Mike Madden of Salon has a great takedown on Mark Penn and the costs (financial and otherwise) Penn and his firm's consultancy created for the Hillary Clinton campaign. The sums boggle the mind, but Madden’s string of rhetorical questions, as Chazz Michael Michaels might say, “bottle” the mind:
[W]hat are [donors to the campaign] getting for their money? Do the seniors who aren't taking medication really think [Howard] Wolfson's daily conference calls with the press are worth the $8,000 a week he made while Clinton lost primary after primary in February? Did Penn's direct mail really give Clinton an edge worth $8.9 million in the race against Obama? Don't candidates who are suddenly raising most of their money from people who can barely afford to send it in have some responsibility not to waste it once they get it? The sheer amount of money raised -- and spent -- this election ought to finally focus some attention on the consultant pay scales quietly established over the years in Washington.Great questions all, Mike, but don’t hold you’re breath on reform. On a related note, a friend who works with a major Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign official says that the Bush campaign person couldn’t believe the sums Penn raked in, adding that the entire costs to BC04 for media consulting was about $10 million.
--Tom Schaller
