McAuliffe says Penn should zip it

Terry McAuliffe, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) presidential campaign chairman, said Tuesday that top pollster Mark Penn should stop talking to the press after remarks from Penn indicated that he is distancing himself from the campaign.

{mosads}“People ought to quit talking to the press and focus on helping Hillary win,” McAuliffe said on MSNBC in response to a question about Penn’s remarks.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Penn said in an e-mail that he had “no direct authority in the campaign,” and called himself an “outside message adviser with no campaign staff reporting to me.”

Penn said others in the campaign had the say on budget issues and resource allocation, as well as the political and organizational sides. Some see his statement as his effort to distance himself from a campaign that is on the ropes, even though Penn is seen as one of Clinton’s main strategists.

McAuliffe, who was his usual optimistic self Tuesday and predicted wins in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island, said the Penn issue would be addressed following Tuesday’s key primaries.

“When we get through with Texas and Ohio, I’ll go back and I’ll talk to Maggie Williams, our campaign manager, about that,” McAuliffe said.