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McCain’s ‘lobbyist problem’ manages to get worse

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There were a couple of weeks in May that were rather embarrassing for the McCain campaign. The presumptive Republican nominee had developed a reputation as a politician who had little use for high-priced DC lobbyists, but it quickly became obvious that his entire campaign operation was being run by … high-priced DC lobbyists. In one eight-day stretch, McCain had to fire five lobbyists from key campaign roles because of their lobbying clients.

And that was before Randy Scheunemann was added to the mix. He may very well prove to be the most problematic of them all.

John McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 1/2-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.

McCain warned Russian leaders Tuesday that their assault in Georgia risks “the benefits they enjoy from being part of the civilized world.”

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. For the duration of the campaign, Scheunemann is taking a leave of absence 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,” New York University law professor Stephen Gillers told the AP. “So one must ask whether McCain is getting disinterested advice, at least when the issues concern those nations.”

This is pretty messy. On April 17, the day that Scheunemann’s firm was signing a lucrative deal with the Georgian government, Scheunemann also prepped John McCain for a phone call with the Georgian president and helped McCain with a public statement of support for Georgia.

It’s fair to say the line between Scheunemann’s lobbying and Scheunemann’s role atop McCain’s foreign policy shop were more than a little blurred.

The WaPo’s piece on this today paints a damaging picture.

At the time of McCain’s call

, Scheunemann had formally ceased his own lobbying work for Georgia, according to federal disclosure reports. But he was still part of Orion Strategies, which had only two lobbyists, himself and Mike Mitchell.

Scheunemann remained with the firm for another month, until May 15, when the McCain campaign imposed a tough new anti-lobbyist policy and he was required to separate himself from the company. […]

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.

Since 2004, Orion has collected $800,000 from the government of Georgia.

And Scheunemann may not have a role as a lobbyist for his company right now, Orion is still partly his company.

This may seem a little complicated, but it’s really not — McCain is being guided on Georgian policy by a former lobbyist for the Georgian government, while the lobbyist’s company is still employed by the Georgian government. James Thurber, a lobbying expert at American University, told the WaPo, “The question is, who is the client? Is the adviser loyal to income from a foreign client, or is he loyal to the candidate he is working for now? It’s dangerous if you’re getting advice from people who are very close to countries on one side or another of a conflict.”

Josh Marshall added: “After you read the article it’s astonishing that Scheunemann is even still with the campaign. And it just adds to the continuing mystery of how McCain preserves this image of being the scourge of lobbyists when he is almost a caricature of the kind of politician whose conduct is managed by a series of lobbyists who manage his actions on almost every point of policy.”

Complicating matters, ThinkProgress has a provocative item, raising the question of whether 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.”

McCain has made a series of spectacular mistakes in recent years, but hiring a bunch of lobbyists to run his entire campaign operation really moves the needle on the Bad-Judgment-O-Meter.

Comments

  • Lance

    says:

    The point isn’t that JSMcC*nt has lobbyists on his campaign.

    The point is that once again the Republican’ts have convinced a small ethnic group that they were going to be helped by Washington, only to drop them in the crapper when the going got tough (Kurds, Shi’ia, etc.).

    Boy George II and John Sidney Plane Crasher are both guilty here, having foolishly promoted Georgian ties without the ability to back them up.

    And of course it’s all about Caspian Oil, which we didn’t want piped through Russia or Iran, but which Azerbajian didn’t want piped through Armenia. That left Georgia, and Putin is working on cutting (or controlling) that pipeline right now.

    Political Geography is pretty important. Pity JSMcC*nt doesn’t know that Iraq doesn’t border Pakistan.

  • Patrick

    says:

    I have been talking about this bad guy for a little while now. He is also a founding Director of The Project For A New American Century. That group was designed with the main purpose of lobbying Bill Clinton, then Bush to start the Iraq War back in 1998 or 1999. Thes guys are really bad news and they have been given high positions in the Bush Admin and McCrash’s campaign.

  • RW

    says:

    Remember, McCain belongs to the party of Lincoln. Maybe he’s just paraphrasing Honest Abe: A campaign of the lobbyists, by the lobbyists and for the lobbyists shall not perish from the earth.

  • Patrick

    says:

    Bill Kristol was another founding director and signatories include Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith. Pretty much all the worst people that were in the Bush admin were in this group that wanted to start preventative wars in the middle east to exert and project american force and they had the fantasy that this would make all governments hostile to the US shiver in their boots and become our best friends. They were so wrong, but they keep popping back up. Wack that mole back down again. Better yet, start cutting off their heads.

  • Patrick

    says:

    I am assuming there will be commercials soon calling for Randy Scheunemann’s head and it is timely if it comes out by tomorrow at the latest. Tie these assholes to Georgia and make the country realize that they let Saakashvilli think we would help him and back him up against Russia. We can’t have a potential NATO member be so reckless as to get us into a war with Russia. This is a real danger to our future.

  • Dee Loralei

    says:

    A little while ago, Shascavilli (sp?) had a press conference announcing the the US was going to come in and take over command of Georgian Air-space and territorial waters. The Pentagon spokesman said he had no idea what Shascavilli was talking about, that the US was only flying in humanitarian aid, etc.

    John McCain is bragging that he’s one the phone everyday at least once with Georgia……. doesn’t take much to wonder just what the eff McCain and Shuneman are telling them over there.

  • nisl

    says:

    Jeez, talk about missing the point. If you are going to go after Scheunemann you have a lot more to use than just his lobbying. This guy is one of the architects of Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL.) He is the neocons neocon. PNAC and all. The question isn’t so much about the advice he gives to McCain about Georgia. No, it is about the advice he gives to McCain about the whole world.

  • Dee Loralei

    says:

    At TPM, Josh Marshall just mentioned the McCain is sending it’s own delegation to Georgia, including Senators Lieberman and Graham.

    Sheesh talk about presumptuous……. We do still have only ONE President. And he’s constitutionally in charge of foreign policy. Way to step on the toes of a fellow party leader, McCain. Funny thing is, in this scenario, Bush looks sane and rational!

    Ya think Lieberman and Graham realize they will be used as a trip-wire while there? Not even Putin is crazy enough to want to draw the US into a shooting match. But Saakasvilli is. I’m just sayin’……the man may have a false flag/black-ops scenario of his own planned.

  • Stevio

    says:

    Add this to the mix. On CNN they were showing footage of the Georgian pres talking about him being in contact with washington and mention, out of the blue, that “John McCain has informed him of the support he has from the American people” (paraphrased) . I was flooed hearing that. Now, not so much. If McAce has a lobbiest working for him and for the Georgian people , conflict of interest is an overstatement in duces. How can the MSM not feel like second graders when they hear this stuff and let it slide. How come the real journalists are all bloggers? This is sooooo frustrating…

  • SaintZak

    says:

    Anyone considering a vote for McCain should take notice of that draft in the air. Young voters of draft age, people with children of draft age, they all better think long and hard about the consequenses of a McCain presidency.

  • Chad

    says:

    Dee Loralei #12 wrote:

    Sheesh talk about presumptuous……. We do still have only ONE President. And he’s constitutionally in charge of foreign policy.

    That just made me laugh out loud. Presumptuous? Really? Did McCain change the presidential seal? Does McCain have an “O-Force One” plane? If anyone is presumptuous, it’s your boy Barry. You might be too starry-eyed to notice though.

  • Patrick

    says:

    McCain is dangerously sending signals to Georgia and Russia that the President may not wish sent. That idiot is endangering us all. I bet the stupid republicans line right up behind him like the unthinking sheep that they are. Remember sheep, Bush is still the Preisdent, not McCain.

  • Dennis-SGMM

    says:

    Sheesh talk about presumptuous……. We do still have only ONE President. And he’s constitutionally in charge of foreign policy.

    It isn’t Obama who’s on the phone with the president of Georgia every day and it isn’t Obama who’s sending his own delegation to Georgia. You might be too much of a blinkered sycophant to notice though.

  • Chad

    says:

    It isn’t Obama who’s on the phone with the president of Georgia every day and it isn’t Obama who’s sending his own delegation to Georgia. You might be too much of a blinkered sycophant to notice though.

    No, Obama is on the phone everyday with his brother Odinga in Kenya carrying on some tribal war over there.

  • jhm

    says:

    Hon. Sen. McCain likes to mention Georgia’s status as a nascent democracy, but he never addresses the issue which is at least the nominal nodus: the territorial dispute concerning South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Especially considering his full throated support of President Saakashvili, and Mr. Scheunemann’s extensive ties, the fact that Georgia’s president is firmly committed to the position that these areas are a part of Georgia’s sovereign territory, we might well expect Senator McCain to share his views on the subject.

  • libra

    says:

    McCain warned Russian leaders Tuesday that their assault in Georgia risks “the benefits they enjoy from being part of the civilized world.” — yahoo news, via CB

    And they got so scared, they put their tails between their legs, and slunk off back where they came from. See how effective McCain is on international scene? And it’s not the first time, either; remember the release of hostages he negotiated in Colombia?

    Can’t do better than put the reins of the country into the hands of John Sidney (the Third and Least); he’s the only one who still remembers horse and buggy transport system. Does the young whippersnapper even know what “reins” are???

  • Shalimar

    says:

    19.On August 13th, 2008 at 5:34 pm, Chad said:
    No, Obama is on the phone everyday with his brother Odinga in Kenya carrying on some tribal war over there.

    Obama and Odinga aren’t related, and Obama issued a statement through the State Department (after getting approval from Condi) earlier this year calling for an end to the violence by all sides. You have any evidence Obama and Odinga are even acquainted beyond a brief meeting on Obama’s African tour 2 years ago? Alleging that they talk every day is a serious charge, basically accusing Obama of a crime. Conducting diplomacy in the name of the US government is against the law.

  • NHct

    says:

    McCain is talking tough on Russia, which is catnip for the media. So the guy calling the shots basically works for Georgia. McCain is so strong!

  • Bruno

    says:

    Moron troll chad @ 15 & 19

    Keep trying to compare what McCain does with situations that, in your opinion, are worse when Obama does them.

    If you can’t find an example you make one up out of thin air… How republican.

    Tell me know… How is Obama making his own seal, looking like the Presidential seal, AND Obama flying around in his chartered O-force-One plane putting America at risk?

    I mean McCain is acting as if he’s the one in charge of the United States, instead of President Bush. McCain meddling in foreign affairs, especially in a war situation, is far more dangerous that mocking a seal and an airplane. Nobody would ever die from seeing the Obama seal, or watching the O-force-One take off or land. BUT a lot of people could potentially be put in harms way by McCain sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong.

    For your information… There is video available of McCain with a ‘presidential seal’ as well

    chad… you’re an embarrassment to the republican party.

  • DK

    says:

    Patrick (# 5) mentioned something that I have been thinking about and that is NATO membership for Georgia. Clearly Russia doesn’t want this and in part this action was meant as a shot across the bow to warn against NATO membership. At the same time, McCain has been a major booster of NATO membership for Georgia and rather bellicose in his language regarding Russia.

    So if McCain were in charge, would he set about antagonizing Russia and promoting NATO membership for former Soviet bloc states? And if Russia uses military force against these countries, would we be obligated to respond militarily to defend NATO countries?

    Certainly, we don’t want to let Russia get away with this kind of action, but on the other hand do we really want to elect a president whose policies seem likely to end up getting us in a war with Russia?

    The fact that McCain is getting advice from Schueneman is scary. Put this in combination with the advice he receives from Robert Kagan and we could have a war on our hands that makes Iraq look like a tea party.