~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL
Here’s a nugget from The Hill.com:
Mark Penn’s two firms awarded millions from stimulus for public relations work
According to the story,
A contract worth nearly $6 million in stimulus funds was awarded by the Obama adminstration to two firms run by Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton’s pollster in 2008.
Burson-Marsteller won the contract to work on a public-relations campaign to advertise the national switch from analog to digital television. Nearly $2.8 million of the contract was awarded through a subcontract to Penn’s polling firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland, according to federal records.
Federal records also show that a former adviser to President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign received nearly $70,000 from that contract to help alert viewers in difficult-to-reach communities that their televisions would soon no longer receive broadcast signals.
MORE
Specifically, the Obama adviser worked on the ad messaging aimed at Hispanics, only 39 days before the digital transition on June 10.
Just this past Tuesday, Republicans John McCain and Tom Coburn held a news conference to complain that the advertising campaign was a waste of taxpayer dollars.
However,
McCain and Coburn did not show any indication that they knew two Democratic political strategists received funding through the grant.
Hey, I guess that means that Republicans don’t really read large stimulus bills, either!!
…And, of course, Republicans NEVER waste taxpayer dollars, either!
Sigh. This game is getting so old…
But, the question that lingers about Hillary Clinton and whether we assume that this is part of a deal Hillary Clinton cut with Obama after the 2008 primaries were over. I guess I would lean toward that assumption!
Filed under: Current Politics | Tagged: 2008 Democratic primaries, 2009 stimulus package, analog to digital television, Barack Obama, Burson-Marsteller, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton's 2008 pollster, Mark Penn, Penn Schoen & Berland, public relations, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Tom Coburn |
InsightAnalytical -- Watching Our World 
I’m not so sure that Hillary needed to bother cutting a deal for Penn. You seem to forget that these guys are all one big, elitist country club. The only time they’re not partisan is when they’re passing out our tax dollars.
Besides, who’s to say that it wasn’t an Obama pay off for tanking Hillary’s campaign. As I recall, there was quite a hullabaloo about Penn at a very inopportune moment in the primaries.
I’m not defending Hillary here – far from it. Just pointing out that there are so many corrupt reasons for Penn to have received the money that the possibility that Hillary used her bargaining chips for anyone other than herself or Bill seems remote to me. Not to mention the fact that she doesn’t seem to have gotten much out of the whole deal. I suspect Obama had the real bargaining power in those negotiations; some nasty bit he could reveal about Bill that would trash his Presidency even more then Obama’s already trashed it would be my guess. Maybe even some dirt from Penn. These people have no loyalty to anyone and will do anything to anyone for money.
Very true, there are many possiblities….
I was into the notion about Hillary’s campaign debt and what they were negotiating about re: Obama paying some of those debts…
Murky waters, indeed!!