Think Progress

Failed advisers Mark Penn and Karen Hughes team up to counsel ‘corporations in crisis.’

penn.gifFormer Clinton strategist Mark Penn is teaming up with former Bush strategist Karen Hughes to “create a bipartisan consulting organization to advise corporations in crisis.” Penn will hire Hughes as his vice-chairman. Penn “has been blamed in recent months for [Hillary Clinton’s] failed candidacy,” while Hughes failed in marketing Bush’s policies to the Muslim and Arab world. “Karen and I have had so many of the same experiences in the White House and campaigns, and have worked around the world,” Penn said. “But we agreed that we won’t let politics interfere in our business.”



39 Responses to “Failed advisers Mark Penn and Karen Hughes team up to counsel ‘corporations in crisis.’”

  1. hussein toasterhead says:

    Well bless their hearts! Thank goodness SOMEONE is thinking about those poor, poor corporations in these troubled times!


  2. And the beat goes on says:

    O.K., Wolfson is going to Fox. Penn is teaming up with a Bushie. Does anyone else see a pattern developing here? I repeat my former statement: Dear God I am so glad Hillary did not get our primary nomination. McInsane=Bush=Hillary.


  3. Exit Stage Left says:

    Dumb and Dumber, Inc. Failures advising failures. Sounds like a lose-lose for all :)~


  4. Zooey says:

    Ack!!

    Joe Lieberman and Karen Hughes first thing in the morning? I’m trying to eat breakfast!


  5. clb72 says:

    If Marx and Engels had a crystal ball to see 2008, they probably would have said the hell with it and become CPAs.


  6. tarazan says:

    If you have a business ,will you take the advice of these two people? of course not.

    These two people know nothing about business…but for sure they have Washington connections.
    This is about lobbying and nothing else…


  7. celtic cynic says:

    This is sorta like Michael Brown saying “I’ll sell you some great ideas for staying safe the next time there’s a hurricane”


  8. misshusseinmolly says:

    The article doesn’t really give any details as to the types of crises corporations might have that this new alliance could help with.

    Financial crises? I didn’t know Penn and Hughes were corporate financial planners.

    Public relations crises? We’ve already seen how effective both Penn and Hughes have been at marketing.

    Crises that could be mitigated with more favorable legislation? Bingo. About the only thing this team has to offer would be who they know in Washington.


  9. Keith H. says:

    Their jobs should be fairly easy if the corporation that is in crisis is overseas.
    All they have to say is:
    Move over to the U.S.
    There you won’t have to pay taxes or control your destruction of the environment or be subject to any citizen filing bankruptcy that may owe you money. You can cut your employee’s pay, provide them with (low cost to you) health insurance that does their best to deny any claims. You don’t have to provide any sort of a healthy or safe work environment and you can fire them right before they retire. It’s definitely a corporate friendly place to be !


  10. katy says:

    what???
    i thought fox NOISE was where such failure landed…

    i guess howard wolfson didn’t want penn’s company, huh…


  11. linda says:

    “But we agreed that we won’t let politics interfere in our business.”

    because mark penn has no core beliefs other than his own self-aggrandizement and ability to suck up millions of dollars in fees.

    pigs. both of them.


  12. McWars says:

    Add to the formatting buttons:

    ‘ROTFL!’ ‘-tard!’ ‘!!!’

    How about that, Dr. Matt?


  13. katy says:

    tarazan got it.


  14. Game of Life says:

    HAHAHA

    This is too much. Hughes is a airhead repug and penn is a closet repug. just think hill thought that she could waltz her way into the big house using penn’s nasty childish repug tactics.

    hill gave the go-ahead/thumbs up to penn’s nasty repug/mcchimpy’s tactics. Bottoms up!

    If this isn’t proof of hill’s intentions then one doesn’t want to know. Cheers!

    penn and hughes dug deep to find each other.
    I wouldn’t pay them to dispose of dog/cat poo; it’s too complicate for them.

    I hope they’re having an affair with each other.
    Pur-T Comedy. Priceless!


  15. McWars says:

    I would have thought that Bill’s attempt to water down Obama’s win in SC by comparing him to Jesse Jackson established the permanent lag in Hillary campaign with 10 straight losses, but yeah, Mark Penn is sleazy. The entire strategy of the campaign was pinned on a Super Tuesday finisher. They twisted in the wind with nothing concrete once that didn’t happen.


  16. Bilbo Hussein Baggins says:

    “Karen and I have had so many of the same experiences in the White House and campaigns, and have worked around the world,” Penn said.

    He’s right, they were both failures. If I was a corporation, I don’t think I would want to hire a couple of failures.

    On the other hand, this has to show you how much corporate support Hillary’s campaign had.


  17. tomcat27834 says:

    Karen Hughes offers nothing more than “snake oil”….the only thing she has going for her is political connections to GW Bush. With a world audience chomping at the bit for the end of the Bush “error”, Huges has been exposed for the ass-kissin’ minion that she was and is.


  18. Game of Life says:

    Dr. Hussein Matt Says:

    *Cue a hissy fit from RHF*

    Where! Where! *frantically looking under rocks*


  19. DallasNE says:

    Hughes and Penn are more correctly lobbiest rather than consultants. They will be paid, not for their knowledge on any particular issue, but for their contacts and access.


  20. texaslady says:

    It is not advice these corporations want it is access to the ways to get government money for their companies without taxation. Oh and lets not forget corps need to know which lobbyists have the most pull with which politician.


  21. texaslady says:

    NO. 23 guess we are thinking on the same lines.


  22. nerdykiss says:

    proof that everything is bullsh*t!!!


  23. DieNowForPeace says:

    END THE LOBBYISTS GRIP NOW.


  24. Game of Life says:

    linda Says:

    “But we agreed that we won’t let politics interfere in our business.”

    because mark penn has no core beliefs other than his own self-aggrandizement and ability to suck up millions of dollars in fees.

    Thanks for the reminder. he had to get his fees although he’s a total sweaty failure.

    I heard people aren’t paying for hill’s bankrupted campaign. People believed, as do I, that she stayed in the primary too long. She was a deliberate obstruction.

    It’s her fault she’d continued on with her lost cause. It should be that she pays for her mistakes. If not it doesn’t make sense.


  25. konchster says:

    misshusseinmolly Says:
    The article doesn’t really give any details as to the types of crises corporations might have that this new alliance could help with.

    Financial crises? I didn’t know Penn and Hughes were corporate financial planners.

    Public relations crises? We’ve already seen how effective both Penn and Hughes have been at marketing.

    Crises that could be mitigated with more favorable legislation? Bingo. About the only thing this team has to offer would be who they know in Washington.

    You’ve got it I think they call them lobbyists


  26. moondancer says:

    Wow Hughes converted the entire Muslim world to American Christianity and Penn finished Clintons march to the White House. So what next? Save foundering corporations, gee I wouldn’t pay them to shovel the drive.


  27. 5th Estate says:

    Conventional wisdom says that private money influence on public politics corrupts the political system—representatives are bought and sold by special interests and the public gets screwed every time.
    But this is an illustration of another pernicious influence on politics that goes unnoticed–the influence of the professional political consultant.

    These people are utterly amoral, without conscience, conviction or principle. Why would two such people supposedly possessing such opposite political views team-up? Because they are in fact mercernaries. They don;t give a shit about policies, about right and wrong, about democracy and responsibility and public service and the common good. To them politics is a game and a gravy train with high rewards and zero responsibility. They get paid by donor dollars, win or lose and win or lose their”experience” still qualifies them for another job in the same field of lying and distortion and manipulation. That’s what they do, that’s all they do and their campaign advice and strategies help keep the electorate stupid, informed, confused, exasperated and limited in their choices and their ability to make a reasoned decision on incredibly important matters with real consequences.

    PS. Did you know karen Hughes wrote Romance novels?

    Here’s a link to something I wrote about Karen;s qualifications 2 years ago, if you care to look–scroll about halfway down to get to Karen’s works of art.

    http://at5thestate.blogspot.com/2006/07/bushs-memoirs-what-i-did-on-my.html


  28. Zimzone says:

    Reportedly, Hughes will be wearing a Burka to work now.

    IMHO, Penn should wear one, too.


  29. km4 says:

    Now all we need is Carly ( the fakester ) Fiorina to join Mark Penn and Karen Hughes and we’ll have a complete asshat triumvirate !


  30. MapleStreet says:

    There was a Dilbert cartoon where Dogbert figured out that the path to stellar success was to fail. If you take on a project and succeed, no one notices. But if you fail, everyone notices you. And oddly, the bigger the failure, the bigger the boost you get.


  31. tarazan says:

    Both will be looking for WMDS(Wallets ,Money & Dollars) in Washington…and they promised they know where to find them.


  32. Marie says:

    I don’t get it –
    We have former Clinton aides going to work for Fox.
    Now we have Penn teaming up with Hughes for corporate consulting?? Like they did so well in their previous posts.
    WTF?


  33. upside99 says:

    I wonder if they have reached out to Brownie yet? He has a F’ing ‘DISASTER CONSULTING COMPANY’. Now there would be a trio we would all want to hire!


  34. misshusseinmolly says:

    upside99 Says
    July 9th, 2008 at 11:48 am
    I wonder if they have reached out to Brownie yet? He has a F’ing ‘DISASTER CONSULTING COMPANY’. Now there would be a trio we would all want to hire!
    ________________________________________________________

    Nah — the “F’ING DISASTER CONSULTING COMPANY” wouldn’t be complete until they also got Rumsfeld on board. But I think you’re onto something. Just looking at the Bushbots who have demonstrated the necessary degree of incompetence over the past 7-1/2 years shows there’s a huge pool of non-talent available for such a venture.


  35. misshusseinmolly says:

    ooops — sorry upside99. I misread your context of “F’ing ‘DISASTER CONSULTING COMPANY’ “. But it DOES seem to be a good name for this new firm, doesn’t it?


  36. upside99 says:

    Molly,

    Right on both counts!

    And we could add Chertoff, Gale Norton, Gonzo and maybe another 20 or so totally incompetent and immoral Bushies to that list.

    This will not only go down as the
    Worst
    President,
    Ever,

    but the worst (mis)Administration, ever!


  37. barfly says:

    I think folks are missing the salient point: after eight years of Bush/Cheney, the most lucrative business that these folks can themselves envision is one of corporate crisis management. Bush’s failures, and inaction, are money in the bank to them. There’s a lesson there, I just haven’t yet figured out what it is…


  38. JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin says:

    This is “bipartisanship” at its finest.

    It’s a good thing that Hillary didn’t get the nomination. With people like Penn lobbying for free trade agreements and helping corporations through “tough times” AND teaming with Karen Hughes, could you really trust Hillary?

    Don’t forget Wolfson, Hillary’s former adviser, going to the “fair and balanced” Fox “News” as a commentator.


  39. Cricket says:

    Let them go. With these two putting their heads together they can finally make a complete ass out of themselves.



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