Thanks for the Garin bio.  Shouldn't this conflict of interest with Penn's lobbying work have disqualified him from the start?

"to humanizer her?"  Little tiny typo...

stgla:  you're assuming that Hillary actually cares about such piddling matters as conflict of interest. There was always a conflict--it just hadn't been publicized until now.

My own sources say he got the boot because he was consistently bankrupting her campaign with his monthly donut bills.

So Penn gives up his official title, and I assume won't be talking to the press anymore, but "will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign."

So he's not really leaving.

Why do I hear the song "Born Free" playing in my head?

ARG tonight:

PA--Clinton 45: Obama 45

Penn had to go.  Time for a Hail Mary pass . . .

I don't think he's really leaving either, same as Sandy Berger. He's just not going to get paid. Over the table. See how distrustful I am? Do you wonder why?

Related yet new thought, as of only just now:

CDS, Clinton Derrangement Syndrome, is supposed to be a disease where you just hate them no matter what. You cannot see any facts through anything but your hatin'-Clinton[s] glasses. BDS is supposed to be the same thing for Bush. Here's my thought: BDS is supposed to be had by Democrats, right? We hate Bush not for what he's done, but because we're filthy commie hippies, and we have to project our hatred for freedom and individual responsibility on this poor man, because we need an effigy to burn.

But why do I hate both of them? How is CDS explained when it shows up in people who want universal health care, for us to get out of Iraq, to stop torturing people, to keep abortion legal, and to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the rich? How did I get this disease? Isn't it supposed to be for people who hate powerful women or something?

Explain, please.

This segment of Hardball from the pre-Iowa days should go down as a defining moment in the campaign:

youtube.com/watch

It's Penn at his slimiest. Trippi's response to Penn is absolutely priceless.

You're awfully psychoanalytical these days, psantillana. Just sayin'

Too little, too late.

I don't understand why this latest kerfluffle should force Penn off the Hillary campaign. He's done much worse work for anti-union clients and for big polluters in the past. If Hillary and her AFSCME masters were cool with Penn's union-busting work, why should the Columbia meeting bother them?

Now if only Wolfson would follow suit.

These two hacks were so unappealing and appeared to be so out-of-touch with reality that they --- almost more than anything else about Hillary's campaign -- turned me off from even considering voting for her. They embodied everything that I disliked about the Clintons themselves: the shading of the truth, the partisan rhetoric, the programmed, poll-tested responses. And the fact that it took Hillary so many months to finally pull the trigger on this guy only reconfirms what a bad manager she really is.

This marks the nadir of the Clinton campaign. In years from now, historians will note that on April 7th, the campaign was in the doldrums dispirited, and beset on all sides by enemies & media turncoats. But by the evening of April 22, after HRC had routed Obama by 70%-25% in PA, the momentum had switched to her. And by May 6th, when Hillary effectively destroys Obama in Indiana, superdelegates began to abandon the banner of Barack and embrace that of HRC.

Remember, it is always darkest before the dawn. Don’t give up HRC!!

rhubarbs,

You don't believe the cover story, do you?  It's a face-saver.  That's all.  Doesn't need to withstand scrutiny any more than "resigning to spend more time with my familly" does.

No, BHLnyc, the fact that she hired them in the first place proves what a bad manager she really is. The problem is not failing to fire bad advisers, the problem is hiring so many people who later need to be fired.

Garin isn't doing much. And they're still paying Penn's polling firm.

ralphnelle, that is a classic bit. And the fact that the two were standing! next to each other made it  priceless. You couldn't even cast a more odious, shifty little weasel if you tried. Honestly, if Mark Penn doesn't find a career in Hollywood as a villainous pig (white collar crook, adulterer, murderer, sheep molester) then Hollywood has no imagination.

If nothing else, it's a morale boost to Clinton staffers who chafed at Penn's presence.

Garin is qualified to lead a tough campaign?

"In 2001, Mr. Garin’s strategic research helped Mark Warner win the governorship in Virginia, despite the state’s strong Republican leanings."

Okay, granted, but, if the test is Garin's ability to pilot a campaign to victory in Republican territory, then the list of senators whose other campaigns he managed is unimpressive: "Dick Durbin, Dianne Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, Russ Feingold, Robert C. Byrd, Jay Rockefeller, Patrick Leahy, Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, and Byron Dorgan."  Compared to Virginia, for a Democrat to win in Illinois, California, NY State, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Vermont, Montana, or the Dakotas is almost a piece of cake.  I wonder which losing campaigns Garin has managed.

blackston,

That is priceless!  He could be the next actor, like the ones that came out of Watergate, Fred Thompson and G. Gordon Liddy, only they didn't really play the bad guys in movies and TV, they played them in real life.  His only downfall, though, as far as a Hollywood career goes is that he doesn't have the dry, witty, sense of humor those two had.

Somebody who is "out" is somebody who is no longer part of the campaign.

Mark Penn will continue to be paid, and paid a lot, by the Clinton campaign.  How exactly is Mark Penn "out"?

Hard to say how he has been forced out or is now off the campaign when he is still cashing checks.

Is it just me, or does Mark Penn look like the love child of Bob Shrum?

"I once ate a pot roast this big...."

Sorry, couldn't resist a caption.

Rhubarbs puzzles:

"I don't understand why this latest kerfluffle should force Penn off the Hillary campaign. He's done much worse work for anti-union clients and for big polluters in the past. If Hillary and her AFSCME masters were cool with Penn's union-busting work, why should the Columbia meeting bother them?"

It's that the press/cable/web hounds all smell blood and odor and are barking up a storm that will not abate until they've had their way with him. Soon if not already other scents will lead to more quarry, possibly including the fox queen herself.

Hillary after the Goolsbee NAFTA business:

"I would ask you to look at this story and substitute my name for Sen. Obama's name and see what you would do with this story.  Just ask yourself [what you would do] if *some of my advisers had been having private meetings with foriegn governments.*"

Oops.