There's always someone behind the scenes of every campaign, either steering the ship into calm waters with plenty of fish to eat on a long journey or recklessly heading straight for an iceberg because of ignorance of the facts.
For John Kerry in 2004 he was stuck with longtime party moderate Bob Shrum who is noted for always guiding the campaigns he works on into icebergs. Karl Rove, using shrewd and slimy tactics always managed to find those calm, fish filled waters... until after 2004's reelection campaign when the Bush ship practically became a bumper boat that bounced continuously from one scandal to the next.
For Hillary Clinton it is certain that this captain not only is heading straight into the iceberg but he wants to tow the entire Democratic Party with it.
Generally even the most ardent supporters of a party's candidate that loses doesn't want their party to lose the general election in the fall but we're pretty certain at this point that for Hillary and for her top advisor, Mark Penn, this does not matter at all.
For Hillary it's win at all costs. She has no real admiration for Obama and if anything seems willing to get as dirty as possible to help John McCain win. As I mentioned below, scorched earth.
For Mark Penn the motivation is a bit different. He's got a pretty dubious distinction of being for everything anti-Democratic Party.
For example, we mentioned below that his PR firm represents Blackwater. They also represent United Technologies who this week tried to buy Diebold, the voting machine company that has helped Bushco steal that last two elections. Diebold's owner Warren O'Dell said infamously in August 2003 that, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president (Bush) next year."
His firm is also involved in union busting and has been very anti-labor. Of course being a part of the Democratic Leadership Council which is the supposed "moderates" of the Democratic Party who lean right and take business interests over those of workers and regular people usually means you're for busting out unions. And hey that works well with Hillary who was pro-NAFTA and worked for Wal-Mart (the biggest union busting corporation in the world).
Of course the ultimate slap in the face to Democrats is that while his firm is working for Hillary and choosing her path to go nuclear and destroy Barack Obama at all costs, they are also representing John McCain at the same time.
As Ari Berman put it for The Nation last May, there is a deep Republican connection to Penn.
A host of prominent Republicans fall under Penn's purview. B-M's Washington lobbying arm, BKSH & Associates, is run by Charlie Black, a leading GOP operative who maintains close ties to the White House, including Karl Rove, and was a partner with Lee Atwater, the consultant who crafted the Willie Horton smear campaign for George H.W. Bush in 1988. In recent years Black's clients have included the likes of Iraq's Ahmad Chalabi, the darling of the neocon right in the run-up to the war; Lockheed Martin; and Occidental Petroleum. In 2005 he landed a contract with the Lincoln Group, the disgraced PR firm that covertly placed US military propaganda in Iraqi news outlets.
Black is only one cannon in B-M's Republican arsenal.
AmericaBlog sums it up nicely:
Penn works for Clinton.
Black works for McCain.
And Black works for Penn.
Keep this in mind as you read some of the guiding principles for Penn's and Black's firm, courtesy of the Burson-Marsteller website:
# We, the directors and employees of all companies in WPP recognize our obligations to all who have a stake in our success including shareowners, clients, employees, and suppliers;...
# We will not for personal or family gain directly or indirectly engage in any activity which competes with companies within WPP or with our obligations to any such company;
# We will not have any personal or family conflicts of interest within our businesses or with our suppliers or other third parties with whom we do business;
So, again, we have to ask: Why is Mark Penn on a mission to destroy Obama? It's clear that Penn benefits if Hillary wins -- she's his client, his firm's client. His company benefits if McCain wins -- he's the client of one of Penn's top employees. 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?
Blackwater, McCain, Bush/Rove, Union Busting and possibly Diebold. Are there any more anti-Democratic establishments that this guy could be connected to?
As you take that into account you have to then realize Hillary is not running as a Democrat. When you hire PR firms that represent Republicans, worked with Bush/Rove and McCain at the same time as they have worked with you and have completely opposite principles as the party you claim to be strongly in support of then you are clearly not running as a Democrat.
It then makes sense why you have Rupert Murdoch fundraisers and won't release your taxes or make public what you did while in the White House. All of these things openly would tie you to the enemy because that's the team you play for.
It's probably also why Hillary would be proud of all the Republican cross over votes she got in Texas and Ohio (as we were quick to point out in the aftermath of last Tuesday's primaries). Especially knowing most were following the lead of Rush Limbaugh and keeping you in the race just to destroy your opponents so the Republicans can win and knowing you'll never have these people in the general election.
Don't believe it? Tell that to the investigators who want to know why 16,000 Republicans voted for Hillary in Cuyahoga County or the many who seemed to tell Howard Wilkinson of the Cincinnati Enquirer that they voted for Hillary to keep the race going:
In the fall, voters like Mary Kuhl of Westwood and Ryan Poirier of Norwood will be deluged with phone calls asking them to support the Democratic presidential nominee. Their mailboxes will fill up with the same kind of pleas.
The irony is that they are Republicans.
They - and untold thousands all over Ohio - walked into their polling places Tuesday and asked for a Democratic ballot to vote for the Democratic winner, Hillary Clinton. They did it, they say, to keep the Democratic family feud between the Clintonites and supporters of Barack Obama going for a while.
"I voted for Hillary before I vote against her," Kuhl said.
It all goes hand in hand. Hire a right wing, Republican operative that represents the very worst policies and corporations that have reaped the benefit of the Bush Administration. Then under their guidance destroy the Democratic nominee at all costs while propping up his other client, McCain, and convince Republicans to fuck with the Democratic primary to keep you in it.
After all, when you lay your cards down and the best you can muster up is a pair of twos when your opponent has a straight flush, it's better to bluff like hell and pray things work out. In this case the bluffing has worked to some degree but like everything else in Hillary's life there is no substance to her hand...
And bluffing only gets you so far.
It's time to fold them. For the good of the party.
-Rp
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