Assembling a Team of Assholes

It's been a while since we've heard from former Hillary Clinton campaign destroyer manager/union buster Mark Penn. To the surprise of no one, he still sucks:

Dana Perino, President George W. Bush's last White House press secretary, will join Clinton administration adviser Mark Penn at public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller, where she will be "chief issues counselor."

Mr. Penn, the firm's CEO, said Ms. Perino's experiences in Mr. Bush's second term make her a valuable addition to the team of battle-tested public-relations veterans he is assembling. Mr. Penn writes a "Microtrends" column for The Wall Street Journal Online.

"She's been through some incredibly difficult experiences at some of the highest levels, and comes out of that an extremely skilled practitioner," Mr. Penn said in an interview

. . .

Other key members of Burson-Marsteller firm include Don Baer, a former Clinton administration communications director, Josh Gottheimer, a former Clinton speechwriter, and Karen Hughes, Mr. Bush's counselor who also served as undersecretary of State for public diplomacy.

For the record we would have been mocking Penn's "Online only Microtrends column" as a weekly feature if it wasn't on the pay part of the WSJ site. It's probably not worth paying for the rantings of a completely discredited pollster who just about singlehandedly lost the primary for an overwhelming favorite with every instituional advantage on her side. I wish I was at the meeting where the editors pitched his column. So he's a "strategist" who takes random small segments of people, gives them stupid names (Office park Dads! Archery moms!), and then rigs a poll to make them seem important? Sign me up!

Oh yeah, and if you though that "archery moms" was so stupid that it couldn't be real, it is. It's an entire chapter in his book. How anyone (much less a former president) ever took him seriously is beyond belief.