By Mike Manzoni and Samuel Rubenfeld
In another week of back-and-forth attacks by the campaigns for the Democratic candidates, the chief campaign strategist for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) resigned Monday after a meeting he had with the Colombian government was revealed in the press.
The blunder drew comparisons to a meeting last month between Canadian representatives and a senior economic adviser for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), a meeting that forced that adviser’s resignation.
The Clinton adviser, Mark Penn, admitted to holding a meeting with the Colombian government to discuss a pending trade pact between the Republic of Colombia and the United States. Penn’s public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller, had a contract with the Colombian government to help them get a trade agreement through the U.S. Senate, a deal Clinton has publicly opposed.
Penn said the meeting was “an error in judgment that will not be repeated,” and the Colombian government fired Penn’s firm after the remark, which a Colombian government official said were “a lack of respect to Colombians.”
“After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign,” Maggie Williams said, Clinton’s campaign manager said, in a statement released Sunday night.
Clinton would not take any questions at a scheduled stop in Albuquerque, N.M., on Sunday, but Williams said Penn will continue to advise the campaign, but in a smaller role. The Obama campaign called on Clinton to completely fire Penn in a conference call on Tuesday.
“You can’t have a guy on your payroll who’s lobbying for Colombia,” said James Hoffa, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who was on the call for the Obama campaign.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who has endorsed Clinton for president, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Penn needed to leave the campaign.
“I think you’ve got to make it very clear for someone who is a consultant, who you are representing and who you are not representing, and I would hope that Mr. Penn, when he talked to the Colombians, made that clear, ” he said. “And it doesn’t sound to me like he did, and that’s something the campaign should take into question.”
Last month, Obama’s chief economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, met with Canadian representatives and the country’s consulate in Chicago to say Obama’s position on North American Free Trade Agreement was “political maneuvering.”
Obama has criticized Clinton for supporting the treaty.
Both campaigns have taken stands concerning the Olympic games this summer in Beijing, which have quickly become a hot button issue in light of the recent protests and human rights abuses in Tibet.
“I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government,” Clinton said in a statement, but in the statement, she did not call for a total boycott of the games.
Obama released a statement as well: “If the Chinese do not take steps to help stop the genocide in Darfur and to respect the dignity, security, and human rights of the Tibetan people, then the President should boycott the opening ceremonies.”
On Friday, the Clintons released their tax returns from 2000 through 2006, and a summary of their earnings for 2007 because they said they intend on filing for an extension, revealing nearly $109 million in income since they left office in 2000 shouldering millions in debt for legal fees after the impeachment battle.
Of the $109 million, former President Bill Clinton earned nearly $52 million of it by delivering paid speeches, $10 million of it alone in 2007. Bill made another $29.6 million with his two books, and Hillary earned $10.5 million from her books. Bill Clinton earned at least $12.6 million since from a consulting deal he made with a friend, Ron Burkle, the billionaire supermarket and media magnate. Bill Clinton also made a similar deal earning him nearly $3.3 million with Vinod Gupta, who allegedly used shareholders’ money in his company, InfoUSA, to pay for private jet flights for the Clintons.
Friday was also the 40th Anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who died in Memphis in 1968. Both Clinton and Obama commemorated the day in separate speeches: Clinton in the Memphis church where King gave his last sermon and Obama in the Indiana venue where then-Sen. Robert Kennedy (D-N.Y.) announced his knowledge of the assassination.
Polls continue to show the closing of the gap between Clinton and Obama in the Pennsylvania primary, which occurs April 22. A Strategic Vision poll released Wednesday shows a five point lead for Clinton, and the same from a Rassmussen poll released Tuesday. But an Insider Advantage poll released Wednesday night shows a 10 point lead for Clinton: 48 percent to 38 percent.