We knew Randy Scheunemann, John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, was into guns. After all, in 1997 he was arrested for having a shotgun and several rounds of ammunition in his car on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. And in addition to his extensive lobbying work on behalf of former Soviet bloc countries, he's also a longtime lobbyist for gun-rights groups. But it now looks like, for Scheunemann, doing the bidding of the gun lobby takes precedence over efforts to combat terrorism.

Newsweek reports that, according to registration documents filed by Scheuenemann's lobbying firm, Orion Strategies, Scheunemann lobbied on behalf of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) against a bill that aims to close a gun-control loophole that inhibits the government from stopping people on terrorist watch-lists from buying guns. According to Newsweek, "the bill was inspired by an official audit covering a five-month period in 2004 which found that, because of the loophole, the Feds had to greenlight 35 out of 44 cases where a gun buyer was on a terrorist watch list."

The bill, which is backed by the Bush Justice Department, was introduced last year by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), but has been held up in committee. It has since faced stiff opposition from the gun lobby, an aide to Lautenberg told TPMmuckraker, and has yet to come to a vote.

According to lobby disclosure reports, Scheunemann's firm was paid $120,000 by NSSF in 2007, and another $60,000 so far this year. Scheunemann himself took a leave of absence from the firm earlier this year to work on McCain's campaign.

Sen. McCain has not taken a position on the bill. His campaign would not tell Newsweek whether he supports it, or whether Scheunemann had ever lobbied McCain on gun-control issues.

So yesterday the McCain campaign showcased its newly announced keynote convention speaker, Rudy Giuliani -- fully rested after his own disastrous presidential run -- on a conference call, with reporters. Also on the call was the campaign's top foreign-policy hand, Randy Scheunemann.

But this isn't the first time that Rudy and Randy's names have popped up in the same context. Both have ties to Stephen Payne, the former White House official who reportedly promised access to Bush administration higher-ups in exchange for contributions to Bush's Presidential Libary. Since 2001, Scheunemann has been paid about $130,00 as an adviser to Payne's various energy development and consulting firms. And a document put out by one of Payne's firms listed Guliani's law firm, Bracewell-Giuliani, as "outside strategic and legal counsel."

With all the signs suggesting that Giuliani will play a major role in vouching for McCain's terrorist-fighting bona-fides this fall, the link to Scheunemann and Payne serves as a reminder -- as if any were needed -- that America's Mayor hasn't always been too careful about the company he keeps.

We already knew that the Republic of Georgia has some high-placed American contacts. Orion Strategies, the DC lobbying firm run by Randy Scheunemann, John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, has been representing the country since 2001, focusing primarily on boosting Georgia's effort to gain admittance to NATO (Scheunemann is currently on leave from Orion while working for McCain). Indeed, Orion signed its latest contract with Georgia on April 17, the same day that McCain announced support for Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili, saying they'd just talked by the phone.

So it stands to reason that Georgia's prime antagonist of late, Russia, would be playing the Beltway influence game just as hard. And The Washington Post reports today that since 2006, Russia has employed Ketchum, one of the world's largest public-relations firms "to facilitate communication between Russian government officials and international journalists on key issues affecting Russia." And according to PR Week, since the start of the recent crisis with Georgia, Ketchum has been leading an "international consortium" of agencies, including the Brussels-based PR giant GPlus, to promote Russian interests.

And it looks like it isn't just the media that Ketchum has been working on Vladimir Putin's behalf. According to lobbying disclosure forms, Russia has, since February of this year, employed the firm Integrated Solutions Group* (ISG) to "support Washington-based government relations initiatives with Members of Congress and staff"--in other words, lobbying. ISG, notes the form, "is compensated ... through an arrangement with The Washington Group." The Washington Group is a DC lobbying firm owned by Ketchum. Indeed, the ISG lobbyist listed on the form, John O'Hanlon, is The Washington Group's managing director, and therefore a Ketchum employee.

It's worth mentioning there's no evidence of anything improper here. Indeed, representing Putin's government would seem to be business as usual for Ketchum, which employs 1100 people across 21 worldwide offices, and has worked with BP, Bristol-Meyers-Squibb, Dow Chemical, the Clorox Company, and the Bush administration, among other upstanding corporate and government citizens.

Ketchum is known for playing hardball. In 2005, it was revealed that, as part of a $1.3 million contract between Ketchum and the US Department of Education, the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams was being paid to promote the No Child Left Behind Act in op-ed columns and on his nationally syndicated TV show--without revealing the payments.

And two years earlier, Ketchum did similar work on behalf of the Bush administration's Department of Health and Human Services including hiring a fake reporter, Karen Ryan, to produce news "stories" touting the Medicare drug benefit that were sent to local news stations and wound up on air. The Bush administration was later found to have broken two federal laws in its work with Ketchum.

We're looking into ISG and Ketchum's (aka The Washington Group's) lobbying work on behalf of Russia. Which members of Congress did they speak to, and what were the results? Have these efforts influenced the US response to the Russia-Georgia crisis? We'll let you know what we find out.

*Corrected from an earlier version.

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.

As if helping to plan the Iraq war wasn't troubling enough, now we learn that Randy Scheunemann, John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, has been personally arrested at the Capitol for carrying an illegal weapon.

Scheuneman was arrested, charged and fingerprinted back in 1997 when Capitol Police saw a shotgun case in the back of his SUV while he was driving to work.

The Huffington Post points out today an old Washington Times article about the Jan. 23, 1997 arrest. Scheunemann was charged with possession of an unregistered firearm (an unloaded 12-gauge) and unregistered ammunition (two rounds).

Scheunemann, then an aide to Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), told police he'd been duck hunting recently and fogotten to take the weapon out of the car, according to the Times story.

There's been a lot of talk this week about how Randy Scheunemann, John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, spent years as a lobbyist for the Georgia government.

So let's take a look at what Scheuneman was actually doing in that role -- which helped earn his firm nearly $900,000 since 2004. Lobbying for a foreign government is a vaguely defined task that involves cultivating contacts, trying to shape perception and influence key decisions. For Georgia, the goal was clear -- to get on track for NATO membership and secure western backing against Russian influence and aggression.

Schuenemann's dual role of paid foreign agent (as recently as March) and key adviser to a presidential candidate is unusual, especially since McCain has not indicated that Scheunemann will recuse himself from Georgia issues.

That conflict of interest is underscored by McCain's aggressive effort to influence the situation in Georgia over the past week. McCain appears to be conducting his own foriegn policy independent of the White House. The candidate is sending Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to travel to Georgia, though it is not clear how their visit will comport with the State Department's own efforts to manage the situation.

"John McCain is heavily politicizing this process. That is weird when one of the participants in the process is a guy who has taken $900,000 from the Georgia government," said Steve Clemons, director of the foreign policy program at the New America Foundation. "It stinks."

As a paid foreign agent, Scheunemann and his lobbying firm, Orion Strategies, filed disclosure reports with the Department of Justice, which offer some insight into the process of exercising influence in Washington.

Scheunemann spent a lot of time working the phones, talking to key Bush Administration officials about Georgia's efforts to join NATO. He often spoke to Ambassador John Tefft who heads the U.S. embassy in Georgia, as well as Dan Fried and Matt Bryza at the State Department, Dan Fata at the Defense Department and David Merkel from the National Security Council.

Scheunemann also lobbied on Capitol Hill, particularly in late 2006 when a key piece of legislation was moving through the Senate regarding what countries might be added to NATO. He often talked and met with the foreign policy adviser in McCain's office, John Fontaine. He also met regularly with Stephen Rademaker on the Senate majority leader's staff and with Jessica Fugate from the Foreign Relations Committee Staff.

He spent some of his time dealing with journalists. For example in July 2007, Scheunemann met with with Jackson Diehl, a deputy editorial page editor for the Washington Post to discuss developments in Georgia's NATO aspirations. Last year he wrote a letter to Harper's Magazine rebutting a story about Georgia.

When leaders from Georgia came to visit Washington, Scheunemann was out at restaurants introducing them to beltway powerbrokers. For example, in December 2006, Georgia Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli was visiting and Scheunemann arranged a dinner for him with Sen. Joseph Biden(D-DE), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Russ Fiengold (D-WI) and Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), also of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen, Joe Lieberman (D-CT) of the Armed Services Committee. Also at the table was Jessica Fugate, a staffer on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Sheunemann also traveled to Georgia to host key lawmakers from the U.S.. For example, in August of 2006, Scheunemann was there with Sen. John McCain and the rest of a Senate delegation that included Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who sis on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Mel Martinez (R-FL) of the Senate Armed Services Committee, , and Sen. John Sununu (R-NH).

Scheunemann also traveled to Georgia for more low-profile visits, like in January 2007, when he flew to Tbilisi and spent five nights in the Marriott hotel in the capital. In April 2005, Scheunemann spoke at a conference in Tbilisi, where he was identified as "a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Committee on NATO."

In addition to peddling his access to Washington power brokers to Georgia officials, Scheunemann also appears to have peddled his access to Georgia officials to energy investors. Scheunemann worked with Stephen Payne, the Houston-based energy consultant who was caught on video offering access to top Bush Administration officials in exchange for big donations to the future George W. Bush library fund. One of Payne's groups touts Scheuneman's ties with Georgia as a way to forge deals with the Georgia state-run oil company.

Scheunemann has tried to distance himself from Georgia as McCain's campaign has geared up this year. He de-registered as a foreign agent in March. But he still owns his firm. And that firm signed a new $200,000 contract with Georgia on the same day McCain called Saakashvili and then issued a public statement in support of Georgia. A McCain aide denied there was any connection.

"For a country like Georgia, what they are trying to do essentially is get meetings, to get noticed, to further their goals. What Randy Scheunemann was essentially trying to do is build relationships between key decision makers in the White House and in Congress, to sell the notion that this is a vital democracy," said Clemons of the New America Foundation.

"What Randy Scheunemann achieved was an effort to kind of put Georgia and the ideological meaning of hugging this young democracy over the geostrategic reality of managing vital American interests," Clemons said.

For those you wondering how Georgia came to believe that the U.S. might come to their rescue in case of war with the Russians, we found something pretty interesting.

Here's an interview that Randy Scheunemann, John McCain's top foreign policy advisor, gave to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty back in April, which is posted on a Georgia government Web site.

And note the date -- April 28, 2008. That's less than two weeks after Scheunemann's lobbying firm, Orion Strategies, had signed a new $200,000 lobbying contract with Georgia's National Security Council.

At no point in the interview does Sheunemann mention that he was Georgia's primary lobbyist in Washington for several years.

I think what is most important, first and foremost, is to have Western unity in the face of the latest Russian undermining of Georgian sovereignty. Traditionally, we have seen that the Russians will push and push until they meet opposition. And what they need to understand is that all European countries and the United States are united in opposing the latest Russian moves, which is really the culmination of years of what they've been doing, undermining Georgian sovereignty.
...

The reason, I think, that there's been such support for years on a bipartisan basis in the U.S. Congress, as well as support through successive administrations, for Georgia is not because Georgia has resources -- as you point out, Georgia is relatively resource poor -- it is because, in particular since the Rose Revolution, that the Georgian example has inspired Americans and American leaders in their dedication to democracy, their willingness to take risks for democracy, the tremendous reforms that the Saakashvili government has put in place.

It's really about shared values, and it's something that Senator McCain feels particularly deeply. He's been to Georgia, I think, three or four times and witnessed the legendary Georgian hospitality on those occasions, and it had a deep and lasting impact on him that will continue.

Obviously, the government of Georgia thought these sentiments would play well to its domestic audience, or else the transcript would not be on the government Web site. And whatever message was relayed from Washington to Tbilisi over the past few years, Sheunemann was a primary messenger.

Randy Scheunemann earned about $70,000 serving as Sen. John McCain's top foreign policy adviser between the January 2007 and May 15, 2008.

During the same period, the government of Georgia paid his firm $290,000 in lobbying fees.

Today's Washington Post reports a stark illustration of the conflict of interest that Scheunemann faced while advising McCain on foreign policy matters related to the former Soviet Republic and also working for the Georgia embassy.

On April 17, McCain got on the phone with Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili about Russian efforts to gain leverage over two of Georgia's troubled provinces. That same day, McCain issued a public statement condemning Russia and expressing strong support for the Georgian position.

And also on that same day, Georgia signed a new, $200,000 lobbying contract with Scheunemann's firm, Orion Strategies, according to the Post.

[McCain Campaign spokesman Brian] Rogers said Orion's representation of Georgia had no bearing on McCain's decision to speak with Saakashvili in April. "The Embassy of Georgia requested the call because of Georgian concerns over recent Russian actions dealing with South Ossetia and Abkhazia," he said.

The McCain campaign said Scheunemann has not received any payments from his lobbying firm since May 15 -- a few weeks after the Georgia contract was signed -- when the campaign imposed strict new restrictions on lobbying by campaign staffers. And the campaign notes that Scheunemann de-registered as a lobbyist for Georgia in March.

But Scheunemann remains owner of the firm, according to the Wall Street Journal. It's not a big firm -- essentially including only one other person, Scheunemann's partner, Mike Mitchell.

The firm has lobbied McCain's senate office a lot over the past few years. Orion reports making at least 71 phone calls to McCain and his staffers since 2004 to lobby on behalf of foreign clients, including Georgia.

John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, has for years been an essential conduit for the relationship between the United States and Georgia, the former Soviet republic that has been pounded by the Russian military for the past week.

He was Georgia's top lobbyist in Washington until earlier this year. He has taken leave from his lobbying firm, Orion Strategies, but he is still listed as president of in the firm, which has received nearly $900,000 from the Embassy of Georgia since 2004.

Scheunemann is tight with the Bush administration and many neoconservatives in Washington's foreign policy establishment. A former aide to Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), Scheunemann also has easy access to lawmakers like McCain, whose office Scheunemann has lobbied directly in recent years.

For the Georgia government back in Tbilisi, having Scheunemann on the payroll in Washington has been empowering.

"Randy Scheunemann is at a vital nexus...and it made Tbilisi feel as if it was wedged into the back pocket of Dick Cheney," Steve Clemons, head of the foreign policy program at the New America Foundation in Washington, told TPMmuckraker today.

Scheunemann's primary mission on behalf of Georgia was getting the Russian border state on track for NATO membership, according to Scheunemann's filings with the Department of Justice database maintained under the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

NATO membership would include a mutual defense pact that could legally draw the U.S. and the rest of Europe into a conflict between Georgia and its neighbor to the north.

Of course, Russia loathes that idea and even some Americans think it's unnecessarily risky and provocative. But pushing NATO further eastward and ultimately up to the Russian border has long been a key mission for hawkish Republicans and neoconservatives.

The Bush administration has been a big proponent of Georgia's NATO bid, despite resistance in Europe. Bush visited Georgia in 2005 and has been especially chummy with Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, the young Georgetown-educated pro-American leader.

It sure made for great rhetoric -- casting Georgia as a beacon of spreading democracy and freedom.

But now, since violent clashes have erupted between Georgia and Russia, the Bush administration is taking some blame for not reigning in its small and militarily weak ally.

After all, it was the Georgians who catalyzed this week's bloodshed when its military mounted an incursion into South Ossetia and confronted the Russian troops there (prompting many to ask: what were they thinking?).

"I would say Georgia has a very good PR team. The U.S. and the Georgian government built a very close relationship and it was too close for the good of either party. . . The U.S. allowed Saakashvili to get too puffed up and think he could fly too close to the sun," Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a professor at Georgetown University, said in an interview today.

Few on this side of the Atlantic doubt that Russia's response was brutish and heavy handed. But the Bush Administration is taking a lot of criticism for possibly sending mixed signals to the Georgian government about our level of commitment and support for the tiny nation. (Those critiques are, for example, spelled out here, here and here.)

Georgia was until this week the third-largest contributor of troops to Iraq after the U.S. and Great Britain, where its roughly 2,000 troops were welcomed by the Bush administration.

State Department officials insist they were clear that Georgia should not expect U.S. military support in case of a clash with Russia.

Sure, that was the official line. But we can't help but wonder, what did Scheunemann tell the Georgians? While they were paying his firm hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to help build a strong relationship with Washington, how did he characterize the level of support Georgia might expect?

Scheunemann's influence, either spoken or unspoken, emboldened Saakashvili, Clemons said.

"Saakashvili overplayed his hand. He believed he had the world's best lobbyist helping him not only with Cheney-land. . . but that he also had this wedge into the nerve cell of John McCain, who he may have believed would be the ultimate victor over Barack Obama."