WASHINGTON, April 5, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Following Change to Win's
call yesterday for Sen. Hillary Clinton to fire her chief campaign
strategist Mark Penn for advising the Colombian government on promoting
congressional approval for the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, the Colombian
government announced today it will terminate its contract with Penn's firm,
while Sen. Clinton has yet to respond to the demand for him to be removed
from her campaign. In response to today's news, Change to Win executive
director Greg Tarpinian sent the following letter on behalf of the Change
to Win Leadership Council to Sen. Hillary Clinton to express concern with
her lack of action and reiterate the demand that she remove Mark Penn from
his role as chief campaign strategist for her presidential campaign.

The text of the letter follows:

April 5, 2008
Senator Clinton:

As you know, we asked that you fire your chief strategist Mark Penn as
a sign of your commitment to opposing job killing trade agreements with
Colombia and other nations following the revelation that he was meeting
with the Colombian government to help them pass the agreement in the U.S.
Congress. At this writing you have not taken any action, but in a bizarre
twist, the Colombian government has. This afternoon, we learned that
Colombia fired Mark Penn.

Penn and your other campaign strategists may think this puts this issue
to rest, but far from it.

The Penn situation -- and the lack of action by you -- raises serious
questions about the veracity of your claims of what you would do should you
become President. We assume that if Mark Penn remains as your "chief
strategist," he will play a role in your administration, just as he did in
your husband's.

It also raises questions about what you are prepared to do in the
coming weeks to defeat Senator Obama in light of your negative attacks on
him for a meeting that one of his advisors attended with Canadian
officials. We recall that, particularly in the days leading up to the Ohio
primary, you attempted to score political points by using that incident to
question Senator Obama's long-standing and consistent opposition to the
North American Free Trade Agreement.

On March 3 you challenged reporters in Ohio to imagine it was you, and
not Senator Obama, whose advisor had met with a foreign government about
free trade:

"I would ask you to look at this story and substitute my name for Sen.
Obama's name and see what you would do with this story ... Just ask
yourself [what you would do] if some of my advisers had been having
private meetings with foreign governments." [The Swamp, 3/3/08]

Senator, it is no long necessary to imagine. Mr. Penn was not simply
meeting with the government of Colombia, he was advising them on how to
pass an anti-worker trade agreement. Moreover, this has come to light when
your spokesperson Howard Wolfson -- whose firm also is advising the
Colombian government on the passage of the trade agreement -- said that
Penn had only two clients, your campaign and Microsoft. This was clearly
not true.

For those of us who have dedicated our career to standing up for
working Americans, Mr. Penn's contract with Colombia -- apparently
terminated today -- raises a number of pressing questions.

What other foreign countries has Mr. Penn represented or lobbied for?

Besides Cintas, Blackwater, and Countrywide Financial, what other
clients that most Democrats would consider beyond the pale, do the firm and
Mr. Penn represent?

Your campaign says that Mr. Penn does not represent it in the meetings
he has with his firm's clients. But doesn't his attendance signal at least
a tacit backing on your part? There was, for example, more than an
appearance of impropriety in Penn's meeting with the Colombians. On Monday,
he met with the Ambassador. On Wednesday, President Uribe attacked Senator
Obama for his opposition to the Colombian trade agreement, but did not
attack you for your opposition.

The working people of this country are looking for a leader they can
trust. They're weary of the doubletalk and the lack of accountability that
have come to characterize Washington. They do not want to be told one thing
during a campaign only to find out that once someone is elected it was all
talk.

It is time for you to fire Mr. Penn as a sign that you mean what you say.

Sincerely,

Greg Tarpinian
Executive Director
Change to Win
About Change to Win