=======> MCKOOK ADVISER GOT BIG $$$ TO LOBBY FOR GEORGIA!!! <=======
ChasNemo
Published: 8/13/08, 5:46 PM EDT
By PETE YOST
WASHINGTON (AP) - 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," said New York University
law professor Stephen Gillers. "So one must ask whether McCain is
getting disinterested advice, at least when the issues concern those
nations."
"If McCain wants advice from someone whose private interests as a once
and future lobbyist may affect the objectivity of the advice, that's
his choice to make."
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 hardline 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
presidential 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.
While their politics coincide, Russia's invasion of Georgia casts a
spotlight on Scheunemann's business interests and McCain's conduct as
a senator.
Scheunemann's firm lobbied McCain's office on four bills and
resolutions regarding Georgia, with McCain as a co-sponsor or
supporter of all of them.
In addition to the 49 contacts with McCain or his staff regarding
Georgia, Scheunemann's firm has lobbied the senator or his aides on at
least 47 occasions since 2001 on behalf of the governments of Taiwan
and Macedonia, which each paid Scheunemann and his partner Mike
Mitchell over half a million dollars; Romania, which paid over
$400,000; and Latvia, which paid nearly $250,000. Federal law requires
Scheunemann to publicly disclose to the Justice Department all his
lobbying contacts as an agent of a foreign government.
After contacts with McCain's staff, the senator introduced a
resolution saluting the people of Georgia on the first anniversary of
the Rose Revolution that brought Mikhail Saakashvili to power.
Four months ago, on the same day that Scheunemann's partner signed the
latest $200,000 agreement with Georgia, McCain spoke with Saakashvili
by phone. The senator then issued a strong statement saying that "we
must not allow Russia to believe it has a free hand to engage in
policies that undermine Georgian sovereignty."
Rogers, the McCain campaign spokesman, said the call took place at the
request of the embassy of Georgia. And McCain campaign spokeswoman
Nicolle Wallace added that the senator has full confidence in
Scheunemann. "We're proud of anyone who has worked on the side of
angels in fledgling democracies," she said in an interview.
McCain called Saakashvili again on Tuesday. "I told him that I know I
speak for every American when I said to him, today, we are all
Georgians," McCain told a cheering crowd in York, Pa. McCain's
Democratic rival, Barack Obama, had spoken with Saakashvili the day
before.
In 2005 and 2006, McCain signed onto a resolution expressing support
for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia; introduced a
resolution expressing support for a peace plan for Georgia's breakaway
province of Ossetia; and co-sponsored a measure supporting admission
of four nations including Georgia into NATO.
On Tuesday, McCain told Fox News that "as you know, through the NATO
membership, ... if a member nation is attacked, it is viewed as an
attack on all."
Scheunemann's lobbying firm is one of three that he has operated since
1999, with clients including BP Amoco, defense contractor Lockheed
Martin Corp. and the National Rifle Association.
Scheunemann is part of the community of neoconservatives who
relentlessly pushed for war in Iraq.
No one in Washington is more closely aligned with the Bush
administration's decision to invade Iraq than prominent
neoconservatives, who for years had regime change in Iraq as a goal as
part of their philosophy that the United States shouldn't be reluctant
to use its power, both diplomatic and military, to spread democracy
and to guarantee world order.
Now, McCain and other politicians who pushed for the invasion are
seeking to emphasize the progress, albeit fragile, of the current
troop surge in Iraq.
In the months before the war began, Scheuenemann ran the Committee for
the Liberation of Iraq, set up in November 2002 when public support
for the looming invasion was eroding.
Before that, Scheunemann 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.
The letter said American forces must be prepared to support "by all
means necessary" the U.S. government's commitment to opponents of
Saddam Hussein.
Scheunemann was among the letter's 37 signers, a Who's Who of
neoconservative luminaries including William Kristol and Richard
Perle.
If anything, Scheunemann's duties have been enhanced from McCain's
2000 presidential campaign, when Scheunemann also advised McCain on
national security and foreign policy issues.
Earlier in his political career, McCain displayed the kind of caution
that could be expected from someone who fought in Vietnam and was a
prisoner of war.
In 1983, McCain urged U.S. withdrawal from Lebanon. "I do not see any
obtainable objectives in Lebanon, and the longer we stay there, the
harder it will be to leave," he said.
As the United States prepared for the first Gulf war, McCain was among
a handful of members in Congress who began raising caution flags about
the operation.
"If you get involved in a major ground war in the Saudi desert, I
think support will erode significantly," said McCain. "Nor should it
be supported. We cannot even contemplate, in my view, trading American
blood for Iraqi blood."
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and
carrying the cross." - Sinclair Lewis
theloner...@aol.com
> McCain adviser got money from Georgia
Big Deal, Charlene........So?..........You do know you're Plugging Up
Usenet with your Nonsense Posts about NOTHING, Doncha?........Find
something Really Important to post..........DumbAss.........
Gregory Morrow
Yak yakked:
--------------------------
GM replies:
ChuKKKles needs some Ex - Lax to get "unplugged"......his butt plug is
"perforated", donchyaknow.............
--
Best
Greg
" I find Greg Morrow lowbrow, witless, and obnoxious. For him to claim that
we are some
kind of comedy team turns my stomach."
- "cybercat" to me on rec.food.cooking
lc
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/16/georgia.russia1
* Ian Traynor * Saturday August 16 2008
On Aug 16, 9:36 pm, "Gregory Morrow"
lc
http://wonkette.com/401833/was-bush-falling-down-drunk-at-olympics
http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/government/fraud/gw_bush_ghw_bush/news.php?q=1218479857
The tie eater friend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDm9cMG_j9Y
On Aug 16, 9:44 pm, lc <lol7...@msn.com> wrote:
> Six days that broke one country - and reshaped the world orderhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/16/georgia.russia1