Rachel Maddow Smacks Down Clinton Strategist Mark Penn & His Firm Burson-Marsteller

John Edwards in Iowa: "... we don't want to replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats." MyDD, 10-6-07. In response to John Edwards' hard-hitting attack on Hillary Clinton, in which he called her a "corporate Democrat," and assailed her campaign strategist Mark Penn for his public relations firm's connection to Blackwater USA, a Clinton spokesman told ABC News that "Mark Penn did no work on the Blackwater account. Burson has cut its ties to Blackwater, and that was the right thing to do. Mark is and remains a valuable member of our team." Jake Tapper, ABC News, 10-5-07

Ah, no doubt, but it turns out that Burson-Marsteller's relationship to Blackwater isn't the only disturbing story here. Indeed, the bigger and even more disturbing story is the history of Burson-Marsteller itself.

Here is a transcript of Air America Radio host Rachel Maddow's smackdown of Mark Penn and Burson-Marsteller on the 10-5-07 broadcast of her wonderful weekday news magazine. Blackwater knows it has a problem.

Erik Prince and the other Republican luminaries -- at the helm of the world's largest, best-armed, richest and best-connected private, for-profit army -- know they have a problem.

I don't think they see themselves as having a moral problem, they wouldn't be in the business in the first place if they did.

We know they don't have a financial problem, that's for sure.

It looks as if they probably won't have a legal problem afterall, as unbelievable as it seems.

It is literally impossible for them to have a political problem, because they have hired so many Republican party power brokers that the Republican Party is starting to look like a wholly owned subsidiary of Blackwater, rather than the other way around.

No, the problem that Blackwater has is actually an image problem, a branding problem.

And when the evilest corporations in the whole world have an image problem, they hire professional help, they hire Burson-Marsteller.

When Philip Morris needs help with its corporation image, they call Burson-Marsteller.

When Entergy Nuclear wants you to not think about their cooling towers collapsing on their nuclear power plant in Vermont, they call Burson-Marsteller.

When Three Mile Island happened in 1979, Babcock and Wilcox called Burson-Marsteller.

The Bhopal chemical disaster in India, twenty years ago? Union Carbine called Burson-Marsteller.

Three days after 9/11, the government of Saudi Arabia called Burson-Marsteller.

Terrifying Romanian dictator Nicholas Ceausescu? You guessed it -- Burson-Marsteller.

When a military junta overthrew the government of Argentina in 1976, who did the generals call? Burson-Marsteller.

((rest of the article @ link))

http://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2007/10/campaign-08-update-rachel-maddow-smacks.html

How long have they been around?

They may be the best at what they do, but you can't represent the sleaziest of the sleazy and not expect some of the slime to rub off.

Sounds much like a couple of the big law firms I've done work for. Couldn't WAIT to get home, burn the clothes and take a long, hot shower.

or she knows something we don't

Disturbing, to say the least.

Burson-Marsteller.

Enjoy!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3584043&mesg_id=3584043

He is a bad-actor in a bad business.

I'd like to hear this.

You can get it by becoming a AAR member... or by... other means. If you can afford it I suggest becoming a member, as AAR needs to know they are supported in their efforts as a network!
(edit:typos are not my friend)

I used to go to the AAR site regularly, but not these days.

:dem:

...called "The Devil's Advocate" starring Al Pacino and Neo from "The Matrix." The premise of the story was a law firm owned wholely by Devil-boy himself who was deep into world-wide mischief.

Life imitating art, you say?

The Law firm (literally) from Hell in the TV Series Angel. They got a lot of really good conflict out of that metaphor: celebs who could get a way with murder, fixed elections for their candidates, and an elevator that stopped in each level of Hell, Heh.

Thank you for linking to this post of mine. Maddow and AAR did a great service by getting this information on the air waves. By transcribing it, framing it and posting it, I had hoped to give it a longer life on-line, and that is what has happened -- here and elsewhere. It is important to know the backgrounds and business interests of such people. It makes it easier to understand what is going on in what I call "Beltwayistan."
Richard Power
http://words-of-power.blogspot.com