Well.... no sniper, just a stop with Chelsea in tow where Hillary schmoozed and accepted a poem and hug from a child.
Only when video of the event surfaced showing her version was pure invention did she admit she "misspoke" (WaPo).... even though the misspeak was included in prepared, written and vetted remarks.
You've heard Hillary tell the story of the poor uninsured woman in Ohio who was refused treatment at a hospital (NYTimes) leading to the woman's miscarriage and death.
Well.... it turns out the woman was insured and wasn't refused treatment. Even after Hillary's campaign had reason to know the story was false, she continued to use it on campaign stops.
In worker-decimated Ohio Hillary touted how she did, and still does, oppose the trade agreement NAFTA.
Well....it was later revealed she was a leading advocate for the agreement when Bill was president.
Hillary has also said she is against the Bush-promoted pending trade agreement with Colombia.
Well... her campaign's chief strategist and long-time Clinton insider Mark Penn "has asked to give up his role" because the Wall Street Journal surfaced last week that Penn, as president of his public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, had met with Colombia's ambassador to the United States to discuss the promotion of the free-trade agreement. (WaPo)
The Colombia government "hired Penn's lobbying firm last year under a $300,000 one-year contract to help secure passage" of the trade pact. (NYTimes)
Of course, the Clinton campaign has denied knowing about this conflict of interest, even though the agreement was a year old and in the news at least a month ago.... and, it's not the first time such a Penn conflict of interest has come to Hillary's attention.
Union leaders have long complained about Penn. The Change to Win, a federation of labor unions including the service workers SEIU and the Teamsters, have called for Hillary to fire Penn for his representation of union busting employers like Cintas.
Even old Clinton loyalist Leon Panetta complains of Penn's role in the Clinton campaign, comparing him to Bush's "Turd Blossom" saying Penn "comes from an old school, like Karl Rove...." (Observer)So Penn's gone. Right?
Well.... while Penn ducks for cover and Clinton says she is furious with Penn, his polling firm will continue providing polling and he will continue to advise the Clinton campaign.
And, while Colombia's President Uribe is lauded as the friend of the U.S. in Latin America.... as The Decider today pushes forward the trade pact legislation.... Uribe is in truth the emblem of narco-corruption and violent repression of unions although both the Bush and Clinton administrations have turned a blind eye to his brutal dictatorship.
Bill Clinton is still chummy with Colombia's Uribe. Last June Bill was "honored" with the country's "Colombia is Passion" award.
And, last September Bill hosted Uribe as a "featured attendee" at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York although Al Gore cancelled has appearance at a Miami conference because he didn't want to share a podium with Uribe, the hemisphere's poster boy for state-sponsored terrorism. (DailyKos)
As always with the Clintons, things aren't as they want you to believe when they're telling the story. This latest Penn/Colombia-gate dustup is just another fog in the long litany of Billary winks-and-nods.
