On this week’s PRNewser Podcast, we discussed healthcare reform, the media, and its surrogates with Flatiron Communications owner and The Flack blogger Peter Himler.

Himler likes Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and Alan Grayson, (D-FL), while I like Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Himler believes Nancy Pelosi needs to adopt more of a “Hillary Clinton scowl” and lose the smile.

We also covered Mark Cuban‘s beef with his PR firm, Tiger Woods parting ways with Ari Fleischer, and the benefits of small firms and big firms.

Toyota has added two D.C.-based PR agencies to its roster of consultants as the company manages through a massive product recall, PRWeek reports.

Glover Park Group and Quinn Gillespie & Associates were hired by the car-maker. The agencies will work alongside existing Toyota agencies Powell Tate and Golin Harris.

Both Glover Park and Quinn Gillespie are high-powered and well-connected D.C. firms. Glover Park recently employed former Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign communications director Howard Wolfson, before he left to take a full time role with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s administration.

Quin Gillespie is run by Jack Quinn, former White House Counsel to President Bill Clinton and Chief of Staff to Vice President Al Gore. Ed Gillespie left the firm in 2007 to serve as counselor to President George W. Bush and has since worked on various Republic campaigns.

UPDATE: Jack Quinn tells PRNewser via email, “Yes, we are retained by Toyota. We were hired to provide general representation, but, at the moment, we are assisting on issues regarding the recall matters.” The agency is acting as high-level general counsel and in a government relations capacity – not media relations.

RELATED: FishbowlDC Co-Editor Matt Dornic Joins Quinn Gillespie & Associates

After serving as a consultant to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s re-election campaign, Howard Wolfson has now joined the Bloomberg administration in a full time role as senior adviser, The New York Times reports.

Wolfson “will assume the newly created position of counselor to the mayor, focusing on communications and policy,” says the Times.

After serving as communications director on Hillary Clinton‘s 2008 presidential campaign, Wolfson joined Fox News as a contributor, became a blogger for The New Republic and took a post as managing director at consulting firm Glover Park Group.

Some called Wolfson a “high profile attack dog” while he worked on Bloomberg’s re-election, a race that was much closer than expected given the campaign’s massive monetary advantages over challenger Bill Thompson.

Former Hillary Clinton campaign chief strategist and Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn gives his take on President Obama’s first year in office in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. When asked about Obama’s poll numbers, Penn said:

The president’s numbers are a real cause for concern for himself and the party – but they certainly can be reversed at this point. It’s only been a year and people are uneasy but opinion is not yet set and is quite mushy.

Progress on the economy and in Afghanistan are the big things that can make a difference. I don’t think the president can do a lot right now with words – the public expects that the first year is going to be the foundation and by the second year they are looking for results. If he delivers them, these poll numbers will quickly reverse themselves.

Read the full interview here.

Porter Novelli’s global head of public affairs Kiki McClean told Fox Business not to look too deeply in to the departures of Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan from the Senate. “It’s a fluke of scheduling,” said the former Hillary Clinton strategist. It won’t affect President Obama’s aggressive pushes on healthcare reform, climate change, and the upcoming jobs bill.

Smart leaders, i.e. in the Governors races in 2010, will focus on job creation, according to McClean. There are 34 Gubernatorial elections this fall. We’ll be looking for some wild and woolly rhetoric and spending come time.

RELATED: Hillary Strategist Kiki McLean Joins Porter Novelli

How much credit can Glenn Beck‘s publicist Matthew Hiltzik take for Beck’s rise to stardom? According to a story by the Washington Post‘s Jason Horowitz, a lot. Horowitz published a profile today on Hiltzik, the longtime democratic strategist and former Hillary Clinton campaign employee, and how some former allies find his alliance with Beck “shocking.”

There are a bunch of money quotes in the story, including this one:

“I love Matt,” said Ken Sunshine, a Democratic activist and public relations powerbroker whom Hiltzik regards as a mentor. “I value our friendship, but I wouldn’t be caught dead representing Glenn Beck.”

It is worth noting, as Horowitz’s story does, that Hiltzik has clients on all sides of the spectrum, including Katie Couric, Alec Baldwin, Annie Leibovitz and Don Imus. We spoke to Hiltzik last a few weeks ago when Couric interviewed Beck for the debut of her web show. He acknowledged he was still working with Beck, but like most adept PR pros, wouldn’t comment on strategy or even if he set up the interview.

“My job is to look out for his personal business interests and try to weave them in well with his partners…We give strategic counsel, which includes managing the profile of the business,” Hitzik told the Post in regards to his work with Beck.

Burson-Marsteller CEO and former Hillary Clinton presidential campaign chief strategist Mark Penn appeared on Fox News’ ‘Fox and Friends’ this morning to discuss Clinton’s performance over her first nine months as Secretary of State as well as the eternal question: will she run for President again? “I think she has no interest in doing it again. It was a grueling experience,” said Penn.

In reference to the challenges Clinton, and most public officials at her level face, Penn stated that she is “one of those people that every word has been parsed for years and years and years.”

More than one year after he stopped working with the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, Mark Penn has finally received full payment for his services.

Bloomberg reports that Clinton has “erased most of her presidential campaign debt” and that “The last outstanding bill was $1.5 million to former chief strategist Mark Penn.” The check went to Penn’s firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, a subsidiary of WPP (WPPGY). Penn also serves as CEO of Burson-Marsteller.