Hillary Pillories Penn

[RebLem]

Clinton's top campaign strategist forced out

BY GLENN THRUSH | glenn.thrush@newsday.com
April 7, 2008

WASHINGTON - Hillary and Bill Clinton forced out Mark Penn yesterday after the campaign's chief strategist admitted meeting with Colombian officials to push for a trade agreement she opposes.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Penn met with representatives from Colombia's government in his capacity as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller public relations firm on March 31 to push the Colombian Free Trade Agreement through Congress. Penn later apologized, calling it an "error in judgment."

Penn - who infuriated many other Clinton advisers by refusing to quit his private-sector job during the campaign - was given his walking papers by the angry Clintons over the weekend, campaign insiders said.

"They made it clear it was time for him to go," said a top staffer on condition of anonymity. "So he did the honorable thing."

Sources told Newsday that the Colombia story was the last straw for Bill Clinton, a longtime Penn defender who had for months resisted calls to replace the pollster after a series of embarrassing episodes and questionable advice.

Penn's duties will now be divided between Geoff Garin, another pollster, and communications chief Howard Wolfson, who had sharply disagreed with Penn's strategy to downplay Clinton's maternal side.

"After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up the role of chief strategist," campaign manager Maggie Williams wrote in an e-mail to reporters at 6:40 last night.

Penn's firm will continue to provide polling and consulting services to the campaign, Williams said.

Attempts to contact Penn yesterday were unsuccessful.

The ouster - while celebrated by many inside the campaign as an overdue housecleaning - comes at a bad time for Hillary Rodham Clinton, who trails Barack Obama in overall delegates and has watched her lead slip ahead of the make-or-break Pennsylvania primary. In February, Clinton hired Williams to replace Patti Solis Doyle, who was faulted for lavish spending and inadequate preparation for the Iowa caucuses.

Buoyed by wins in the Ohio and Texas primaries in March, Clinton had hoped to ride a wave of momentum to Pennsylvania on April 22. And she enjoyed a brief bump in the polls following the flap over comments made by Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

But the past two weeks have seen a number of self-inflicted wounds - the worst being Clinton's admission that she had been promoting a false version of a mid-1990s trip to Bosnia after videotape contradicted her claim that she had dodged sniper fire. Last week, an Ohio newspaper added to her woes by debunking one of her stump anecdotes - about a mother and baby who died after being turned away from a hospital for lack of health insurance.

Penn came within hours of being fired during the New Hampshire primary and was saved by Clinton's comeback there. The victory came after Clinton became emotional on the trail and began talking freely about her family, a tactic opposed by Penn, who had counseled against her being seen in public too often with women and children, according to several campaign staffers.

Many top Clinton staffers, including Wolfson and Harold Ickes, reportedly said Penn was too cautious and conservative, arguing that his focus on portraying Clinton as a hawk on national defense was hurting her with liberal Democratic voters who are angry over Iraq.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ushill075641299apr07,0,6690563.story