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Charlie Rangel does not yet get it. Free trade is a
loser. Public rejection of free trade helped him gain the chairmanship of the House
Ways and Means Committee in 2006. But he thinks it was Iraq. Or
something else. So he keeps pushing stupid trade deals based upon
the 15 year old failed NAFTA model.
Mark Penn now gets it. I mean he really got it. He lost his very high-profile, and very lucrative, job
heading the Hillary Clinton campaign. Ten million buckaroos,
apparently, to do the job. His boss stated opposition to the Colombia
FTA. But Penn, in his day job, is the head of Burson-Marstellar,
an international consulting firm. He has a $300,000 contract with
the Colombian government to help secure passage of that FTA.
Last
Monday, he met with the Colombian ambassador to strategize. It
could not have been the first meeting... but it was the first meeting
the public found out about.
A person within the Clinton campaign said Sunday that Mrs. Clinton
was “disappointed” that Mr. Penn had taken on Colombia as a client and
had met with Colombian officials to advise them on how to win passage
of a pact she has publicly denounced.
Mrs. Clinton was said to be furious when she learned that he was
employed by and consulting with the Colombians on the trade treaty.
He was employed by the friggin' Colombia government. A foreign government. And he lost on the that side too.
Mr. Penn apologized Friday and said the meeting had been a
mistake. The Colombians, offended by what they called an insult from a
hired lobbyist and spokesman, fired him and Burson-Marsteller on
Saturday.
Too bad. The Colombian government apparently took the "mistake" language personally - having a hissy fit as Maureen Dowd may say. The Colombian statement:
But his apology annoyed the Colombian government - which issued a
statement calling Penn's remarks a "declaration of a lack of respect
towards Colombians, which is unacceptable".
He apparently has yet another gig, as head of the
polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates - and will continue
a polling contract with the Clinton campaign.
One foot in and one foot out of the campaign. A clean break would probably be better.
The Colombia FTA is
an outsourcing agreement. It is designed, like its sister FTA's,
to enable multinationals to relocate there and sell their products back
here. The deal continues divesting our domestic government of the
power to make laws, because foreign corporations are granted the right
to sue our state, local and federal government for laws that infringe
upon their "right" to make a profit, or affect their investment
expectations.
Maybe this event will reveal that free trade is a
loser. The Very. Serious. People. in DC will probably
editorialize with another baloney op-ed preaching Economics 101 (and editorials like this one from the NY Times).
But Congressman and Senators need to pay attention to their
employers. The voters. And the voters are not buying
"Economics 101" anymore.
[p.s. Penn's firm also represents Countrywide Financial (can you say subprime mortgages?) and Blackwater Worldwide.]
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