Colombian Government Fires Mark Penn

[tekisui]

Mark Penn, chief campaign strategist for Hillary Clinton, met with Colombia's ambassador to the U.S. to discuss a bilateral free-trade agreement, The Wall Street Journal reported. Sen. Clinton was against the idea of a trade deal with Colombia. This wasn't a mission related to his campaign role.

He did that in order to accomplish his second role, as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, an international communications and lobbying firm. According to fillings to the Justice Department, the company has signed a contract with the South American nation to promote congressional approval of the trade deal, The WSJ reports.

After the meeting he publicly expressed his regrets, apologizing, attitude which offended the Colombian government and determined it to fire him. The news were released Saturday morning after the WSJ reported that Mr. Penn had met with Colombia's ambassador to the U.S on Monday.

At the same time, the Colombian government was offended by a statement made by Mr. Penn after the meeting. He said it was “an error in judgement.”

“The Colombian government considers this a lack of respect to Colombians, and finds this response unacceptable,” the embassy said in a statement, quoted by the WSJ.

It looks like trying to work on both fronts took Mr. Penn in the wrong direction. On the one hand he wanted to represent Sen. Clinton interests in the political campaign. On the other hand, although he knew New York's Sen. Clinton's criticism of free trade was an important issue in her campaign, he also wanted to represent Colombia in the trade matter. As a result, someone else took the decision for him and made him choose between the two jobs.

link: http://www.enews20.com/news_Colombian_Government_Fires_Mark_Penn_PR_07048.html

Hillary should still follow suit.

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1. k

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2. Ed Rendell hints that Penn should be fired from Clinton Campaign

A key backer of Hillary Clinton's White House bid gave her top strategist Mark Penn a less than ringing endorsement Sunday, following news Penn had met with the Colombian ambassador to promote a free trade agreement the New York senator opposes.

Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell didn't exactly give the longtime Clinton pollster a vote of confidence.

Asked directly if the campaign should cut ties with Penn, Rendell said, "Well there are a lot of issues in which you can raise that question."

"Yeah, I think you've got to make it very clear for someone who is a consultant, who you are representing and who you are not representing and I would hope that Mr. Penn when he talked to the Colombians made that clear," Rendell also said. "And it doesn't sound to me like he did and that's something the campaign should take into question."

Late last week it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that Penn had met with the Colombian ambassador on Monday to promote a free trade agreement that Hillary Clinton has sharply criticized on the campaign trail. Penn's P.R. firm Burson-Marsteller had a contract with Colombia to promote the agreement, though a spokesman for Colombia's president told the paper he didn't know if Penn was representing Clinton or his P.R. firm in the meeting.

On Friday, Penn said he was acting in his role as CEO of Burson-Marsteller and called the meeting a "error in judgment." Upset with that characterization, the Colombian government cut ties with Penn's firm on Saturday.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/06/rendell-criticizes-penn-hints-he-should-be-fired/

[tabasco]

3. Clinton picks a crooked liar like Penn to run her campaign.

Just think of the Cabinet she would pick!

Would Heckuva Job Brownie come out of retirement to run Homeland Security?

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4. Hires him, pays him millions of dollars AND keeps him on through this.

She absolutely cannot be trusted with a Cabinet.

[Peace Patriot]

5. And when are our politicians going to learn to speak English again. Are they all infected

with Bushitism?

"Well there are a lot of issues in which you can raise that question." --Ed Rendell

"Yeah, I think you've got to make it very clear for someone who is a consultant, who you are representing and who you are not representing and I would hope that Mr. Penn when he talked to the Colombians made that clear....And it doesn't sound to me like he did and that's something the campaign should take into question." --Ed Rendell

Lord, it's go garbled that it's difficult to figure out what the man said, let alone how to translate it.

"...a lot of issues in which you can raise that question..." --what the hell does that mean? ('That question raises a lot of issues'??)

"...can raise..." --why the hypothetical, "can"; why not "does raise," i.e., "raises"?

"...you can raise..." --who? who is "you"?

"...you've got to make it clear..."--who? we? Hillary Clinton? the campaign? the consultant making it "clear" to himself?

"...and I would hope that Mr. Penn when he talked to the Colombians made that clear"--ah! after all the "you" B.S., we get to the subject of the sentence, Mr. Penn!

but then...

"...that's something the campaign should take into question--take into question? he means "take into consideration"--or, perhaps, question Mark Penn about? But "take into consideration" implies an on-going process regarding whether or not to dump Mark Penn from the campaign; Rendell waffles around, uneasily, between the idea of questioning Mark Penn, which should have been done long ago (and, if it wasn't, is campaign malfeasance), and "take it into consideration NOW" that the truth of Mark Penn's double dealing (and Hillary's?) is known, and a decision needs to made about dumping him.

I would say that this man has trouble keeping his head on straight, what with all the behind-the-scenes skulduggery that is likely going on, and the public lies that are likely being told.

The foremost question in my mind is: What are we to make of Hillary Clinton's disavowal of the Colombian "trade deal," when her chief campaign strategist was meeting with high level Colombians specifically to PROMOTE that deal? If she didn't know of this meeting, and especially of this PAID ADVOCACY, then she is incompetent. And if she DID know, and didn't fire him (or refuse to hire him in the first place), then that is strong evidence that she was lying when she said she opposes the trade deal. (How can she have her chief campaign strategist advocating for it, on the one hand, and running her campaign on the other? How can she have a chief campaign strategist who is ALSO being paid to do the opposite of what her campaign stands for?)

Rendell's garbled syntax, and his use of "you" and "can" and "take into question," indicate SPIN. But he is not clever at it, and, rather than spinning, he gets spun. He's like a whirling top. He cannot directly address the hard questions: Who is responsible for this? Mark Penn or the Clinton campaign? What will the campaign do about it? Why didn't the campaign do something about it long before this? Why weren't the questions that this issue raises asked back when Mark Penn was hired? And is the candidate for this campaign, Hillary Clinton, a hypocrite and a liar concerning the Colombian trade deal?

Because there is so much going on behind-the-scenes, he cannot speak coherently about it. So he goes spinning like a top around the core questions, taking the English language with him.

[tekisui]

6. Excellent review.

The Clinton Campaign either thinks we are all stupid or they see nothing wrong with Penn and his lack of consistency.

Either way, Penn royally screwed them in Pennsylvania. The Unions there are pissed. No matter of mucked up spin will change that Penn has to go, and the damage is already done.