Million-dollar Mark Penn's real campaign allegiances

by: Pam Spaulding

Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 11:15:00 AM EST

Hillary Clinton's chief strategist is Mark Penn, and Charlie Black, John McCain's top adviser, is chairman of BKSH, the DC-based lobbying subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller -- of which Mark Penn is CEO.

Yes, this is the same lobbyist Barack Obama was referring to when he criticized John McCain for allowing lobbyists to conduct their business on board his bus.

BKSH is a bipartisan lobbying firm. Black, the chairman is the top Republican. The top Democrat is R. Scott Pastrick, who like Penn, supports Hillary Clinton.

Mark Penn's personal interests would clearly be best served by a Hillary Clinton victory.

A McCain presidency wouldn't be a bad consolation prize, however. It would be far better to have the head of his lobbying be tight with the president than to have a president like Obama who sought to impose new restrictions on his lobbyist operation.

Penn has an obligation to his shareholders and clients. And his firm seems to have clients on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of this fight. If Obama wins the presidency, Penn gets nothing. He was helping the other guy, or gal. But if McCain wins, Penn's firm has one hell of a contact with the new president - heck, one of his top employees had the new president as a client and didn't even charge him! Is it a conflict of interest? Not with his clients. But how about with the Democratic party and our interests?

Morale is low. After 13 months of dawn-to-dark seven-day weeks, the staff is exhausted. Some have taken to going home early - 9 p.m. - turning off their BlackBerrys, and polishing off bottles of wine, several senior staff members said.

Some advisers have been heard yelling at close friends and colleagues. In a much-reported incident, Mr. Penn and the campaign advertising chief, Mandy Grunwald, had a screaming match over strategy recently that prompted another senior aide, Guy Cecil, to leave the room. "I have work to do - you're acting like kids," Mr. Cecil said, according to three people in the room.

...In interviews with 15 aides and advisers to Mrs. Clinton, not a single one expressed any regrets that they were not working for Mr. Obama. Indeed, some aides said they were baffled that a candidate who had been in the United States Senate for only three years and was a state lawmaker in Illinois before that was now outpacing a seasoned figure like Mrs. Clinton. And to a person, these aides and advisers praised Mrs. Clinton and said that she had been a better candidate than her campaign strategy and operation reflected.

Especially if the Clinton campaign is confirmed as being responsible for this. The Politico noted that the Clinton campaign did not deny the charge of circulating the photo, but did not comment further. One would think that the first thing Clinton or a surrogate would do is address a charge of someone in the campaign sending around a Muslim-baiting photo of Obama. (He's pictured in a turban and native Kenyan clothing for a ceremonial event during a 5-day tour in Africa.) It's egregious particularly since her campaign surrogates in Iowa were caught spamming the "Obama is a Muslim" email to people. I'd want my hands clean of this ASAP.

This is the non-denial response sent out by campaign manager Maggie Williams.

Statement by Maggie Williams, Campaign Manager

"Enough.

"If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed.  Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.  

"This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry.

"We will not be distracted."

Also: dnA doesn't hold back on his opinion. Whew.