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Clinton strategist caught mixing money and politics
The mix of money and politics is a familiar cocktail in American life but you don't want to get caught in public drinking too much of it.
- By Jonathan Mann, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:14 April 13, 2008
Atlanta: The mix of money and politics is a familiar cocktail in American life but you don't want to get caught in public drinking too much of it.
This week, Hillary Clinton demoted the mastermind of her presidential campaign, after his combination of public life and private profit turned into a problem.
Mark Penn was her campaign's chief strategist and pollster, a man with a trusted place in Bill and Hillary Clinton's inner circle.
But his other career is as chief executive at a public relations and lobbying giant called Burson-Marsteller - a job he refused to give up or even leave temporarily while running her campaign.
Lobbyists are already unpopular here; they're easy scapegoats for complaints about politics, hypocrisy and corruption and Penn didn't help their reputation.
He reportedly made more than $10 million (Dh36.7 million) working for Clinton's campaign.
Under his guidance, Clinton campaigned as a sceptic about free trade, and opposed a pending trade deal with Colombia.
At the same time, Burson-Marsteller has been paid a reported $300,000 to help convince US leaders to sign the accord.
To put it plainly: Penn and his candidate are against the agreement; Penn and his company are for it.
Penn even met personally with the Colombian ambassador, a session he kept secret until it emerged in the US press, at a particularly sensitive time.
Clinton's campaign needs a convincing win in the upcoming primary in the state of Pennsylvania, where her poll numbers are slipping. Working-class voters are among her most dependable supporters but they blame free trade for taking their jobs.
Penn publicly apologised and called meeting with the ambassador "an error in judgment".
But then Colombia got mad too and fired Penn's firm in the furore.
Clinton did not really fire Penn. He lost his title as campaign strategist, but he will still be doing Clinton's public opinion polling and keep working for Burson-Marsteller too.
Maybe he's just too valuable for Clinton to lose.
Maybe the Clinton campaign, like every political organisation in the US, just knows that money and politics have been distilled together so potently for so long, you can't really separate them.
You can only hope your people aren't spotted drinking the hard stuff.
Jonathan Mann is an anchor and reporter for CNN International
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