At this point, the Clinton campaign needs as little bad news as possible; what with the Bosnia gaffe and their lead slipping away rapidly in my home state of Pennsylvania. Now ABC News reports that Hillary’s chief strategist, Mark Penn, has been “pushed out”:

Sen. Hillary Clinton’s cheif [sic] strategist Mark Penn was pushed out of the presidential campaign in response to his work on a Colombian free-trade agreement that Clinton opposes, sources tell ABC News.

Sources say that the Clintons were angry to learn about Penn’s work, especially since they had been told that Penn had recused himself from controversial clients and would restrict his private work.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on Friday that Penn, who also is chief executive of the lobbying and public relations firm Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, had been hired by the Colombian government to help secure a trade deal.

On Saturday, the Colombian government said it was firing Penn’s firm after he said Friday through the campaign that his consultations with Colombian officials were “an error in judgment that will not be repeated, and I am sorry for it.”

Oh boy. I don’t know the details of the relationship between Mark Penn, Hillary, and the Colombian government, but it doesn’t really matter. All we need to know is that Obama’s poll numbers are directly proportional to the amount of negative headlines about Hillary; and, with the addition of this story, the amount of negative headlines about Hillary is high.