The role of the lobbyist is not a happy one in this day and age. Not only is the right to petition the government for redress of grievances a Constitutional right, but lobbying is really a necessary part of the legislative process. A member of Congress has no way to be familiar with the technical aspects of every industry without some expert help and the lobbyist provides that help.
But as with most things in Washington (or your state capital or your county seat) money and power has a way of corrupting the process of government. And the necessary task of informing becomes the messy task of influencing – and worse.
So the story of Mark Penn, top campaign advisor and strategist for Mrs Clinton is particularly interesting and perhaps instructive. And, by the way, that’s former top campaign advisor and strategist for Mrs Clinton.
While Mrs Clinton was meeting with labor leaders in Pennsylvania stating that she opposed any trade deals with Columbia while violence continues there against trade union members, her top advisor, Mark Penn, through his PR firm was being paid by the Columbians to facilitate the passage of the Columbian Free Trade Agreement and was meeting with the representatives of the Columbian government.
When the Clinton camp tried to distance themselves by stating that Mark was meeting with the Ambassador only in his capacity as CEO of his PR firm (which, by the way has done more than 10 million dollars of billable work for the Clinton campaign), the Columbians were upset since they seemed to think they were meeting with Mrs Clinton’s representative as they had also met (properly) with representatives of Senators Obama and McCain - and many others in an effort to explain their position on the trade agreement. But the other Congressional representatives were not being paid directly by the Columbians. So, having been caught in an embarrassing conflict of interest, Mark Penn was fired by the Clinton campaign and by the Columbians. And segments of the news media is enjoying another story about the appearance of wrong doing in the Clinton camp. In this case there is an additional facet to the story in that Mark is not all that popular with other Clinton staffers, so he is now being blamed for all that is wrong with the Clinton campaign. More evidence of the democrats eating their young.
Rich Galen, for Townhall.com, provides additional details of this happy tale. Rich writes for the Mullings.com organization and is a former press secretary for both Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich.
I don’t suppose it would help to remind those in power in Washington that not getting caught in a lie is not the same as telling the truth. No, I thought not.
My source: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichGalen/2008/04/07/conflict_of_interest?page=full&comments=true
Conflict of Interest
By Rich Galen
Monday, April 7, 2008One of the problems in modern-day Washington is trying to decide who works for whom and on what basis.
Here's the background.
Penn was not paid by the campaign. His polling firm, Penn Schoen & Berland, is paid by the campaign. His polling firm is owned by the mega-PR firm of Burson-Marsteller. Burson-Marsteller is a unit of Young & Rubicam which, in turn, is owned by the WPP Group.
Penn is the CEO of Burson in addition to having been the Chief Guru of the Clinton campaign.
According to a long backgrounder in the Washington Post by Anne Kornblut last year, Penn
"receives no compensation directly from the Clinton campaign and that his salary from Burson-Marsteller, which he declined to reveal, is contingent upon his management performance for the corporation overall, rather on than specific fees from the campaign."
It is one of the many oddities of the campaign finance laws that campaigns have to disclose to which vendors, and for how much, they write checks; but vendors are under no obligation to disclose who is on their payroll or how much they are paid.
According to the FEC, Penn's firm was paid $3.1 million in March and is owed $2.4 million bringing the grand total for this campaign to over $10 million.
Why is this important?
Because the work of Mark Penn and the work of Burson-Marsteller got tangled up last week when Penn met with the Ambassador to the US from Columbia
One of Burson's clients, it turns out, has been the country of Columbia which is in serious negotiations for a Free-Trade Agreement with the United States. I have been involved in this sort of thing and it is the PR firm's job to convince people that this is not only a good idea, but the passage of this agreement is the most important issue facing the Congress this year!
Susan Davis, writing in the Wall Street Journal,
"Hillary Clinton has been railing against free-trade agreements. Clinton pointedly told the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO: 'We've got to have new trade policies before we have new trade deals. That includes no trade deal with Colombia while violence against trade unionists continues in that country."
Oops.
This business of having clients on both sides of the same issue is known in most places (not counting, of course, Your Nation's Capital) as a conflict of interest. Some conflicts are easy to avoid. But being paid by Clinton to advise her on how best to oppose the Columbian Free Trade Agreement and being paid by Burson-Marsteller for advising the Columbians on how to minimize opposition (like Clinton's) to the same pact is - even INSIDE the District of Columbia - a serious conflict.
The Clinton campaign stated that Penn was meeting with the Ambassador in his role as the CEO of Burson. But a spokesman for the government of Columbia, according to the Wall Street Journal, appeared to disagree, saying:
"The ambassador met with Mr. Penn to discuss the bilateral agenda. There have also been meetings with the advisers to the campaigns of Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain. It's the embassy's job to explain Colombia's reality."
Well, that certainly sounds like the Ambassador thought he was meeting with Penn, at least partially, as a representative of the Clinton campaign.
On Saturday the country of Columbia fired the PR firm of Burson-Marsteller. According to the WSJ's Jackie Calmes, after Penn called the meeting "an error in judgment," the Columbians canned B-M saying:
"The Colombian government considers this a lack of respect to Colombians, and finds this response unacceptable."
By Sunday night the pressure - internally and externally - became too much and Penn was out as the Senior Strategist and More of the Clinton campaign.
It didn't take long for the Clinton insiders to begin dancing on Penn's professional grave. Again, according to Jackie Calmes in the WSJ:
Mr. Penn has been blamed by Clinton advisers and supporters for a flawed strategy that has left the New York senator, once seen as the inevitable nominee, instead struggling against Sen. Obama for the Democrats' nomination.
As the old saying goes: In Washington, ya want a friend? Buy a dog.
As the new saying goes: Wanna wear two hats? Buy a second head.
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