So look what a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller is doing now...

[antigop]

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Blackwater_PR_firm_aided_Chalabi_Works_1022.html

The firm that "coached" Blackwater CEO Eric Prince for a Congressional hearing previously represented Iraq intelligence launderer Ahmed Chalabi and is now working with AT&T to repair their image in the wake of their involvement in President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program.

The communications firm BKSH, a subsidiary of public relations giant Burson-Marsteller, is run by a man with extremely close ties to the Bush Administration.

The founder and current head of BKSH is Charlie Black, whose ties with the Bush family go back to 1972, when he and Karl Rove were jockeying for control of the College Republicans in a campaign so dirty that George H.W. Bush, then head of the Republican National Committee, had to step in and sort matters out. Black then worked for Ronald Reagan's and George H.W. Bush's presidential campaigns from 1976 to 1992. He served as an adviser to George W. Bush's campaigns in 2000 and 2004 and is often quoted in news stories as an unofficial White House spokesman.

[mod mom]

1. Clinton top campaign Strategist, Mark Penn is CEO of Burson-Marsteller:

Mark J. Penn is worldwide CEO of the PR firm Burson-Marsteller (B-M), a position he has held since December 2005. <1> He is also the president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates (PSB), which he co-founded in 1975.

Penn is also U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's top presidential campaign strategist. A biographical note states that he "has worked with Mrs. Clinton for over six years, since he ran the polling and messaging for her successful election to the US Senate in 2000." <2>

Penn also served as NPI Fellow at the New Politics Institute. He advised United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair "for his successful run for a third term." Penn is "best known for serving as President Bill Clinton's pollster and political adviser for the 1996 re-election campaign and throughout the second term of the administration. He also ran the polling and messaging and was part of the media team for the successful Senate campaign of Hillary Clinton, serving as her chief campaign adviser. He advises organizations and companies on a wide range of image, branding and competitive marketing assignments. Mark has been a key adviser to Bill Gates and Microsoft for the last 6 years." <3> <4>

Penn is married to Nancy Jacobson, a longtime Democratic Party fundraiser who in addition to helping found Third Way serves as Senior Advisor to Senator Evan Bayh, National Finance Chair for the Democratic Leadership Council, and Founder and Executive Director of Next Generation, a political action committee devoted to supporting moderate, centrist Senate candidates.

-snip

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mark_Penn

FUNNY...THESE CLOSE CONNECTIONS TO THE NEOCONS. TOO CLOSELY CORPORATE FOR MY TASTE.

[antigop]

2. yep. n/t

[mod mom]

3. Updates from The Nation "HRC's Blackwater Connection"

HRC'S BLACKWATER CONNECTION... UPDATE: Mark Penn emailed the Politico's Ben Smith to say that the Associated Press story, on which I wrote this blog post, is inaccurate. "It was a temporary assignment based on a relationship that has concluded," Penn says. "Burson is correcting this." The question, of course, is what was the "temporary assignment," when did it begin and when did it conclude? To be continued...

UPDATE II: Burson says its subsidiary, BKSH & Associates, run by GOP operative Charlie Black, "helped Blackwater prepare for their recent hearing before Congress. With the hearing over, BKSH's temporary engagement has ended."

The PR firm run by Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's top strategist, has a new client: Blackwater.

Burson and its subsidiaries, as I reported in a profile of Hillary's corporate advisors in May, has represented everyone from union-busters to big tobacco to Ahmad Chalabi. Blackwater represents a new low.

-SNIP

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?pid=240313

[mod mom]

5. WaPo: A Few Degrees of Separation From Hillary Clinton's Top Adviser

A Few Degrees of Separation From Hillary Clinton's Top Adviser

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; Page A11



Mark J. Penn is a man who wears many hats: high-paid political and corporate pollster, chief executive of an international communications and lobbying company, and chief strategist to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Enough connections for you?


Well, there are more. Penn's firm, Burson-Marsteller Worldwide -- with 2,000 employees and $300 million a year in revenue -- owns BKSH & Associates, the major lobbying firm chaired by Charles R. Black Jr. That's right, Black, counselor to Republican presidents, reports to Clinton's top strategist.

The connections get even more entangled. Burson-Marsteller is a subsidiary of WPP Group, a London-based advertising and PR giant that owns many of the biggest names on K Street. These include Quinn Gillespie & Associates, Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates, Timmons & Co., Ogilvy Government Relations Worldwide (formerly the Federalist Group), Public Strategies Inc., Dewey Square Group and Hill & Knowlton.

To be more precise, Penn's parent company employs as lobbyists and advisers an ex-chairman of the Republican National Committee (Edward W. Gillespie), a former House GOP leader (Robert S. Walker), a top GOP fundraiser (Wayne L. Berman), and the former media adviser to President Bush (Mark McKinnon).





http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900972.html

THIS IS NOT ABOUT HILLARY BASHING BUT ON KNOWING THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN HILLARY'S TOP STRATEGIST AND CORPORATE ENTITIES NOT WORKING IN DEMOCRATS BEST INTEREST.

SOME HERE CLAIM THE NATION IS ANTI HILLARY. WELL HERE IS WA PO.

[antigop]

6. Thank you. n/t

[Captain Hilts]

12. B-M is the General Motors of PR. It's huge. Charlie Black was with Black, Manafort and Stone ...

for years. I wonder if B-M bought them.

[Zhade]

15. Jesus fucking christ.

Americans haven't learned a thing if Clinton wins - except how to pretend things would change.

[Bluebear]

4. Kick kick kick

[Forkboy]

7. Kicking this one

:kick:

[earthboundmisfit]

8. Allow me to be #5

and :kick:

[antigop]

9. Thank you. n/t

[Lugnut]

10. K&R n/t

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. With that history, ATT is in deep shit.

Prince's future will get rockier and rockier. Chalabi is now known to be the thief scoundrel and liar. Clinton is getting a lot of heat for having him on board.

If you look at it from another way, everything they touch, turns to shit.

[robinlynne]

13. vomiting.... (figuratively speaking)

[waiting for hope]

14. Please, any Hillary supporter:

Explain why this man still is on her payroll? Why? Sheer principal alone should tell her to let him go. Doesn't he have family he needs to spend more time with?

[Richard Steele]

16. Grrrecommended.

[slipslidingaway]

17. K&R We need someone without any ties :( n/t

[antigop]

18. Thanks for the recs,everyone! n/t

[dkofos]

19. Could it be time to break up ATT AGAIN??

And all the rest of the MEGA-corporations!!