Clinton and Obama aides center-stage in trade fight

Teamsters President James Hoffa on Tuesday criticized a senior economic adviser to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) 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.

As Hoffa criticized Penn’s connections to the Clinton campaign, the union leader was asked if Obama should distance himself from Austin Goolsbee, an Obama economic adviser who got in trouble after meeting with Canadian officials about the North American Free Trade Agreement.

{mosads}Hoffa, clearly straying off the campaign’s message targeting Penn, said Goolsbee “should make a statement” clearing up the meeting, in which Goolsbee reportedly told the Canadians Obama’s actions would not back up his rhetoric on trade.

“Let’s … end the mystery about what happened,” Hoffa said.

Hoffa said that Penn’s meeting last week with officials from Colombia over a trade agreement 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.”

Hoffa later sought to clarify his remarks with a statement on the Teamsters website.

“To clear up any misunderstanding about my statements, the Obama campaign and Austan Goolsbee have already clarified Professor Goolsbee’s meeting with representatives from the Canadian government, and as confirmed by the Canadian government, Sen. Obama’s position on NAFTA has not changed,” Hoffa said.

Despite the mixed signals, the call shows how aides to Clinton and Obama have become the flashpoint in an intensifying battle over which candidate is better on trade, a key issue that figures to continue to be of concern to voters in the industrial manufacturing states of Pennsylvania and Indiana, which will both hold important contests in the coming weeks.

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.

Many analysts believe the dust-up over Goolsbee helped Clinton win a convincing victory in Ohio’s primary.

With polls in Pennsylvania tightening ahead of its April 22 primary, some think Penn could have the same effect, but this time to Clinton’s detriment.

Outside groups are trying to keep the pressure on.

{mospagebreak}The Alliance for American Manufacturing, a partnership of United Steelworkers and some of the nation’s leading manufacturers, ran ad campaigns in several Ohio newspapers leading up to that state’s primary to pressure presidential candidates to focus more on U.S. trade policies that are hurting domestic industry and manufacturing. The AAM has announced that the ad campaign will continue in Pennsylvania, where steel is a big industry.

Many analysts thought Penn’s relationship with the Colombian government — a relationship the government terminated after Penn called the meeting “an error in judgment” — could cause Clinton significant damage in Pennsylvania among her core demographic of blue-collar white voters.

Hoffa, getting back on message Tuesday, said “there’s no comparison” between Goolsbee’s meeting and Penn’s because Penn was a paid lobbyist for the Colombian government.

{mosads}Still, the Clinton campaign, knowing it would be attacked over Penn, has worked to revive questions about Goolsbee.

Clinton herself made the comparison Tuesday morning, suggesting that her campaign had gone further than Obama’s to distance itself from her adviser.

Her campaign also issued a release inviting Goolsbee to clear up “at least five different and frequently contradictory explanations” of the Goolsbee-Canada meeting.

“While Sen. Obama was telling voters he would fix NAFTA, his chief economics adviser was telling Canadians that his position was just words,” Robby Mook, Clinton’s Indiana director, said in a statement.

“Instead of launching attacks against others, the Obama campaign should finally explain why it continues to mislead voters about Mr. Goolsbee’s meeting with the Canadian government.”

Clinton took the offensive after the misstep by Penn, who met with the Colombian officials in his capacity as head of the lobbying and communications firm Burson-Marsteller Worldwide. He resigned Sunday as Clinton’s chief strategist after she came under criticism from the Change-to-Win unions late last week.

Penn’s polling firm will continue to work for her campaign, however, and Hoffa and the Obama campaign seized on this Tuesday to criticize Clinton.

“Even though Sen. Clinton said she’d distance herself from her chief strategist for meeting with the Colombian government, we later found out that he’s still very much part of her strategy team,” said Hari Sevugan, an Obama spokesman. “The comparison Sen. Clinton tried to make today is laughable, but also typical of a candidate who has said one thing but done another this entire campaign.”

Hoffa said his union asked Clinton to remove Penn last year, “and she’s ignored it.” Keeping Penn on is a mistake that damages Clinton’s credibility with union voters ahead of the April 22 contest in Pennsylvania, the last big prize on the primary calendar according to Hoffa, who said Clinton “should jettison” Penn altogether.

“This last issue with Mark Penn I think really hurts her credibility,” Hoffa said. “I think this is devastating to her.”

Penn’s demotion came the weekend before Bush administration sent the controversial Colombia deal to Capitol Hill under fast-track rules, which require Congress to act within 90 legislative days. Clinton and Obama both denounced the move by Bush during addresses to the Communication Workers of America’s (CWA) legislative-political conference Tuesday morning, and emphatically pledged to oppose the deal.

Dan Hayner contributed to this article.