<p>How is it that this story doesn’t even seem to rate a passing comment in the Cafe? Had Mr. Penn been on Obama’s staff, there would be foaming at the mouth and shaking of fists here.
[Questions</a> Remain About Clinton Strategist Mark Penn’s Campaign Role | War on Iraq | AlterNet](<a href=“http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/81639/]Questions”>http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/81639/)</p>
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<p>Does Hillary get a pass on this one? Obama certainly wouldn’t.</p>
<p>I would give Penn a pass even if he worked for Obama. I simply isn’t a big deal. Trade with Columbia is a good thing and Clinton should be supporting it not running from it. Penn is a good guy not a bad guy with respect to Columbia trade.</p>
<p>^^
Penn/Columbia? Too many Ivy threads are to blame, I guess.
Colombia is the country…</p>
<p>My comment: Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!</p>
<p>Funny, broetchen!</p>
<p>She’s toast either way, so why make a big deal?</p>
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</p>
<p>Does Mark Penn care?</p>
<p>He goes where the money is.</p>
<p>The issue is not about whether we agree about trade with Columbia or not (that’s a different thread). It’s not being aware that your highest staff person is doing business with an organization and issue that you strongly oppose; substitute any issue/any organization that you are against, and see how you feel.</p>
<p>poetsheart: Must be a special place to think that Obama gets lambasted more than Hillary on these forums. Quite the opposite - but he’s had more screwups lately, so it seems like he’s taking more heat.</p>
<p>It’s time to leave Hillary alone, and let her go the way of Huckabee.</p>
<p>“What? Nothing to say about Mark Penn?”</p>
<p>Um, he should look for another hair stylist?</p>
<p>Sorry, I couldn’t resist ;)</p>
<p>I think Clinton is a little tone deaf when it comes to ethics. She never should have hired him unless he’d made a clean break from his clients for the course of her campaign. Even if he didn’t do anything illegal or unethical, it LOOKS BAD. She can’t afford to look bad, and she blew it by not anticipating this in the first place.</p>
<p>celticclan07 - or stop getting his referrals from Donald Trump.</p>
<p>I can’t comment. 
I was subjected to heavy sniper fire on another thread for being too “obsessed” with pointing out some of this candidate’s <em>flaws</em>…</p>
<p>Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. ;)</p>
<hr>
<p>Go Kansas!</p>
<p>What is there to say? I know that none of these candidates are stupid but they are often terribly dumb.</p>
<p>Bill Clinton and Mark Penn, birds of a feather…</p>
<p>"Former President Bill Clinton has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars speaking on behalf of a Colombia-based group pushing the trade pact, and representatives of that organization tell The Huffington Post that the former president shared their sentiment.</p>
<p>In June 2005, Clinton was paid $800,000 by the Colombia-based Gold Service International to give four speeches throughout Latin America. The organization is, ostensibly, a development group tasked with bringing investment to the country and educating world leaders about the Colombia’s business opportunities. "</p>
<p>[Bill</a> Clinton’s Ties To Colombia Trade Deal Stronger Than Even Penn’s - Politics on The Huffington Post](<a href=“http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/08/bill-clintons-ties-to-col_n_95651.html]Bill”>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/08/bill-clintons-ties-to-col_n_95651.html)</p>
<p>Wives running for President are one thing, but business must be allowed to take precedence:</p>
<p>“It’s clear that President Clinton has a chummy relationship with the Colombian president,” said Lori Wallach, director of Global Trade Watch at Public Citizen, “someone whose administration is under a cloud and under investigation for associations with murderous paramilitaries, and whose administration has seen hundreds of labor unionists assassinated but not prosecuted these crimes, and whose administration has been involved in the forced displacement of thousands of Afro-Colombians. Having President Clinton be chummy with such a person, and having him be the closest adviser of Senator Clinton, is extremely disconcerting.”</p>
<p>This was not the only time Clinton and Uribe met. According to the Wall Street Journal, the former president hosted a “philanthropic event” with the Colombian leaders in September 2005. The purpose, the paper reported, was to introduce Uribe to Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining tycoon who was interested both in mineral rights and Colombian oil, a position that lent itself to a more open-trade environment.</p>
<p>Months earlier, Bloomberg News reported, Giustra had lent Clinton his private jet for Clinton’s four day peaking tour in Latin America - the same tour in which Clinton received $800,000 from Gold Service International. And at some point in time, Giustra - who, the New York Times reported, won a Kazakh uranium deal with Clinton’s help (again putting the former president at odds with his wife’s positions) - donated more than $31 million to Clinton’s charitable fund.</p>