Begala Has ‘Contempt’ For Penn; Obama Would Have Fired Him

Mark Penn may have resigned from his role as Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist on Sunday, but some high-powered pundits are only now getting around to knocking him.

Paul Begala, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, said he “has nothing for contempt for Mr. Penn,” reports Sam Stein at The Huffington Post. “And for those of us who wanted to see him out from the beginning, it became almost a Rumsfeldian thing. And he is not even fired. He has been demoted. How could this be?”

Penn is still advising Hillary Clinton’s campaign, according to the statement the campaign released announcing Penn’s move. The decision was announced amid a controversy over Penn’s decision to meet with Colombia’s ambassador to discuss a free trade deal that Clinton herself opposes. Penn took the meeting as the CEO of a lobbying firm that had represented Colombia at the time.

Begala went on to question Penn’s game plan for Clinton’s White House bid.

“He wrote a book called Microtrends in which he argued that the era of big trends is over,” Begala said. “That’s like going to New Orleans before Katrina and saying the era of big storms is over. It might end up being true but it could be really wrong.”

Barack Obama addressed Penn’s role in the Clinton campaign at a press availability with reporters on Friday.