Nothing is so hypocritical as Hillary’s attempts to persuade us that she always opposed NAFTA. Her official schedule includes several meetings to back ratification, and participants recall that she was strongly in favor. There is nothing in her memoirs to suggest anything other than strong support for one of her husband’s major achievements. And, in our personal phone conversations throughout 1993, we discussed the need to get NAFTA approved to boost Bill’s reputation for effectiveness, somewhat tattered after the defeat of his stimulus package.
In fact, Hillary may have fired Penn — if she really has — as a graphic way of depicting how opposed she is to free trade deals in a desperate effort to salvage Pennsylvania. In fact, it is probably Bill who got Penn the contract. He met with President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia on March 27, 2007, and urged him to focus more on Democrats in Congress in his efforts to get the treaty approved. One week later, on April 5, 2007, Penn was hired, and four weeks after that Colombia hired Glover Park, the lobbying firm that is home to Clinton operatives such as Joe Lockhart and Howard Wolfson (now on leave).