Posted by Jed Lewison on Mon Aug 18, 2008 at 3:37 PM Pacific

McCain 'Proud' Adviser Lobbied for Foreign Government

John McCain talks with top foreign policy aide Randy Scheunemann.

USA Today finally got John McCain on the record about Randy Scheunemann's lobbying on behalf of Georgia. "I'm proud to have supported them [the Georgians]", McCain says. "And I'm so proud that so many of my friends have done so."

As you recall, Scheunemann, McCain's top foreign policy adviser, has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby for Georgia. Scheunemann even took McCain jet skiing with the Georgian President.

McCain is trying to position Scheunemann's paid lobbying as something noble, but the fact remains that Scheunemann was just an employee doing his job. Whether or not his position was "right" is not the issue: the issue is that he presented and presents a conflict of interest for McCain.

It's mind-boggling that John McCain doesn't recognize that Scheunemann's lobbying career undermines his capacity to be an honest broker as president.