'An error in judgment'

Posted: Friday, April 04, 2008 1:19 PM by Mark Murray

From NBC's John Boxley
As mentioned earlier today, the Wall Street Journal reported that Clinton chief strategist Mark Penn -- in his role as chief executive of Buston-Marsteller -- met with Colombia's ambassador to discuss a free trade deal, which Clinton actually opposes.

Penn just released this statement: "The meeting was an error in judgment that will not be repeated and I am sorry for it. The senator's well known opposition to this trade deal is clear and was not discussed."

*** UPDATE *** Change to Win, a federation of labor unions (like SEIU and the Teamsters), that has endorsed Obama, is calling for Hillary Clinton to fire her chief strategist, Mark Penn. "We have questioned Penn's role in the Clinton campaign in the past for his representation of union busting employers like Cintas," Change to Win executive director Greg Tarpinian said in a statement. "At that time, Penn said there was a wall between him and his firm's representation of union busters. The latest revelation that Penn -- whose firm represents the Colombian government in its effort to secure passage of a so-called free trade agreement -- is actively involved in securing its passage in the middle of Senator Clinton's presidential campaign is outrageous. It also suggests that he has been playing a double role - advising the Senator on what to say to curry Democratic voters and advising the Colombian government on what to say to curry a majority of votes in Congress."

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Comments

and yet people still vote for her. i see so many postings about "wake up obamabots" and yet clinton supporters are so blind it'd be funny if it wasn't so sad.

tom, philly (Sent Friday, April 04, 2008 1:56 PM)

I guess the 10 million dollars the Clinton campaign has paid Penn is not enough to feed this guys bloated ego and appetite

Eric (Sent Friday, April 04, 2008 1:57 PM)

Riiiiiight! After 'misspeaking' and 'misremembering' we have now 'mismeeting' ... how about simply 'getting caught in a lie' ?

I hope the press will put this in the spot light - remember NAFTA ?

Lynn (Sent Friday, April 04, 2008 1:58 PM)

I'm sorry but Hillary was dealing with the nasty dirty unfair and unAmerican GOP for too long. She has become everything I can't stand about the GOP- sleazy, manipulative, incongruent, putting power over principle, to name a few. Plus, the DRAMA of the Clintons we are OVER!!
I think about how Bill introduced my school age kids and all other kids in the USA (along with the perverted GOP that kept this up for 2 years) what oral sex was- damn that was hard to explain to a 9 and 11 year old!! NO MORE CLINTONS! THE CLINTON DYNASTY IS OVER.
It's entertaining to watch the GOP pundits freak out about Obama, and try to sway us to Hillary constantly.
We are over the partisanship that is tearing this country apart- I love the idea of Obama's "post partisanship era" proposal.
NO MORE CLINTON DRAMA!

Ginger Salida, CO (Sent Friday, April 04, 2008 1:58 PM)

It would have been easy for Mark Penn to send someone else to the meeting if he didn't want to get so closely linked. What in the world was he thinking? Bad judgment from your main campaign advisor.

Charles Hepson, Philly, PA (Sent Friday, April 04, 2008 1:59 PM)

Geez Mark Penn, could it be that YOU are the one who was using the COCAINE and it caused your judgement to be foggy? hahaha

Carol W. Las Vegas, NV (Sent Friday, April 04, 2008 2:00 PM)

If you Americans actually allow Clinton to be the democratic nominee after all the stunts she and her campaign have pulled... You're going to be looked upon by the rest of the world as the stupidest people on earth! You're still down in the doldrums of world opinion after having elected that dumb Bush TWICE!!

Shocked, Citizen of the World (Sent Friday, April 04, 2008 2:01 PM)

Did Mark Penn have to dodge Columbian snipers hired from Bosnia to work on some shady deal with the Columbians? Does Hillary want to have trade deals with known Drug Dealers?
Does anyone still think Hillary has a chance to be president?

Rod, SC (Sent Friday, April 04, 2008 2:01 PM)

As President of the United States, the Country depends upon you to surround yourself with competent people.............................................

Gary Schear, Bozeman Montana (Sent Friday, April 04, 2008 2:01 PM)

Mark Penn was up to something and it wasn't an oversight, or "mistake". So what's up with Hillary and Columbia? A joint Cayman account?

Rita, Oklahoma (Sent Friday, April 04, 2008 2:02 PM)

I VOTED FOR MRS.CLINTON.IN N.Y.I VOTED FOR MR. CLINTON TWICE FOR PERS.I THANK I BEEN HAD BY THE CLINTON MY SELF AND MY WIFE AND SONS YES SONS ALL SIX OF THEM VOTED FOR THE CLINTON BUT.I DID,T KNOW SHE WOULD DO ANY THING TO WIN UNTIL I START SEEN FOR MY
SELF.AND READ AND LISTEN TO HER .AND MR.OBAMA.I
KNOW WHAT I HEARD WHAT SHE SAID BUT SHE THEN TURN AROUND AND DO SOME ELSE.AND THEN SHE LIE ABOUT WHAT OME ONE ELSE SAID WHAT ELSE IS U LYING ABOUT MRS. CLINTON I HAVE BEEN A DEM. ALL MY LIFE I HAVE VOTE DEM.EVERY YEAR THAT I HAD TO BUT I WILL NOT BE THIS YEAR VOTEING FOR THE CLINTON EVERY AGAIN I BELIVE IN U MRS. CLINTON U LET ME AND MY WIFE AND SONS COMPLEATLY DOWN HELLO MR.OBAMA U HAVE OUR VOTE NOW

CHARLES SPANN JR, (Sent Monday, April 07, 2008 4:01 PM)

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