Consultant spending saps Clinton campaign

[rainbow4321]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8619.html


About $15 million — or more than half of the New York senator’s January spending — went to a cadre of high-priced consultants. Though much of the cash went through the campaign media buyer for ad time, the considerable payments to outside consultants mark an increase in a pattern that has irked campaign insiders. From the beginning of the race through the end of last month, Clinton paid the consultants $33 million — nearly one-third of the $105 million spent by the campaign.

That provides some of the back story behind Clinton’s staff shake-up, her public appeals for campaign cash in the past two weeks and even her string of 10 straight losses to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama since Super Tuesday, Feb. 5.

Clinton last month doled out $15 million to a cadre of trusted political hands, mostly based in Washington, for everything from producing and placing ads to polling and fundraising and mailings.


<snip>
Those payments, and others to top consultants, have prompted grumbling by campaign insiders who believe some of the cash flowing to Clinton’s Washington-area brain trust could be better spent elsewhere, given the cash pinch that kept the campaign from matching Obama’s investment in recent states.

[Cha]

1. And how much are they

paying cnn or is cnn doing their mediawhoring for gratis?

[rainbow4321]

3. Only people benefiting in her camp are the consultant$

HRC paid for consulting in March so far:

http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2008/M3/C00431569/B_PURPOSE_C00431569.html

CONSULTING/ ACCOUNTING 11,965.00
CONSULTING/ COMMUNICATIONS 52,583.34
CONSULTING/ FUNDRAISING 117,650.00
CONSULTING/ TECHNOLOGY 58,745.08
CONSULTING/ TRIP PLANNING 24,000.00
CONSULTING/FIELD STRATEGY 358,350.00
CONSULTING/LEGAL 5,000.00
CONSULTING/MEDIA 52,500.00
CONSULTING/POLITICAL STRATEGY 108,268.46
CONSULTING/WEBSITE 89,562.50

which doesn't include whoever on her "still owe" list is also a consultant/consulting company:

http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2008/M3/C00431569/D_DEBTS_C00431569.html

--------------------

vs. Obama's short list:

http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2008/M3/C00431445/B_PURPOSE_C00431445.html

CONS./PROF.SERV. FUNDRAISING 34,640.00
CONS./PROF.SERV. MEDIA 28,800.00
CONS./PROF.SERV. RESEARCH 5,000.00
CONS/PROF.SERV. COMPUTER 33,000.00

[Cha]

6. So all these machiavellian minds

have come together and she's still losing..think of all the negative ad space that could have bought.

[hogwyld]

12. Well, at least Mark Penn

Is getting rich...

[Vinca]

2. She ought to ask for a refund. nt

[VolcanoJen]

4. At the least, her HillRaisers and small donors should. nt

:hi:

[Drachasor]

5. After the consulting fees to figure out whether she should, it wouldn't be worth it.

[BlooInBloo]

8. No she shouldn't. It was her choice to use the same crappy consultants...

... that have been taking our money and then losing for 20 years. Her campaign, her choice.

[heidler1]

7. Does this mean that she'd need to have consultants handy when the RED phone rings at 3:00 A.M.

[rainbow4321]

9. There's a comforting thought

Red phone receiver up to one ear, cell phone with her consultants up to the other ear. Maybe they get out the red phone caller on hold while they develop a poll to float out to the public in the morning.
Or just put a cot in the presidential bedroom for the consultant and put the red phone caller on speaker phone when it rings.

[InsultComicDog]

10. taking a bite out of these consultant clowns

might be one of the best side-effects of this campaign.

[cooolandrew]

11. HRC will spend America's tax dollars wisely. To be gracious. HRC please time to concede ..

[cooolandrew]

15. kick

[w4rma]

13. In other words, 1/3 of all contributions to the Clinton campaign go to jerks like Penn to make them

obscenely wealthy.

[ClassWarrior]

14. For giving her bad advice. I never thought of it that way...

NGU.