by Glenn Thrush
Hillary and Bill Clinton forced out Mark Penn Sunday 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 CEO of the Burson-Marsteller PR 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, according to campaign insiders.
“They made it clear it was time for him to go,” said one top staffer on condition of anonymity. “So he did the honorable thing.” Sources told Newsdaythat 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 of downplaying Clinton’s softer, maternal side. “After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up the role of Chief Strategist,” Williams wrote in an e-mail to reporters at 6:40 p.m. last night.
Penn’s firm will continue to provide polling and consulting services to the campaign, Williams said.
The ouster – while celebrated by many inside the campaign as an overdue housecleaning — comes at a bad time for 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 longtime adviser Maggie Williams to replace campaign manager 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 early March, Clinton had hoped to wide a wave of momentum to Pennsylvania. And she enjoyed a brief bump in the polls following the flap of Obama’s pastor 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 she’d dodged sniper fire.
Last week, an Ohio newspaper added to her woes by debunking one of her stump anecdotes – a story 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 in the Granite State. The victory came after Clinton became emotional on the trail and began taking freely about her family, a tactic long opposed by Penn, who had even counseled against her being seen in public too often with women and children, according to several campaign staffers.
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Attempts to contact Penn on Sunday were unsuccessful.
Penn has come under criticism for other Burson-Marsteller clients, including tobacco giant Philip Morris and corporate clients accused of union-busting activity. While Penn says he does not personally work on any accounts that could be construed as anti-labor, labor leaders have publicly expressed concern about his involvement with the campaign. Many top Clinton staffers, including Wolfson and Harold Ickes, also believed that 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 angry over Iraq.
“Penn’s departure is a victory for the liberals on the campaign,” one aide said last night.