Aside from organizing the euphemistically named "National Smokers Alliance" used as a bludgeon to defeat EPA second hand smoke regulations (for which Burson-Marsteller was paid a handsome 4 million big ones), here's a quick run down on Mark Penn and where his clients are:
In February 2008, the nuclear company Exelon paid Burson-Marsteller $230,627.05, coded as "public affairs."
In April 2005, Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter reported that Burson-Marsteller had joined with Quinn Gillespie & Associates to launch 360 Advantage, a public affairs shop filled with "key players in George W. Bush's successful presidential campaigns."
Burson-Marsteller has been hired by the two firms representing PMC Blackwater USA, McDermott Will & Emery and Crowell & Moring, to help with the account.
And of course, JeddReport tells us that 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.
Not sick yet? Don't worry...we're just beginning.
Among the most controversial aspects of Penn's firm's business, from the liberal perspective at least, come under the category of "labor relations," a traditional euphemism for suppressing workers and thwarting their right to organize.
Before Penn scrubbed his firm's Web site, it advertised this specialty and noted the firm's capacity to confront "Organized Labor's coordinated campaigns whether they are in conjunction with organizing or contract negotiating."
In brief, Mark Penn's point of sale was "confronting" --and more clearly--destroying --Unions, the very people Hillary is now trying to seduce in Pennsylvannia. Have they been successful? You bet.
In practice, Burson executives have used these skills against two major unions seeking to organize workers at Cintas, the nationwide uniform-supply company, which may be the single most ambitious union drive in North America today.
From Salon.com
Sen. Clinton is a declared supporter of labor rights who often tells workers that she is on their side. Besides, she badly wants the support of the Teamsters and UNITE HERE, the unions seeking to organize the Cintas employees, not to mention all the other labor organizations that might help her win the nomination and the presidency. But on the issue of workers rights, her top advisor has been on the other side.
Or has he? Penn said that he had nothing to do with the Cintas account, even though he is Burson's CEO. Moreover, he took offense at the implication that he might be anti-union. He recalled that his father had helped to organize the poultry workers union in Queens, N.Y., where he grew up. Unsurprisingly, his indignation and sentimentality did little to persuade union officials of his sincerity. They know very well that Penn is among the leading figures in the Democratic Leadership Council, whose budget is underwritten by major corporations and whose policies favor business over labor. Even the lunchboxes at DLC conferences display corporate logos.
On June 6, in response to Berman's story, Teamster president James Hoffa and UNITE HERE president Bruce Raynor sent a letter to Clinton about Penn, expressing their "distress" over his firm's role in "the effort to undermine workers right to organize at Cintas, a campaign our unions are involved in, [which] is particularly disheartening." Their letter went on to say that they "do not want to see you or the Democratic Party embarrassed. We look forward to hearing back from you on this matter." Other labor leaders, such as AFL-CIO president John Sweeney and Service Employees International Union president Andrew Stern, have privately told the Clinton campaign of their misgivings about Penn.
Penn's response, as Clinton's chief strategist?
Penn didn't step down from his executive position at Burson (as even Karl Rove did in 1999 when he sold his consulting firm to work for George W. Bush's presidential campaign), not even temporarily. He never ordered Burson to cease all union-busting activities. He merely "recused" himself from work on the Cintas account... A recusal he may or may not have honored.
The latest revelation is that Mark Penn has been actively meeting the Columbian ambassador interested in pushing through a Columbian free trade initiative. This is poison in Pennsylvannia, but apparently Mark just didn't care.
Today he finally got around to apologizing for meeting on Monday with the Colombian ambassador, as part of his lobbying work for a trade deal that Hillary publicly opposes:
"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."
Her "well known" opposition ought to be in doubt, just like her "well known" opposition to NAFTA--where she--And Bill--were hellbent on getting the bill passed. (In short, ladies and gentlemen, there's a kind of questionable non-truthiness to her so called opposition to almost any trade bill. That "opposition", rather like her fondness for sniper fire!, seems to reside almost entirely in her mind.)
But after his record of stupid moves, compromised alliances and idiotic pronouncements, Ben Smith reports that the Change To Win labor federation, which has endorsed Barack Obama, is calling upon Hillary to fire Penn.
Change to Win, the labor federation that includes SEIU, just sent out a statement demanding Penn's head:
The statement, from executive director Greg Tarpinian:
It's time for Sen. Hillary Clinton to send her vaunted 'chief strategist' Mark Penn packing — back to his job consulting for union busting corporations and anti-labor governments for good.
"We have questioned Penn's role in the Clinton campaign in the past for his representation of union busting employers like Cintas. 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.
"The vast majority of Americans do not believe that we should be granting preferential trade status to a government that coddles death squads that target union organizers. Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world for union members, where more than 2,200 workers have been murdered since the 1980s by Colombian death squads for trying to form unions while the government has done nothing to effectively stop the murders. It is time for Penn to go."
Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, Mr. Penn’s campaign-consulting firm, received more than $10 million in payments from the Clinton campaign as of the end of February, according to federal election filings.
From source watch:
In addition, The Nation notes Burson-Marsteller's astroturf "attacks against environmental and consumer groups," and its "confrontational relationship with organized labor," as well as Penn's polling firm's work for the nuclear power industry (which the Center for Media and Democracy reported on).
Penn, who commented for both himself and the Clinton campaign, stated that "Senator Clinton’s well-documented support for pro-union causes would not in any way be affected by some clients in a firm related to the corporate network of one of her advisers. There is no connection whatsoever with her pro-union record." He also said "I personally had zero involvement in any of the work related to Cintas."
Subsequently, Penn told Atlantic Online "I have recused myself from working on any management-side labor relations work."
I guess he forgot to mention pushing through trade bills to benefit governments that systematically murder unionists.
Ari Berman is right, of course, as today's WSJ revelations show. Penn is not recusing himself from anything. And Clinton is either a fool or a liar to keep him on.