by John McCormick
Sen. Barack Obama's campaign today tried to use this week's resignation of Sen. Hillary Clinton's top strategist to gain advantage with union voters.
The controversy involving Mark Penn has the potential to put Clinton on the defensive on trade in advance of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary and May 6 Indiana primary.
"I think she has a credibility issue," James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, told reporters on an Obama campaign conference call.
It was recently reported that Penn met with Columbian officials as part of his job as CEO of a global public relations firm, prompting Clinton to demote him and shake up her campaign team.
That nation had hired Penn to boost its efforts to reach a free trade agreement with the United States, a deal opposed by Clinton and many labor leaders.
"The smartest thing she could do would be to jettison him," said Hoffa, who is campaigning for Obama today in Pennsylvania.
Hoffa said he warned Clinton in a letter a year ago that Penn had been involved in lobbying for "anti-union" efforts and that she should reconsider her employment of him.
Hoffa's union is one of several national union groups that rallied around Obama after John Edwards left the Democratic race.
In rebuttal, Clinton is seeking to again raise the issue of a meeting Obama's top economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee, had with Canadian officials that included a discussion of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Although his campaign has denied the suggestion, Goolsbee may have told Canadian officials that Obama is not as serious about repealing NAFTA as his rhetoric suggests (a past story is linked here).
Hoffa said it was "not a smart meeting," but that comparing Goolsbee to Penn is not a fair comparison because the economic advisor was not being paid for his work.
"I think that he should make a statement," Hoffa said of Goolsbee. "He should come up and say what he believes and ... end this mystery about what happened."
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Comments
Uh... Hoffa... the comparison is fair...because Penn was representing himself... and Gooldbee was representing the Obama campaign.
Hillary gets points for not lying about Penn's meeting. Obama LIED about Goolsbee and in fact said it never happened.
Not good for Hillary having the Penn association, but it does appear that Hillary is the victim of bad judgement on Penn's part. Whereas, Obama tried to cover up his campaign's blunder with obfuscation.
Posted by: Nickberry | April 8, 2008 1:34 PM
If Obama can get close to Clinton - say within 3-4 points, he will finish Clinton. If Hillary cannot win Pennsylvania with the full support of the entire Pennsylvania Democrat machine, she can't win the general. I'm sure the party will do all it can to insure a victory no matter how small for her. In other machine states like Pennsylvania, the dead vote and vote often. I wouldn't be surprised to hear allegations of this kind in the Pa. primary. Still two weeks to go and with Hillary's penchant for messing up, Obama may very well take the primary. If that happens, the earth might come off its axis.
Posted by: Jeff in Orlando | April 8, 2008 2:34 PM
If Obama can get close to Clinton - say within 3-4 points, he will finish Clinton. If Hillary cannot win Pennsylvania with the full support of the entire Pennsylvania Democrat machine, she can't win the general. I'm sure the party will do all it can to insure a victory no matter how small for her. In other machine states like Pennsylvania, the dead vote and vote often. I wouldn't be surprised to hear allegations of this kind in the Pa. primary. Still two weeks to go and with Hillary's penchant for messing up, Obama may very well take the primary. If that happens, the earth might come off its axis.
Posted by: Jeff in Orlando | April 8, 2008 2:34 PM
Nickberry, it seems you and Hillary have the same problem with the truth.
1) Penn did not clarify if he was representing himself or Hillary.
2) Gooldbee is not a paid advisor and he was representing himself not Obama. Obama didn't lie, he wasn't aware of it because he did not ask Goolsbee to speak for him. It has been documented that Hillary has long know of the conflict of interest with Penn and chose to do nothing about it.
3) Hillary is not the victim of bad judgment, she just has bad judgment. 1) she votes for the war, then 2) she lies about criticizing it before obama, then 3) the Ireland peace talk, next 4) the Kosova border, then 5) sniper fires in Bosnia and now 6) Penn's conflict of interest and supposed firing. Let's not forget 7) the so called "35" years of experience that included 19 years as first lady in Arkansas and D.C. With that standard, all doctor's spouses should claim to be capable doctors by virtue of their close relationships (how idiotic and foolish!)
Zeifman claims he fired Hillary for unethical behavior and that she conspired to deny Richard Nixon counsel during the hearings. We are now learning that Hillary is a habitual liar with highly questionable moral compass.
Posted by: Afrobaby | April 8, 2008 2:35 PM
It's Colombia, not Columbia.
Posted by: Chris K | April 8, 2008 2:35 PM
wOW!! Mr. Penn still getting paid by the blue-collar donations given to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. What a spit on the face that must be...paying the guy who was trying to outsource your job. It seems Mr. Wolfson is on the same boat.
WAIT!! Look over there, in Beijing!!
Posted by: Fortey | April 8, 2008 2:47 PM
wOW!! Mr. Penn still getting paid by the blue-collar donations given to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. What a spit on the face that must be...paying the guy who was trying to outsource your job. It seems Mr. Wolfson is on the same boat.
WAIT!! Look over there, in Beijing!!
Posted by: Fortey | April 8, 2008 2:48 PM
Some unpaid nobody vs. her (paid) top adviser? And didn't Clinton herself ask us to imagine the press if it were her name instead of Obama's?
Now, we no longer have to imagine.
Posted by: Ann Onimus | April 8, 2008 2:52 PM
Let's talk about "credibility" for a minute, Hoffa. You are the last one to pontificate about that. At least Hillary immediately fired Penn after she found out about his clear conflict of interest with the campaign. The Teamsters Union however, has made a history out of keeping employees on payroll with conflicts of interest - for extended periods of time. Let see, there's Scalfie - he milked the coffers for months before being dismissed after his little problem. And then there is the host of IRB racketeers that appear at the end of every Teamster magazine. BIG TIME conflict of interest. Kind of explains why they can turn a blind eye to Obama's Resco ties - I mean, as long as it is a Chicago mobster, it's just fine to have these kinds of questionable ties, huh? This takes the cake, Hoffa talking about credibility. Can you say 'inconsistant'?
But there is one thing that is really consistant about the IBT- their treatment of strong women. Throw the only female E-Board member out the door - no "Marble Palace" for the ladies! Flight Lady gets dropped from the slate. And then there's Educator/Chief Steward Mary Jane. She really got the shaft. So, of course, Hillary won't get the Boy's Club endorsement. Not up in that place!
Oh, but they can sure bring Hillary in to speak at the Teamster's 100 Year anniversary!
Now, I'll buy that Edwards was the strongest candidate for Labor - no doubt. But after his departure, it is obvious that Hillary was the one that picked up the mantle for labor - much more than Obama has. He's good at sliding in a taking the money when it's offered, but what has he shown he will do for working class people? Hillary had some questionable ties in her past - but she's spent her Senate career building a reputation as an advocate for working people - just ask Syracuse Teamsters about that!!!! And if there is one thing you have to admit - loyalty matters to the Clintons. With working people acting as her life line in this campaign- she will look after them when she is elected. Because loyalty matters to her. To the point that she fired her chief strategist at a key moment, a moment when the press will try to bury her with it, because she listens to unions - like AFSME, that are loyal to her.
Get over it, Hoffa. Just jealous because Hillary has more moxy than you. You and all the boys.
Posted by: IBTInsider | April 8, 2008 4:10 PM
Posted by: IBTInsider | April 8, 2008 4:10 PM
Yeah, loyalty to a fault does matter to the Clinton's just like it does for the Bush's. That's why Clinton is opposing NAFTA during the day and at night Clinton's campaign flunkie, Mark Penn is busy working on trade deals with the Colombian govt.
Posted by: noInsiders! | April 8, 2008 5:17 PM
Get over it, Hoffa. Just jealous because Hillary has more moxy than you. You and all the boys.
Posted by: IBTInsider | April 8, 2008 4:10 PM
YEA IF YOU DEFINE MOXY AS LYING. HIL-LIE-RY IS A JOKE!!
Posted by: Keith Lifetime Southsider | April 8, 2008 5:47 PM
Obama - the 21st century version of Herbert Hoover.
First he'll restrict trade like Hoover did with Smoot-Hawley and then he is going to drastically raise the highest income/payroll tax rate from 38% to 54% similar to how Hoover raised the highest personal tax rate from 25% to 63% - the result of Hoover's actions are well known. You would think Obama would learn
Posted by: Terry | April 8, 2008 9:14 PM