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McCain Aggressively Defends Scheunemann's Work For Georgia
This weekend, Sen. John McCain brushed aside all criticism of his chief foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, and the lobbying work Scheunemann has done for the government of Georgia.
In an interview with USA Today, 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.
"I'm proud to have supported them," McCain said of Georgia in an interview on the campaign plane. "And I'm so proud that so many of my friends have done so, who also believe in freedom and democracy."
McCain dismissed criticisms from the Barack Obama campaign as beside the point.
Yet "rather than worry about the people of Georgia," McCain said, his Democratic rival "worried about whether someone on my staff had supported Georgia or not."
Last year, Scheunemann's firm, Orion Strategies, signed a $200,000 lobbying contract with Georgia on the same day McCain spoke on the phone with the country's president and issued a public statement in support of the government.
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Josh
Zachary
The good news is the press has started asking, and let's press the press to follow up. That answer was probably a dodge, though I have a pet theory that McCain can't deal with complexity of any sort. By that I mean that rather than dodging the question, he can't cope with a thought beyond Georgia-good Russia-bad, and anyone who thinks beyond that doesn't get it like he does.
Probably just an old fashioned dodge I admit.
August 18, 2008 11:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Listening to some neo-con on C-SPAN this morning, he admitted to a caller that Israel and the US both had military advisers in the country of Georgia. Both had supplied weapons to Georgia. We have read that 1000 Marines were in a joint military exercise with Georgia when the Russians invaded. There is more going on in this country than we have been told, it appears.
So, it is no surprise that John McCain, Condi Rice, and the rest of the neo-con enablers were so angry that Russia would invade a sovereign country, like they did with Iraq? So, they had to send the French President to negotiate with the Russians and Georgia because our own President would look like a hypocrite if he tried to negotiate a withdrawal of the Russian forces.
It looks like the neo-cons overplayed their hand once again. Big time. They have created a crisis for Europe with their need for natural gas this winter and have created an unnecessary military confrontation with their arrogant decisions to assist the "democracy" in Georgia. How was Russian supposed to react? Did they not think that Putin would hear about it? He has connections. He was the former head of the KGB.
August 18, 2008 11:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's something we need to make a campaign theme. How many times do they get to screw up? This seems like a way to get after McCain on his perceived strength in national security, that is, showing how the neocons, a group in which I include McCain since he follows their policies consistently, have a consistent record of getting it wrong and making things much worse as a result. The screwed up Afghanistan to go into Iraq, they thought Iraq would be easy, they told Israel to invade Lebanon making the same mistake of assuming it would be easy, the same story with telling Ethiopia to invade Somalia, and it looks like they did it again telling Georgia to use force to settle South Ossetia.
Perhaps Obama's slogan on foreign policy needs to be "How many times do they get to fail?"
August 18, 2008 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Always concerned about someone else's "democracy", when we have American democracy in peril with an imperial president who disregards laws like FISA and overrides congressional acts with signing statements. Where did "we the people" go?
August 18, 2008 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
This will prove to be an attempt by the republicans to resurrect their soft economy through more military spending.
But lots of BIG missiles won't stem our way from the abyss awaiting.
Bush and McCain would rather stare suicide in the face than admit their failures.
August 18, 2008 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
It happened that the US government at the high level bullied the Sarkozy the French president, because Sarkozy had decided to go to Gerorgia and negotiate the peace process..and he succeeded...
This was reported on the French media, fyi.
August 18, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess you're not allowed to press McCain on this and other issues, because ...... wait for it .... he was a POW!
Being aggressively question by a journalist is the only torture McCain does not support.
August 18, 2008 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are spot-on, yem4truth! The POW excuse is the only thing he and his campaign ever comes up with when he's put on the spot. "How DARE you question John McCain. He was a POW"! Makes me wonder if we'll all forgive him for that reason when he embroils us in another war or 3? After all, he wants us to go into Iran, Pakistan and now Russia. Oh wait! No, not Pakistan, I forgot. He'll definitely "go to the Gates of Hell" to get Bin Laden, but not into Pakistan. THAT'S a Sovereign nation! Like WE didn't do that in Iraq? A war HE APPROVED of, and still does? He's a hypocrite willing to say anything to get elected, and if you don't like his answer, wait a minute!
I also agree with wbgone that we are at least on the verge of becoming an insane country if we elect John McCain.
August 18, 2008 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, Senator, we're not worried about your senior staffer "supporting" Georgia, we're worried about him being paid to support Georgia.
If you would like us to be reassured that Scheunemann "supported" Georgia out of the goodness of his heart, and his work as a registered foreign agent has no influence on his foreign policy work for you, please provide us with a list of all the foreign countries he "supports" who aren't paying him.
(Insert standard gripe here about what we'd be hearing from Fox 24/7 if any Democrat had a top campaign staffer getting money from a foreign government.)
August 18, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Russia is at war (cold or hot) with Georgia. The United States must determine its best interests and implement those through its policies. McCain's premier foreign policy advisor is a PAID LOBBYIST for Georgia and McCain is running a Cheney-esque shadow foreign policy effort that may or may not be contrary to the best interests of the United States. If Obama did anything resembling this, he'd be called a TRAITOR. Yet our MSM wrings its hands when McCain whines about pro-Obama coverage. Is this country insane?
August 18, 2008 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
wbgone, Obama can be called a traitor, he is black and has a funny name.
You can't call John McCain a traitor, he was a POW.
August 18, 2008 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
John McCain was once an honorable man, but now he is a hollow shell. It as if when Bush whipped him with dirty tricks, McCain just decided to give up and cash in. POW or not, McCain has spent the last 8 years suckling at the teats of the Republican Party: foreign policy neocons, oil companies, religious nuts and, above all else -- the One Great God of the Republican Party -- money.
August 18, 2008 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink