“Running a presidential campaign is good for business.”

Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist and the Worldwide CEO of international public relations/ lobbying firm Burson-Marsteller, wrote those telling words in his confidential internal corporate blog.

Given the breadth of his company’s representation of special interests, Penn’s assertion may be the understatement of the year. The number of Burson-Marsteller clients — both corporations and foreign governments — that will likely try to influence the next administration is staggering.

And so is the potential for a serious conflict of interest. As a campaign strategist, Penn meets and speaks constantly with both Clintons and with other key policy advisors. He is in a unique position to influence what the candidate supports or opposes — not only during the campaign but also later on in a future Clinton administration. And he has ample opportunity to weigh in on issues that are vital to Burson-Marsteller’s clients.

But neither Penn nor Hillary Clinton seems to see any problem there — even though Penn has already showed poor judgment in this area.

During Bill Clinton’s second term, while Penn was the president’s chief political strategist — with unfettered access to the President and First Lady, his polling firm, Penn & Schoen, contracted to lobby the Clinton administration on behalf of a bank operated by several Central American countries — for a half million dollar fee. (The firm had never registered as either a lobbyist or foreign agent before.)

Burson-Marsteller ultimately bought Penn & Schoen and Penn became its head honcho.

The firm’s publicly known clients are a veritable "Who’s Who" of corporations in crisis, as well as companies and foreign governments looking for favors from Congress and the White House.

Just look at recent Burson-Marsteller clients that have been in the news in the past two weeks.

BLACKWATER — the hired guns in Iraq.

Blackwater’s CEO, Eric Prince, hired Burson’s lobbying subsidiary, BKSH, to prep him for his Congressional testimony — helping him to glibly explain why the civilian cowboys who work for him have been involved in 195 shooting incidents. After news reports about the controversial representation, Burson-Marsteller ran screaming from Blackwater, describing it as only a “temporary” engagement with no involvement by Penn. And the Clinton campaign affirmed its support for Penn.

While Blackwater is certainly no Whitewater for Hillary Clinton, it is yet another reminder of the ethical imbroglios that dogged her in the White House and raises serious questions about Penn’s dual roles as strategist for the potential next president and adviser to corporations and governments who have ongoing big business in Washington.

Then there was Countrywide Financial, the beleaguered sub-prime mortgage lender that is desperately trying to save the company and clean up its image. And Microsoft — trying to stop the Google/Doubleclick merger. Throw in Armenia, (trying to pass a Congressional resolution accusing Turkey of genocide) and The Peoples Party of Pakistan (working to bring Bhalizar Bhutto back to power in Pakistan). It’s been quite a week!

You get the picture: They’re everywhere!

Penn is often compared to Karl Rove, but there’s at least one big difference: When Rove became Bush’s chief strategist, he sold his consulting business. Penn refus es to even take a leave of absence. Although he claims to have no involvement in the firm’s day-to-day business, published internal e-mails suggest otherwise. And, Penn demonstrated his blatant lack of sensitivity to conflict of interest issues during the last Clinton administration.

In October 1998, while Penn was the White House chief political strategist, he registered his polling firm, Penn & Schoen, as an agent for the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, operated, and controlled by Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua with Mexico, Taiwan, Argentina, and Colombia as additional shareholders.

In plain English, a number of foreign governments, seeking to persuade the President of the United States to adopt legislation in their economic interest, paid the president’s trusted adviser to make their case in the White House.

Question: Did the president know this and permit it? Did Hillary know? Is this kind of dual role okay with her? Will she permit it if she’s elected president?

Because that’s not how Bill Clinton used to operate. In his first term, the former president required all consultants with regular access to either him or the White House staff to file a financial disclosure form with the White House counsel’s office — to avoid even the appearance of conflicts of interest.

So, what happened to that sensible policy?

Apparently, it went out the window.

According to Penn’s hand-written filings with the Justice Department, he was the only partner working on the contract that required his firm to “lobby the [Clinton] Administration” and “encourage” it to adopt a NAFTA-like trade bill for Central America as “a primary legislative priority.”

And what is it that did Penn inside the White House — for half a million dollars — to advance the foreign bank’s agenda?

He reports that in November 1999, he made two telephone calls to Maria Echaveste, the White House deputy Chief of Staff “relating to visit of member countries to the U.S.” That’s it.

Not surprisingly, Penn’s lobbying skills were no longer needed once Clinton was gone. Penn’s handwriting indicates that the contract expired on January 1, 2001 — days before Clinton left office.

Now Penn is deeply immersed in the lobbying world. Burson-Marsteller is sought out by clients who are well aware of his close relationship with the Clintons.

Take the case of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. In late March, Bill Clinton traveled to Cartagena for the 80th birthday tribute to Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, where he spoke to Colombian president Alvaro Uribe about the difficulties in passing the agreement. Eager to help, Bill himself called several Democratic Congressmen. And, coincidentally, within days, Burson-Marsteller and two of its subsidiaries, BKSH and Penn & Schoen, signed on to lobby for the Colombian Embassy for $300,000. Continued...