Georgia Conflict Spotlights McCain Link
Saturday, 16. August 2008, 11:02:39
Introduction
John McCain's chief foreign-policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 ½-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
Lobbyist Randy Scheunemann Paid By Georgia
The Seattle Times News Services reports that John McCain's chief foreign-policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 ½-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
The payments raise ethical questions about the intersection of Randy Scheunemann's personal financial interests and his advice to the Republican presidential candidate who is seizing on Russian aggression in Georgia as a campaign issue.
At every stop this week, McCain has criticized Russia's attacks on Georgia.
McCain said he supported President Bush's call for Russia to withdraw from Georgia and for canceling planned joint military maneuvers. He also made it clear he has long seen Russian leader Vladimir Putin as far more dangerous than has Bush.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, of Illinois, also called for a review of U.S. and international agreements with Russia and for an end to Russian hostilities. But he tempered his comments, saying: "We seek a future of cooperative engagement with the Russian government, and friendship with the Russian people."
The escalating tension in Georgia is bringing new attention to the McCain-Scheunemann relationship.
On April 17, a month and a half after Scheunemann stopped working for Georgia, his partner signed a $200,000 agreement with the Georgian government. The deal added to an arrangement that brought in more than $800,000 to the two-man firm from 2004 to mid-2007. Scheunemann is on leave from the firm.
"Scheunemann's work as a lobbyist poses valid questions about McCain's judgment in choosing someone who — and whose firm — are paid to promote the interests of other nations," said New York University law professor Stephen Gillers.
McCain has been to Georgia three times since 1997 and "this is an issue that he has been involved with for well over a decade," said McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.
McCain's strong condemnation in recent days of Russia's military action against Georgia as "totally, absolutely unacceptable" reflects long-standing ties between McCain and hard-line conservatives such as Scheunemann, an aide in the 1990s to then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.
Scheunemann, who also was a foreign-policy adviser in McCain's 2000 campaign, has for years traveled the same road as McCain in pushing for regime change in Iraq and promoting NATO membership for Georgia and other former Soviet republics. His firm lobbied McCain's office on four bills and resolutions regarding Georgia, with McCain as a co-sponsor or supporter of all.
Scheunemann is also part of the community of neoconservatives who pushed for war in Iraq. Before the war began, Scheunemann ran the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Before that, he was on board with the Project for the New American Century, whose letter to Bush nine days after the Sept. 11 attacks pointed to Iraq as a possible link to the terrorists.
Material from The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and the Los Angeles Times is included in this report.
Related
Who Is Randy Scheunenemann
Randy Scheunemann
John McCain's chief foreign-policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 ½-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
Lobbyist Randy Scheunemann Paid By Georgia
The Seattle Times News Services reports that John McCain's chief foreign-policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 ½-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
The payments raise ethical questions about the intersection of Randy Scheunemann's personal financial interests and his advice to the Republican presidential candidate who is seizing on Russian aggression in Georgia as a campaign issue.
At every stop this week, McCain has criticized Russia's attacks on Georgia.
McCain said he supported President Bush's call for Russia to withdraw from Georgia and for canceling planned joint military maneuvers. He also made it clear he has long seen Russian leader Vladimir Putin as far more dangerous than has Bush.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, of Illinois, also called for a review of U.S. and international agreements with Russia and for an end to Russian hostilities. But he tempered his comments, saying: "We seek a future of cooperative engagement with the Russian government, and friendship with the Russian people."
The escalating tension in Georgia is bringing new attention to the McCain-Scheunemann relationship.
On April 17, a month and a half after Scheunemann stopped working for Georgia, his partner signed a $200,000 agreement with the Georgian government. The deal added to an arrangement that brought in more than $800,000 to the two-man firm from 2004 to mid-2007. Scheunemann is on leave from the firm.
"Scheunemann's work as a lobbyist poses valid questions about McCain's judgment in choosing someone who — and whose firm — are paid to promote the interests of other nations," said New York University law professor Stephen Gillers.
McCain has been to Georgia three times since 1997 and "this is an issue that he has been involved with for well over a decade," said McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.
McCain's strong condemnation in recent days of Russia's military action against Georgia as "totally, absolutely unacceptable" reflects long-standing ties between McCain and hard-line conservatives such as Scheunemann, an aide in the 1990s to then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.
Scheunemann, who also was a foreign-policy adviser in McCain's 2000 campaign, has for years traveled the same road as McCain in pushing for regime change in Iraq and promoting NATO membership for Georgia and other former Soviet republics. His firm lobbied McCain's office on four bills and resolutions regarding Georgia, with McCain as a co-sponsor or supporter of all.
Scheunemann is also part of the community of neoconservatives who pushed for war in Iraq. Before the war began, Scheunemann ran the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Before that, he was on board with the Project for the New American Century, whose letter to Bush nine days after the Sept. 11 attacks pointed to Iraq as a possible link to the terrorists.
Material from The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and the Los Angeles Times is included in this report.
Related
Who Is Randy Scheunenemann
Randy Scheunemann
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