http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080406/pl_nm/usa_politics_clinton_dc
Hillary Clinton strategist quits amid Colombia trade flap
By Ellen Wulfhorst
1 hour, 35 minutes ago
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) - A top campaign aide to Sen.
Hillary Clinton, under fire for meeting with a Colombian diplomat to
discuss a free trade deal that the presidential candidate opposes,
quit his post on Sunday, the campaign said.
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"After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up
his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign," Clinton's
campaign manager Maggie Williams said in a statement.
She said Penn would continue to provide polling and advice to the
campaign.
News of Penn's March 31 meeting with Colombian Ambassador Carolina
Barco Isakson, in which they discussed a free trade deal, first
surfaced on Friday.
Penn apologized for the meeting, which he held in his separate role as
chief executive officer of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, a lobbying
firm hired by the South American country to help win the approval by
the U.S. Congress of a free trade agreement with the United States.
But the issue plagued the campaign of the New York senator, who is
vying with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to become the Democratic nominee
to run against Republican John McCain in the November election.
Skepticism about free trade runs deep among the working-class voters
Clinton and Obama are courting, and both Democratic candidates oppose
the deal with Colombia.
The president of the politically powerful Teamsters union, James
Hoffa, said on Saturday that Penn's meeting with the Colombian
officials undermined Clinton's stance on labor and trade issues.
"How can we trust that a President Hillary Clinton would stand strong
against this trade deal when her top advisor is being paid by Colombia
to promote it?" he asked in a statement.
Obama also has criticized Clinton saying she has close ties to
lobbyists who might undue influence shaping policies, should she
become president.
The controversy prompted an angry reaction from Colombia, which took
offense at Penn's statement in which he called the meeting "an error
in judgment."
The Colombian Embassy in Wa****ngton announced it was ending its
contract with Burson-Marsteller, which had been hired a year ago.
The Clinton campaign has asserted that Penn's meeting was "independent
of the campaign."
The two Democratic candidates have been sparring over the issue of
trade, with each questioning the other's credibility in their pledges
to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
(Editing by Chris Wilson)
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