Mark Penn’s Conflicted Interests

…finally catch up to him.

Clinton loyalist and Hillary’s chief political strategist Mark Penn stepped down from his position on Sunday night due to conflicting interests through his PR firm Burson-Marsteller. Clinton campaign loyalists are breathing a sigh of relief, though there is some doubt that the damage Penn did by crafting Clinton’s weak campaign strategies can be rectified in time to allow Mrs. Clinton a realistic shot at the Democratic nomination over her rival Barack Obama.

The conflict came to a head last week when Penn met with the Columbian ambassador the the U.S. in his role as Burson-Marsteller chief executive overseeing a PR campaign to help secure passage of a “fast-track” bilateral trade treaty with the US. In her role as Senator from New York, Clinton is officially opposed to the treaty along with other members of the Democratic Party leadership. Penn’s PR firm also represents clients such as the country’s largest mortgage lender Countrywide Financial, and the Blackwater Worldwide mercenary outfit blamed for many civilian deaths in Iraq.

It is unclear why it took nearly a week for Clinton to act, given that her trade stance is so important in the Pennsylvania Primary, where workers blame free trade agreements with job losses. That primary is just two weeks away, so the extra week she’d had if she’d fired him last week could turn out to have been crucial. The Columbian government, on the other hand, fired Penn’s firm on Saturday, saying his efforts to distance himself from his efforts on their behalf were an insult.

Clinton loyalists within the campaign had previously expressed resentment towards Penn for letting his business interests overrule the interests of the campaign. Reacting to news of Penn’s fall from grace, top Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod called the event “stunning” on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program with host Joe Scarborough.

Meanwhile, as Penn’s troubles with both the Columbians and the Clinton campaign came to a head, President Bush announced Monday, April 7 that he is sending the controversial trade agreement to Congress where its fast-track status will force a vote within 90 days, before the fall campaign recess. Democrats in Congress oppose the treaty because Columbia has not done enough to halt violence, protect labor activists or disband paramilitary organizations operating with impunity in the country.

Bush has insisted that a failure to approve the treaty with Columbia would encourage Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez’s anti-Americanism, which casts the U.S. as “untrustworthy and impotent” in the region.

Links:

Clinton’s Chief Strategist Mark Penn Resigns
Bush to Force Vote on Columbia Trade
Top Clinton Aide Leaving Post Under Pressure

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Filed under Campaigns, Diplomacy, Hillary Clinton, Hypocrisy, Marketing, Party Primaries, Presidential Candidates | Comment (0)