Scheunemann used to peform lobbying work for the nation of Georgia. Some misguided souls are making the case that this presents an ethical dilemna for McCain and his foreign policy expert. Sam Dealey of US News & World Report disagrees.
I love a good scandal as much as the next person, but this really fails to raise any ethical questions. For starters, Scheunemann is hardly the first campaign adviser to have worked as a lobbyist. Some represent nonprofits, some represent industries, and, yes, some even represent foreign companies and governments. There's nothing illegal about that.
What's more, McCain's strong response to Russia's invasion of Georgia is consistent with where one would expect him to come down on the issue. As his opponents like to point out, McCain's a hawk; there's no 180-degree turn here.
So what's left? That Scheunemann represented a foreign client whose interests are shared by McCain? Gee, maybe that's why Scheunemann is (and was, well before he took on Georgia) McCain's top foreign-policy adviser—they actually agree!
If anything, this shows that one can be a lobbyist and stay true to one's beliefs. Bully for Scheunemann.
Bully for Dealey.
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3 comments:
By "used to peform lobbying work for the nation of Georgia" you must mean 'still owns the lobbying firm in question and still accepts $200,000 checks from the Georgian government on the very day that the other fellow he's working for -- Sen. McCain -- makes a speech sweeping away Georgia's own role in provoking this confrontation.' (That speech, by the by, included passages that appear to have been lifted from Wikipedia of all places... Instead of earning his campaign paycheck, Scheunemann must've been busy working for that $200k from Georgia -- on the sly, of course, since he "no longer" lobbies on their behalf even though he still owns the firm that does.)
I could see why a McCain partisan would prefer your version. It's shorter and bends the definition of "honesty" to the breaking point. ;)
Say, does McCain still support breakaway ethnic provinces like Kosovo? He used to support places like Kosovo, but now clearly does not since this whole mess was caused by Georgia attacking South Ossetia.
That's your "180-degree turn" as you put it.
Mac seems to be changing his mind on that point as his "campaign advisers" (aka, "used to be a lobbyist 5 minutes ago, might be one again in 5 more minutes") walk in and out of his revolving door, and get those piddly little $200,000 checks in one day.
Kosovo has had de facto independence for 10 years--and has a terrible history of being repressed by Serbia.
As for Wiki-gate...it's rather silly.
Spin all you want but the fact remains that McCain's top foreign policy guy for this region, Randy Schuenemann, owns a lobbying firm which accepted a $200,000 check from the Georgian government on the day McCain made a presumptuous speech tearing into Russia while ignoring Georgia's own role in provoking the crisis.
Another clear fact is that Sen. McCain is now sending, literally, his own presumptuous envoy of Sens. Lieberman and Graham despite the fact that the actual President has dispatched the actual Secretary of State to Tbilisi.
McCain is continuing to unnecessarily ratchet up the overheated rhetoric (making threats against Russia that he cannot possibly back up since our military is tied down in Iraq) and interfering with the actual peace process by sending his own campaign friends for some reason.
All in all, McCain is making an already difficult crisis worse with his sideshow by trying to earn political chits off of peoples' deaths in this crisis.
Whether this is because his top campaign adviser just took a $200,000 check from Georgia we can't know for sure, but your past griping about former Obama fundraisers (not even advisers, just fundraisers) would lead most folks to think you'd be more concerned about McCain and Schuenemann than you are.
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