Well, that's the sense you get from this gossipy WaPo front-pager on the Clinton campaign that easily could have been headlined, "Everyone Hates Mark." But, while the article begins with the point that, even in the wake of Hillary's victories in Ohio and Texas, her campaign is still divided against itself, I wonder.
I suspect a lot of the reporting for this piece--and don't get me wrong, it's great reporting--was done before Ohio and Texas, with the expectation that it would go in the inevitable recriminations article slated to run after Hillary was knocked out on Tuesday. Which means some of the cattiest quotes (like: "'Mark blames Patti and Patti blames Mark in a circular firing squad," said an adviser who has worked for both Clintons and watched Penn, Solis Doyle, Ickes, Wolfson, Grunwald and others go at it for months. "What they don't realize is that everyone else blames them -- all of them.'") may well have been uttered before Ohio and Texas. If the Clinton campaign is really this divided after Tuesday, then she's toast. But I have a hunch that her recent victories have soothed some of the ill will, at least for the moment.
P.S. Still, it is impressive to behold just how much Hillaryland hates Penn. The Post article even has someone trying to blame him for Bill's odious Jesse Jackson remarks:
On Jan. 26, the day of the election, Penn sent an e-mail to the senior campaign staff comparing Obama's victory there to Jesse L. Jackson's two wins in the 1980s. Bill Clinton made the same comparison to reporters that day, generating even more anger among African Americans who perceived it as a way of marginalizing Obama by portraying him as a black candidate who appeals only to black voters.
I really hope Penn has taken some of the millions he's made off the campaign and put it toward hiring a food taster.
--Jason Zengerle