Mark Penn is Hillary Clinton's chief strategist. By any measure, he's not doing a very good job, and he continues to stick his foot in his mouth with statements like this:
"I think for superdelegates, the quality of where the win comes from should matter in terms of making a judgment about who might be the best general election candidate."
One of the things that really makes people distrust Mark Penn is that he's not just Hillary's chief strategist, he's also CEO of Burson-Marsteller, one of the world's largest and most powerful public relations and lobbying firms.
Burson's clients include several sovereign wealth funds, which in plain English means his firm represents oil-rich foreign governments. Last August, for example, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (a sovereign wealth fund) hired Penn's firm. A few months later, ADIA purchased a 5% stake in Citigroup. Other clients include Dubai International Capital and Dubai Group.
But the most unusual Penn connection may be his ties to John McCain.
You see, Burson (that's Penn's company) owns another company called BKSH.
BKSH describes itself as "a premier bipartisan government relations and public affairs firm." In other words, it's a lobbying firm.
The head of BKSH is a man by the name of Charlie Black -- and he just happens to be one of John McCain's key advisers. In fact, after Super Tuesday, it was Black who coordinated McCain's message that he was the presumptive Republican nominee.
The thought of Hillary Clinton's chief strategist as the boss of one of John McCain's strategists is, well -- peculiar.
I'm sure that many wondered whether the professional relationship between Penn and Black played a role in the McCain campaign's decision on Wednesday to attack Barack Obama -- using the exact same message that Hillary Clinton was delivering on the exact same day.
Then again, maybe Penn had nothing to do with it. Perhaps McCain was just trying to pick his opponent.
After all, McCain leads Hillary in public polling -- but he trails Obama.
© Jed Lewison