Last week political pollster and strategist Mark Penn met with Colombian officials to discuss free-trade possibilities that his boss, Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, opposes.  He did so in his position as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller, one of the United States’s largest public relations firms.  He later called it an “error in judgment.”

The Colombian officials agreed.  They fired him and his PR firm the next day.

The Clinton campaign apparently agreed as well.  This afternoon they announced Penn’s resignation in a stunning development that marks either the final turning point or the death knell for Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations in 2008. Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams issued this statement:

“After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign.”

Interesting verb there: “asked.” Asked as in Scooter Libby asked for leniency, Richard Nixon asked for forgiveness, the Democrats asked for a recount in Florida, and Roger Clemens asked for Congressional hearing on steroid usage in baseball.

The political reality is Penn was pushed, hard, out the door – by Clinton insiders who can’t stand him and think he’s taken the campaign from the penthouse to the basement. This is the last ditch move by the campaign to turn itself around. It’s got two weeks left in Pennsylvania, and Penn’s meeting with Colombian officials embarrassed Clinton once too often. Notably, he’ll stay on with the campaign to provide strategic and polling advice, just not as the chief strategist.

The odds are this is too little, too late. As in a year too late.