Since Sarah Palin took the national stage in 2008, neocon Randy Scheunemann has been at her side as an apparent confidant and foreign policy adviser, getting $30,000 in fees from her as recently as June 30, 2010.
But at the same time, Justin Elliott reports at Salon, Scheunemann’s firm Orion Strategies was taking money to lobby the U.S. government from conservative boogeyman George Soros’ Open Society Policy Center.
Elliott reports:
That would be Republican lobbyist Randy Scheunemann, Palin’s foreign policy adviser and a member of her small inner circle. He runs a Washington, D.C., consulting firm called Orion Strategies. Scheunemann and a partner have since 2003 been paid over $150,000 by one of Soros’ organizations for lobbying work, according to federal disclosure forms reviewed by Salon. The lobbying, which has continued to the present, centers on legislation involving sanctions and democracy promotion in Burma.
Scheunemann is perhaps better known for his support of going to war in Iraq, his friendship and support of now-discredited Iraqi exile and friend-to-Iran Ahmad Chalabi and work as a foreign agent for the government of Georgia than he is for the more liberal-friendly cause of democracy in Myanmar (which the government of the United States still calls Burma).
Elliott also reports that, at Palin’s recommendation, Scheunemann and Orion Strategies’ Michael Goldfarb (formerly of the McCain campaign) helped prep then-Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell (R) for her debate with Sen.-elect Chris Coons (D).
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