Hillary brings up Jeremiah Wright, I'll bring up Mark Penn!

[backscatter712]

We can both play guilt-by-association.

And believe me. Not only does Jeremiah Wright look like a Boy Scout when compared to Mark Penn, but Hillary is a lot closer to Penn (he's Clinton's second in command!) than Obama is to Wright, and Penn has done a lot worse than merely shooting off his mouth.

His firm's been busy lobbying for Blackwater in Congress, to smooth over issues coming from their thugs machine-gunning people in the streets of Iraq.

Other clients of Penn's lobbying firm include union-busters, Union Carbide (in the wake of Bhopal) and Phillip Morris.

Meet Hillary's Brain: Mark Penn

Once compared to Karl Rove by former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards, top Clinton strategist Mark Penn seems indeed to be the Democratic equivalent of "Bush's Brain," both in his present capacity with the Hillary Clinton campaign and as a likely political advisor in any prospective Clinton administration. Edwards did not compare Penn to Rove only for their similar respective roles, however, but also for the equally suspect nature of their respective dealings in and out of government. If you can judge a man (such as George W. Bush) by the company he keeps, fairness suggests you can judge a woman (such as Hillary Clinton) likewise.

In addition to his work with the Clinton campaign, Mark Penn is the worldwide president and CEO of public relations giant Burson-Marsteller (BM), which with its lobbying subsidiary BKSH and Associates is noted for its work with such corporate villains as Blackwater USA and Philip Morris tobacco company. BM under Penn's direction is also noted for helping other corporations block union organizing efforts, about which labor leaders have expressed displeasure to the Clinton campaign. As detailed by Ari Berman in The Nation, BM's international activities include PR work with the Argentine military junta and with Union Carbide after the Bhopal disaster in India. BM pioneered the tactic of using false grassroots front groups, known as "astroturfing," to assist in corporate attacks on environmental and consumer organizations. On behalf of Philip Morris, for example, BM set up the National Smokers Alliance to fight tobacco regulation in the early 1990s.

SPIN THAT!!!

[redqueen]

1. Heh.

[From The Left]

2. And I'll Bring Up Ferraro. Hillary's Klan Seamstress

[backscatter712]

6. Not to mention other supporters, like Rush Limbaugh...

or should I say "supporters"...

[From The Left]

7. Hillary and McCain are BFFs. Billary Said So

[leftofcool]

3. I believe when asked, the Hillary Campaign said "no comment"

[geek tragedy]

5. While emailing the story to every news outlet

under the sun.

[backscatter712]

8. Yeah, I'm getting chirping crickets from the Hillary camp.

They didn't want us to bring up Hillary's brain, did they?

You know what they say about throwing stones and glass houses...

[backscatter712]

4. The more I look at Penn,

the more he looks like the protagonist from Thank You For Smoking.

Maybe we should kidnap him and slap nicotine patches on every square inch of his body...

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

9. Great comparison.

[backscatter712]

10. Shameless self-kick.

You think I'm going to let Penn live down his work for Blackwater and Philip Morris?

I think not.

[Rageneau]

11. Let's everybody bring out everyboidy! No holds barred!

Hillary and Obama should fight thie nomination with knives and clubs in a pungee-stick-filled mudpit. It is obviously too late to go back to civility, so both sides should pull out all the stops, use everything they can. Ferraro is fair game, so is Wright, so is everything else.

With one proviso: When the attacks start to sting, nobody can run behind the media's skirts, crying 'racism,' or 'sexism' or anything else. When the Clintons were falsely accused of racism, the stage was set for a no-holds-barred slugfest. So let's have one.