Maggie, Penn, Ike
Thank you Miles. My thoughts EXACTLY.
Why not just FIRE him outright?
Why is he STILL advising her?
What does he know about the Clintons she doesn't want coming out?
Was he working on behalf of the campaign when speaking to the Colombians?
What favors does Clinton owe him or vice versa?
How many other advisors in her campaign are shady dealers?
Why won't they release Chelsea's 150pg thesis about N. Ireland Peace Process
Why won't Chelsea take questions from the media?
Why did Hillary lie about Bosnia? Pregnant woman? Iraq? Nafta? Peter Paul? Hsu?
I agree - seems to me it was a change in title only and that smells like a simply political move to me.
I am finding it pretty irritating that the media keeps comparing this incident to the one in which an Obama adviser spoke to a Canadian rep. They don't even come close. 1) Penn was Chief Strategist, not just some economic adviser, 2) Penn was PAID by the Columbian group to advance their trade agreement, 3) Penn's involvement with Columbia was an official relationship, not just some adviser chatting unofficially with a low level representative, 4) it hasn't even been proved that Obama's adviser said anything more than that Obama planned to promote an assessment of the trade agreements and to renegotiate them to ensure safety for workers, fair pay and fair trade. That is precisely what Obama has said he would do (and Hillary as well I might add).
Are you advocating that Colin Kahl resign as an Iraq advisor from Obama's campaign because he recommends a different Iraq withdrawl strategy in his personal / professional opinion than Obama's official campaign position?
Yea, that is what this article said. It always amazes me how people can read or see the same thing and take away something completely different.
Obama has disassociated himself from Colin Kahl's article which suggested that 60,000-80,000 troops remain in Iraq until the end of 2010. The Obama campaign issued a statement which said "the writing of Mr. Kahl, one of hundreds of outside advisers to the campaign, is not representative of Barack Obama"s consistent policy position on the Iraq war."
Obama has said that he wants advice representing varying opinions, including those with which he disagrees. A strong President listens to a variety of opinions from a diverse group of advisors and then makes up his/her own mind.
Mark Penn is not just one of dozens of unpaid campaign advisors but has been Hillary chief strategists whose firm has been paid $10.8 million of campaign contributors' money.
WANT TO ADD TO HIS RESIGINATION? HOW ABOUT HILLARY AND HER LIES...READ THIS....SEE HOW LONG SHE HAS BEEN DOING IT... READ
http://www.northstarwriters.com/dc163.htm
it sounded a little to reasonable for clinton to dump this guy to actually have it be real. but then, if they were real he wouldnt have been there in the first place. that list of clients clearly (to me at least) shows that the clinton presidency will be more of the same old crap we have gotten for thirty years.
thanks for putting this in detail - but as you can see from all the comments all over huffpo - we pretty much know how Clinton operates and that detail of him still being in her campaign was not lost in all the rhetoric of Maggie Williams - we CAN read - despite what Clinton thinks of the electorate, we aren't all ignorant.
The joke's on her - Mark Penn is lousy at his job and she definitley did not get her money's worth.
No, Miles got the headline right. He just forgot the ironic quotation marks around the word "resigns".
HuffPost's Pick
The real question is why was he hired in the first place? Penn and his firm advocate policies that are anti-worker and anti-labor. Hillary is running as a blue collar champion candidate. It's obvious that Penn's direct and well publicized involvement with advocacy for a NAFTA-like extension with Colombia while he headed her campaign meant he had to appear to leave the campaign, especially ahead of the Pennsylvania primary.
And it's also obvious that only his title changed, not the role he and his anti-worker, anti-labor firm will play in her campaign. It's typical of the candidate who makes up sniper fire to think that a title change and lying about her long-standing vigorous support for NAFTA and NAFTA principles is enough to win anti-NAFTA voters.
Was she running as a blue collar candidate until she was losing? Or a voter enfranchisement candidate for that matter? Her yuck factor is huge and getting huger all the time.
She never expected to have any scrutiny of her advisers, because she was supposed to cruise right to the nomination and have everything locked up by Super Tuesday. She figured to beat Edwards easily by having her tame media flunkies ignore his proposals and tout his haircut and his big house to marginalize him. Obama took her completely by surprise, she didn't see him coming and didn't understand the depth of the voters' disillusionment with "politics as usual". People wanted real change, not just the illusion of change which had always worked for the Clintons in the past. It's a total surprise to her when people don't just automatically accept anything she says, after all, it's always worked before. Just blame the great right wing conspiracy for everything.
Let's just leave it alone, I say. Symbolically, the defeat is there, but personally, I'd rather have Mark Penn still running the campaign behind the curtains. This contest needs to end now, and there is nobody who can cause the Clinton campaign to self-destruct faster than Mark Penn. If we really pursue this, and Penn gets fired all the way, they might actually get someone competent and drag this thing out til the convention.
Colombia
HuffPost's Pick
I think the Clintons underestimate the intelligence of unions and "low information voters" that they are targeting. Their smoke and mirrors with Penn's "resignation" are ridiculously obvious, and this writing does a great job of illustrating this. I hope Clinton financial contributors consider that 10% of their donations are going to this guy.
Exactly. This was all about appeasing the unions and the unions will see right through this.
Except for Gerald McEntee at AFSCME .... He's still behind her.
All of this from a campaign that has made history time and again through the unadulterated use of the worst aspects of mass communications and personal action.
It would be true to form for Mark Penn to actually have increased responsibilities for maintained communications and relations with key national & international commercial centers of gravity. Especially as Hillary's campaign attempts to hold this coalition of shadow power firmly encamped during this time of tricky integration and execution of a multiplicity of seemingly divergent centers of presumed predisposed support.
Hillary faces the supreme challenge of her life as she is called to substantiate predisposition of support & assets that have not performed as committed. Especially since Columbia's ruling power center has put the matter to the question.
Look for defining events within the next 10 days that will signal the definition of resolution.
Naturally, his affiliation with Ahmen Chalabi should raise alarm bells with Clinton supporters who supposedly believe that a vote for Clinton represents a less militaristic stance on foreign policy, but I digress. Just as those who constantly plugged their ears amidst an undying incentive to think well of George W. Bush, so too will some invariably turn a blind eye to what they don't want to admit to.
The warnings are there, from Clinton's steadfast tendancy to blame everyone and anyone but herself for her support of the Iraqi War resolution, her militaristic stances against Iran, and an affinity to justifiably condemn Bush's bumbling efforts to rebuild Iraq in the aftermath of the invasion without actually condemning the war itself. But alas, we can show them all the evidence in the world, and it still won't make a difference. If they haven't gotten it by now, they never will.
Waaaaaait a minute. Penn got paid for his work on the Clinton campaign?
I could've run it into the ground for half the price.
LMAO, grendl, too funny.
Miles gets it. The clintons have just changed Penn's title but he remains just as plugged into their campaign as before. He is a seasoned insider who has been central the con jobs and massive wealth the Clintons have amassed. Pen is still around, even though the headline will dupe MSM and gullible readers to give her credit for giving a non-answer to a serious political question.
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Posted April 6, 2008 | 10:03 PM (EST)