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McCain Strategist Lobbyist for Georgia
Informed Comment — ... McCain's campaign strategist Randy Scheunemann was a lobbyist for Georgia until recently, and remained part of Orion Strategies until May 15. OS had signed a $2 mn. deal to provide "strategic advice" to the Georgian government. ...

ThinkFast: August 13, 2008
Think Progress — ... recorded in July 2007.” July’s deficit was pushed higher by “economic stimulus payments and $15 billion in outlays to protect depositors at failed banks.” Randy Scheunemann , Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) top foreign policy adviser, “ prepped his boss for an April 17 phone call with the president of Georgia” and then helped McCain “prepare a strong statement of support for the fledgling republic.” That day, Scheunemann’s lobbying firm “signed a $200,000 contract to continue providing strategic advice to the Georgian government.” McCain is “ignoring calls from several watchdog ...

The Morning Report
Real Clear Politics - TIME.com — ... " (S.A. Miller, Washington Times ) - Sen. John McCain reminded Pennsylvanians Tuesday that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama said the state's small-town voters "cling to guns and religion" because they are "bitter," a gaffe that possibly contributed to Mr. Obama's loss in the state primary and might haunt his general election campaign in this battleground. " While Aide Advised McCain, His Firm Lobbied for Georgia " (Matthew Mosk and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, Washington Post ) - Sen. John McCain's top foreign policy adviser prepped his boss for an April ...

While Aide Advised McCain, His Firm Lobbied for Georgia
Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News — ... "The Embassy of Georgia requested the call," said campaign spokesman Brian Rogers. (snip) For months while McCain's presidential campaign was gearing up, Scheunemann held dual roles, advising the candidate on foreign policy while working as Georgia's lobbyist. Between Jan. 1, 2007, and May 15, 2008, the campaign paid Scheunemann nearly $70,000 to provide foreign policy advice. During the same period, the government of Georgia paid his firm $290,000 in lobbying fees. Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20... One of many McCain Whisperers.

Around the Web: 2008
The Corner on National Review Online — Wednesday, August 13, 2008 [image] Around the Web: 2008 [Katherine Connell] The latest on the candidates . . . McCain Plays Up His Bipartisanship in Pennsylvania Los Angeles Times [image] Reminds Voters of Obama's 'Bitter' Gaffe The Washington Times [image] While Aide Advised , His Firm Lobbied for Georgia The Washington Post [image] On Georgia Crisis, Tone Grows Sharper The Washington Post [image] Long War on Russia Politico [image] Ignoring Calls to Cancel Controversial Fundraiser The Hill [image] [image] Obama Book Hopes to Repeat ...

Did Scheunemann Engineer McCain’s 2005 Nobel Prize Nomination Of Georgian President For Financial Gain?
Think Progress — ... The Washington Post reports today that Sen. John McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann may have used his position in the McCain campaign for his own financial benefit by advancing the interests of his former lobbying client, the Georgian government: ...

Who's presumptuous now
The Reaction — ... is transparently self-serving (not to mention his top adviser has been lining his lobbying-pockets for years with Georgian money). The only thing John McCain has accomplished this week is that he has ...

Adviser's Firm Pockets $$ While Counseling McCain on Georgia
Daily Kos — ... Welcome to the McCain administration, where your foreign policy will be run by lobbyists and your president will be prepped by paid flacks for diplomatic phone calls: ...

Is Russia John McCain’s “August Surprise?”
Firedoglake — ... The McCain campaign has obviously decided to play the national security card over the Russia/Georgia contratemps with the hope that the sight of John McCain banging his cane on the ground will make the country feel safe. Never mind that McCain's loyalties to Georgia were purchased via his lobbyist campaign staff. Or that the whole thing was triggered by a bunch of US neocon saber rattling that we don't actually have the ability to back up. War in the middle east not going so well, so let's go back to the cold war? By all means, roll out ...

Who Does John McCain Think He Is?
Oliver Willis — ... Of course, McCain is just doing what the lobbyists on his staff tell him to. To expect any sort of sense to be made with this crew is folly. ...

Dear Georgia, Despite what your lobbyist might have told you, McCain isn't the President and can't make policy
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth — Today's Washington Post filled us in on the relationship between the government of Georgia and John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann. Seems for quite awhile, Mr. Scheunemann served two masters at the same time: Georgia and McCain. ...

Did Karl Rove Chat to Saakashvili about South Ossetia Too?
Firedoglake — ... Now, there's been a lot of justified chatter about the role of Randy Scheunemann, who appears to be advising the Republic of Georgia at the same time as he provides campaign advice to John McCain. ...

I Wonder If There Are Some McCain Supporters Thinking The Tsar's Tanks Are Approaching Atlanta And Have Devastated Macon
DownWithTyranny! — ... -- although virtually all Georgian leaders share his nationalistic, anti-Russian fervor-- and Saakashvili seems to think McCain is going to growl and someone is going to care. One of the well-paid Georgian lobbyists on McCain's staff fed him a ridiculous and hyperbolic line: "We are all Georgians now." Unless he was just talking about the lobbyist and Neocon crowd that goaded Saakashvili into attacking South Ossetia last Thursday, McCain is on his own planet. But the Georgian president is ...

Pettier Than Richard and Kyle Petty Eating Petit Fours
Happy Furry Puppy Story Time with Norbizness — ... sheer weirdness, or some up-and-coming lieutenant in the New New Black Panthers (for relative unscariness) or Nation of Islam (for relative unmuslimliness). 3. All former Soviet republics near oil pipelines or oil-rich regions should take a look at the latest edition of Consumer Lobbyist Reports , where the brightest and most well-connected sleazebuckets in Washington are rated for value and effectiveness. Unfortunately, top McCain aide Randy Scheunemann was given a D-minus for his recent performance on behalf of the Georgian government. Unless you think that a couple of ...

Media Gives McCain Another Free Ride on Georgia
Firedoglake — ... . Nobody mentions that Scheunemann is a paid lobbyist for Georgia, to the tune of $200,000. Whose dime is he on? . McCain then sends twin sycophants Lieberman and Graham to the region. And this is not partisan how? . Where's all the high dudgeon about McCain's "several calls a day" to Saakashvilli, and his interference in a war? Here's the Wall Street Journal on Nancy Pelosi's visit to Damascus: ...

Another John McCain advisor under fire for lobbying work
Top of the Ticket — Just when John McCain was trying to show the world -- well, at least the part that will vote come November -- that he's a take-charge kind of guy, yet another one of his advisors is getting smacked around for his lobbying work. The reports have been cropping up in several places, and you can absorb the details there, but from a campaign standpoint this looks to be part of a migraine that just won't end. McCain has been persistently bedeviled by staff hires counter to his efforts to push the image of himself as a maverick ...

Presumptuous? Who, Me?
Daily Kos — ... themselves talking about how unprecedented it was for a candidate to inject themselves into an international crisis -- politics should stop at the water's edge, and all that. Instead, McCain is using a shooting war to buff his credentials? Seriously? And nobody in Washington sees a problem with that? One bright side of this campaign: the nation is indeed finally getting to see what a supreme tool John McCain is. And to see what two tools can do together. And what a professional campaign tool can do when they've been paid to lobby by one of the countries in ...

Cold War Mentality + Lobbyists + Hypocrisy = Foreign Policy: McCain is our GOP Hypocrite Again
BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash — ... , it was for hypocritical ties to lobbyists.  We've got a lot to cover this week, so let's start there. Though McCain's new policy on lobbyists forced Randy Scheunemann to take a leave of absence from his own lobbying firm, Orion, in May of this year, The Washington Post reported that the overlap between his work for Georgia and his work for McCain is significant:"Between Jan. 1, 2007, and May 15, 2008, the campaign paid Scheunemann nearly $70,000 to provide foreign policy advice. During the same period, the government of Georgia paid his firm $290,000 in lobbying ...

The Candidate We Still Don’t Know
Commondreams.org Views — ... in McCain’s own Senate investigation of Indian casino lobbying. Though the McCain campaign announced a new no-lobbyists policy three months after The Washington Post’s February report that lobbyists were “essentially running” the whole operation, the fact remains that McCain’s top officials and fund-raisers have past financial ties to nearly every domestic and foreign flashpoint, from Fannie Mae to Blackwater to Ahmad Chalabi to the government of Georgia . No sooner does McCain flip-flop on oil drilling than a bevy of ...

The Candidate We Still Don’t Know
Commondreams.org Views — ... in McCain’s own Senate investigation of Indian casino lobbying. Though the McCain campaign announced a new no-lobbyists policy three months after The Washington Post’s February report that lobbyists were “essentially running” the whole operation, the fact remains that McCain’s top officials and fund-raisers have past financial ties to nearly every domestic and foreign flashpoint, from Fannie Mae to Blackwater to Ahmad Chalabi to the government of Georgia . No sooner does McCain flip-flop on oil drilling than a bevy of ...

McCain Aggressively Defends Scheunemann's Work For Georgia
TPMMuckraker — ... , McCain expressed no concern about the fact Scheunemann last year was simultaneously working for McCain's campaign and lobbying the senator on behalf of a foreign government. ...

There Will Be Other Wars: McCain, Scheunemann, and Chalabi
Firedoglake — ... , the man who would eventually become the top foreign policy advisor to McCain 2008. Yes, the same Randy Scheunemann who lobbied John McCain on behalf of the Republican of Georgia while he was working on the McCain campaign. Yes, the same Randy Scheunemann who went into business with now-disgraced lobbyist and international influence peddler ...

Fox News Sunday: Rick Davis Tells Voters To Forget His Lobbyist Ties, Calls Them “Ghosts Of The Past”
Crooks and Liars — ... Campaign Manager David Axelrod reminded viewers in an earlier segment that McCain’s “reformer” claims are at odds with the people with whom he chooses to staff his campaign–a whole bunch of connected lobbyists, led by uber-lobbyist (allegedly retired) Rick Davis, Davis dismisses the charge by saying that the Obama campaign has nothing left but to chase after “ghosts of the past.” The past, you say?  Oh really?  Only if you consider “the past” to be just a few weeks ago. ...

Post-Georgia Conflict Repercussions Continue
Newshoggers.com — ... This could be a little psy-oping here, but it does further suggest that, indeed, Israel had been out of the loop on the Georgian operation and that Saakashvili's decision was the rogue move many think it was, one that may have been encouraged by US elements operating outside nominal channels. Long-time Georgian lobbyist and McCain foreign policy advisor Randy Schueneman redound such suggestion, while convenient circumstances brought Karl Rove and Saakashvili together in the weeks prior to the conflict. Both had attended the ...