Blackwater Ties Fodder for Political Attacks

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Blackwater Ties Fodder for Political Attacks

The controversy about Blackwater USA's role in a September 16 shooting, and broader questions about the role and oversight of private security firms operating in Iraq, are becoming fodder for political attacks among 2008 presidential candidates.

Former Sen. John Edwards jumped first at the connection -- loose though it may be -- between the Blackwater firm and a top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Edwards said in Iowa this morning that "Senator Clinton's primary advisor, Mark Penn who is like her Karl Rove - his firm is representing Blackwater. I think it is important for Iowa caucus goers to understand the choices they have in this election. And it is the reason I continue to say we don't want to replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats. I think it is important for caucus goers to see this choice."

Penn's connection to Blackwater is through the public relations firm he heads, Burson-Marsteller. The firm released a statement this afternoon saying, "Through a personal relationship, BKSH, a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller, helped Blackwater prepare for their recent hearing before Congress. With the hearing over, BKSH's temporary engagement has ended."

The episode points to the pitfalls of hiring consultants who conduct work for corporate clients and campaigns at the same time. Edwards's own pollster, Harrison Hickman, is a principle at Global Strategy Group, which represents a range of corporate clients -- including oil and pharmaceutical firms -- that don't always mesh with the candidate's message.

Still, the Clinton camp did not welcome the Blackwater remarks. "Mark Penn did no work on the Blackwater account. Burson has cut its ties to Blackwater and that was the right thing to do. Mark is and remains a valuable member of our team," said Phil Singer, a Clinton campaign spokesman. "Sen. Clinton believes Blackwater must be held accountable for its actions and has laid out a detailed proposal to sharply reduce the number of contractors employed by the federal government by 500,000. She has repeatedly stated her concern that such contractors are not as accountable as federal employees."...

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/10/05/blackwater_ties_fodder_for_pol.html?hpid=sec-politics

[HeraldSquare212]

1. They didn't cut ties - the thing they were hired for was over

Earlier reports from the consulting group said they were hired to help Blackwater for the Congressional hearing, which is now over.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Mark Penn's firm helped Blackwater BS its way through the hearing--

and now it's over! Just ignore it, pretend you never even knew about it. No harm, no foul, right?

[papau]

3. A CEO more or less on leave to work as a pollster is responsible for every divisions new clients?

not real world and most folks know it is not real world.

Beyond that - is public speaking prep now a bad thing - or a skill that must not be allowed to be taught to those we disagree with?

[TwilightGardener]

4. Why associate yourself with unsavory characters during a Presidential campaign--

if you'll do that under unyielding scrutiny, imagine the sorts of people you might be tempted to surround yourself with after you've won, and the attention is not focused as sharply as during a high-profile campaign? Sounds a little like...BushCo. Why make this person, who is a scumbag who works with scumbags in an industry designed to sell and/or protect scumbags, one of your top advisers? No ethics, no scruples.

[papau]

8. Most math types think Penn smart and I know of no ethical problems he has

[TwilightGardener]

9. Yeah. Just because he heads up a business that does everything it can

to rescue and prop up some of the most UNETHICAL people on earth doesn't mean he's unethical--LOL!

[papau]

10. He is a pollster - a damn good one - and who hires PR firms (his new job) and who

approves new clients - while on leave?

WPP Group bought BM in 2000, they bought Penn, Schoen in 2001

[ruggerson]

5. This was dumb of Edwards and he should drop it

it'll only come back to bite him.

[TwilightGardener]

6. Glad he exposed this. Good info.

[Generator]

7. You know it's even worse than Blackwater

What Blackwater does is very repellent to me. So I looked at this dude, Mark Penn. And I realize that being a CEO of a company doesn't mean you control or even have that much say in everything a enormous company does-fifth biggest PR firm.

However, there is this:

Learning that Mark Penn was CEO of a company that in fact conducts some of its business busting unions was very, very problematic to the AFL-CIO, as well as to many other unions, and we made that clear" to the Clinton campaign, said Karen Ackerman, AFL-CIO political director. "This is an issue that continues."

Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa said in a statement: "We have expressed our concerns to Sen. Clinton about Mark Penn and his firm's work for anti-union companies. We value Sen. Clinton's commitment to strengthen America's middle class. But as long as Mark Penn continues to profit from his company's involvement with anti-union companies, this issue will not go away."

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/10/6/9588/78005


And EVEN worse-he's the one that brought us triangulation!!!!!!!!!

Morris knew Penn from his days as a pollster in New York and brought him into the White House. Morris decided what to poll and Penn polled it. They immediately pushed Clinton to the right, enacting the now-infamous strategy of "triangulation," which co-opted Republican policies like welfare reform and tax cuts and emphasized small-bore issues that supposedly cut across the ideological divide. "They were the ones who said 'Make the '96 election about nothing except V-Chips and school uniforms,'" says a former Clinton adviser. When Morris got caught with a call girl, Penn became the most important adviser in Clinton's second term. "In a White House where polling is virtually a religion," the Washington Post reported in 1996, "Penn is the high priest." He became known as the "most powerful man in Washington you've never heard of."


It's like finding the key to something, and it's the key to where the misery began for the Democrats to me. And it's not going to end...Hillary Clinton is contiuning to turn Mark Penn's vision of what it means to be a Democrat into something that I would call a pre-Bush Republican.