It’s not a good day to be Mark Penn, CEO of PR gorilla Burston Marsteller. Penn is Hillary Clinton’s chief presidential campaign strategist. According to CNN, Penn “met with the Colombian ambassador to the United States earlier in the week in his role as Burston Marsteller’s chief to discuss the pending U.S.-Colombia trade pact, which Clinton has criticized on the campaign trail.” Penn called the meeting “an error in judgment that will not be repeated,” and apologized…and quit his post. As Homer Simpson would say, “D’oh!” Looks like Penn’s statement really pissed off the Colombian government who called the remarks “a lack of respect to Colombians.” 

Dude? (read previous line with the tone of the guy in the Bud Light commercial when he watches his friend get married in Vegas). Seriously. What was this guy thinking? He is a PR titan. He knew better. He watched the Obama campaign get repeatedly bitch-slapped when it was reported that one of his advisers had suggested to a Canadian official that Obama was not really in support of changes to NAFTA (wink, wink). Did Penn get Eliot Spitzer’s advice on this one? What happens to people when they become successful and powerful in their own eyes? What freaky deaky PR person on the planet would go meet with a foreign government in a situation that had explosive potential?  And Dude. Of all people, you ticked off the Colombians. Geeezzz! Could you have picked the Dutch or some other less volatile country?

Yeah, as the CEO of a PR agency, ‘uh I would like to assure my clients I will never meet with any ambassadors or governments without their prior knowledge. This might be a good time to admit I smoked pot and did other drugs in college. Dude…