Hillary this morning on CNN tries to portray the demotion of Mark Penn as superior to Barack Obama's non-firing of outside advisor Austin Goolsbee after he allegedly told a Canadian official that much of Obama's rhetoric on NAFTA was campaign hot-air:
"I find it kind of curious, we took action, and I think it was appropriate. Contrast that to Senator Obama's campaign where, as far as I know, nothing was ever done when one of his top economic advisers representing the campaign, unlike Mr. Penn who was not representing the campaign, but Mr. Obama's representative told the Canadian government basically not to pay any attention to what Senator Obama was saying about NAFTA."
First, the statement her own campaign issued on Sunday said "Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist." So according to her own campaign -- she did nothing. Penn acted on his own. Does she think we're so accustomed to disingenuous evasion that we're supposed to know the statement was bull?
Second: What action? Penn is still advising the campaign, still preparing her for debates, still telling his own aides that he's tight with Hillary and Bill, still polling. This is supposed to be some definitive statement of disapproval for working against her position and for a trade deal with a country that is intimidating unionists? Come on. It hasn't even satisfied some of her own supporters.
Third, Goolsbee said he never told the Canadians what a memo quoted him as saying. So there was an enduring factual issue. Penn never denied that he and his firm are earning big bucks from Colombia for pushing the trade deal. And if Penn is still with the Clinton campaign, why is there an issue with Goolsbee working for Obama?
Update: On an Obama conference call, Teamsters President James Hoffa says Goolsbee should offer a better description of what he did say to the Candanian consul (a little off-message?), while Penn should be completely cut out of the Clinton campaign:
"You can't have a guy on your payroll who's working for a foreign government... It really hurts her credibility. It would be the smartest thing she could do to jettison him."