Penn Watch

It's not just union-busting, it's foreign policy, too!

According to Justice Department filings, Colombia agreed this month to pay $300,000 to public relations firm Burson-Marsteller - whose president, Mark Penn, is a senior advisor to Sen. Clinton - to help "educate members of the U.S. Congress and other audiences" about the trade deal and secure continued U.S. funding for the $5 billion anti-narcotics program Plan Colombia.

The filings also show that last month Uribe’s government put The Glover Park Group, a Washington D.C.-based lobbying firm that includes former Clinton spokesman Joe Lockhart, on a $40,000 a month retainer.

Of course, hiring Clintonites to do the Plan Colombia lobbying is natural since it was a Clinton Administration initiative in the first plan. It's also been a disastrous failure. It would be nice for a new Democratic administration to revisit things, but it looks clear that Hillary Clinton won't be the person to do that.

Comments

Wow, and I was worried about Hillary winning the nomination before...

Posted by thehim | May 25, 2007 11:58 AM

On this one issue one wonders if it won't take a maverick Republican to change course.

Of course the only maverick Republicans left are the kind of people you can imagine sponsoring bills to finally get to the bottom of the longtime government cover up of space aliens living among us.

Posted by Linus | May 25, 2007 12:14 PM

Re "It's also been a disastrous failure"

------------
Not really. Via US Taxpayer subsidies, Sikorsky Helicopter in Jumpin' Joe Lieberman's district has been able to sell a lot of expensive whirlybirds to right wing death squads --er, I mean "to the legitimate government of Columbia".

Plus Occidental Oil has been able to deal with those pesky rebels who were blowing up Occidental's pipeline and cutting off electricity to the pumps.

If Occidental Oil can't exploit the Rain Forest, then Sweet Al won't get the dividend checks that allows him to promote his "Save the Environment" message.

Posted by Don Williams | May 25, 2007 12:23 PM

Don,
That's a beautifully cynical response. It makes me wonder why no one has thought of making caffeine an illegal drug. Think of the defense contracts!!

Posted by thehim | May 25, 2007 12:39 PM

Shhhhh!

Posted by Don Williams | May 25, 2007 12:48 PM