by Michelle Cottle
Inside Hillaryland's fatal psychodrama.Post Date Wednesday, May 07, 2008
By the time Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle finally packed up her lovely corner office with its fresh blue carpet and mini-fridge full of Diet Coke, her exit must have come as a relief--even to many of her friends on Team Hillary. Since Iowa, colleagues had been conducting an uneasy deathwatch for her. New faces had begun popping up around Ballston (as Hillary HQ is called in honor of its suburban Virginia neighborhood), most notably Maggie Williams, Hillary's chief of staff from her First Lady days. Initially, the campaign insisted that Williams was there merely to back up Solis Doyle, but, almost immediately, staffers began turning to Williams to solve problems and approve projects. When the inevitable strain of having two people atop the organizational chart became untenable, few questioned who would be the last woman standing. On February 10, the Sunday after Super Tuesday, Solis Doyle was officially out.
Leadership change brings disruption. And no one knows how to exploit disruption better than Mark Penn, the message master of Team Hillary. Long disdainful of Solis Doyle, Penn saw her departure as an opportunity to consolidate his authority, say insiders. He started hanging out in her old office, which had been transformed into a conference room, and taking over meetings and in-house e-mail chains she once handled (occasionally bumping up against similar efforts by Williams). At the same time, Penn's colleagues from Burson-Marsteller, the p.r. giant of which he is chief executive, became more visible around HQ. "I think, post-Patti, he only got stronger," says one in-house observer. Williams may have been the new chief, but Penn had his own ideas about how things should run.
Then came the news that Penn had attended a March 31 meeting with the Colombian ambassador to discuss his firm's role in promoting a free-trade agreement specifically opposed by Clinton. In addition to undermining Hillary's outreach to working-class Democrats, Penn's corporate moonlighting laid bare long-festering concerns about his split loyalties and perceived conflicts of interest. On April 6, less than two months after Solis Doyle's departure, Penn was relieved of his post as campaign architect. Once again, Team Hillary found itself trying to regain its equilibrium following an inner-circle loss.
Or perhaps not. Though Penn stepped down as chief strategist, he is still advising the operation. And, title or no, Penn is not a man who functions well as a team player. His sharp elbows, turf invasions, and control-freak tendencies are legendary and unlikely to be held in check, say current and former colleagues. Can his replacements--pollster Geoff Garin, who joined Team Hillary in March, and communications director Howard Wolfson--effectively defend their new turf with Penn still lurking? Don't bet on it.
Rife with big egos and competing centers of influence--veterans of Hillary's First Lady days, relative newbies from her Senate office, Bill's '92 people, Bill's '96 people--Team Hillary has never been a comfortably cohesive group. In happier times, discipline was easier to maintain. But, as this race has grown longer and rougher, the staff's nerves and relations have been badly strained by persistent financial troubles and constant turf wars, not to mention one increasingly unmanageable ex-president. Some days, it's hard to remember that, just six months ago, the campaign was regarded as a highly disciplined machine. More and more, it resembles an unruly rock band plagued by dysfunction and public infighting. From Williams's arrival to Solis Doyle's demise to Penn's ascent, fall, and return, the ebb and flow of power in Hillaryland over the past few months has left multiple people acting like they are in charge--and no one really in control.
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http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=54d3af5a-abde-4874-9d98-2bc4b8e23185Sent to me by a Friend. :)
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