Dems blast Sen. Clinton for using strategist who's also CEO of PR firm

Dems blast Sen. Clinton for using strategist who's also CEO of PR firm

July 8, 2007

BY ROBERT NOVAK Sun-Times ColumnistSen. Hillary Clinton is facing increasing Democratic criticism for using Mark Penn as her presidential campaign's chief strategist while he also serves as CEO of Burson-Marsteller, the public relations giant with corporate clients whose policies run opposite to Clinton's.

Clients include Royal Dutch Shell (attacked by Clinton for ''windfall profits''), as well as tobacco and pharmaceutical firms with records she has deplored. Penn was a key operative in President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign and continued as a second-term adviser.
A footnote: Penn criticized Bloomberg News, which has reported on conflicts between Burson-Marsteller and the Clinton campaign, for obtaining ''several months'' of Penn's internal blogs. On June 29, a former employee who started a rival firm filed suit in New York City against Penn for monitoring his personal e-mails.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/novak/459642,CST-EDT-novak08.article