Hoffa: Goolsbee should explain Canada meeting

Teamsters President James Hoffa said an economic adviser to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) should be more forthcoming about the meeting he held with Canadian officials about trade.

{mosads}Hoffa, an Obama supporter, made the remarks in an unusual setting: a conference call set up by the Obama campaign to further its criticism of Mark Penn, a former strategist to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) campaign. He resigned after coming under criticism from unions for a meeting with Colombian officials on a controversial trade agreement.

As Hoffa was criticizing what is reportedly Penn's continued presence with the Clinton campaign, the union leader was asked if Obama should distance himself from Austin Goolsbee, Obama’s senior economic adviser, as was suggested by Clinton Tuesday morning.

"I think that he should make a statement," Hoffa said of Goolsbee. "Let's … end the mystery about what happened."

Goolsbee came into focus shortly before the March 4 Ohio and Texas primaries for reportedly trying to assuage Canadian officials' concerns about Obama's pledge during a debate to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) unless it is renegotiated.

The Obama campaign has repeatedly disputed the characterization of what Goolsbee said, adding that he did not speak to Canadian officials in his capacity as senior economic adviser to the campaign.

Hoffa started by saying "there's no comparison" between Goolsbee's meeting and Penn's because Penn was a paid lobbyist for the Colombian government.

Hoffa said that Penn's meeting last week, which was reported by The Wall Street Journal, hurts Clinton's credibility with union workers. But Hoffa went on to say that if Goolsbee did in fact try to reassure the Canadian government about Obama's intentions regarding NAFTA, then it "was certainly not a smart meeting. He never should've done that."