Apparently, they didn't feel Penn should apologize for meeting with them. And they're right! As Penn has made abundantly clear by refusing to step down from Burson-Marsteller, this is his job. To meet with clients, and use his political skills and contacts to advocate for their agendas. All Penn did wrong was getting caught. As Matt says, the ultimate responsibility here doesn't lie with Penn. It lies with Clinton. If she had demanded that Penn step down from his political PR firm to help run her campaign, he would've, just as Karl Rove stepped down from his other commitments to strategize for George W. Bush. Now that she's likely to lose, he may be less amenable. But it always bespoke a weird level of entitlement on Penn's part and dependency on Clinton's that he was never forced to step down from his other jobs in order to be the key staffer on the campaign of the frontrunner for the presidency. Forget the conflicts of interest: Did no one feel that sort of thing required his full attention? Or was Penn considered so indispensable that Clinton couldn't ask him to leave Burson-Marsteller because he might refuse, and so brilliant that he could carry out the position even without giving it his full attention?
