Posted by Jed Lewison on Wed Aug 13, 2008 at 8:03 AM Pacific

Foreign lobbyists first

While Aide Advised McCain, His Firm Lobbied for Georgia
Campaign Dismisses Timing of Phone Call, Contract

By Matthew Mosk and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers - Wednesday, August 13, 2008; A03

Sen. John McCain's top foreign policy adviser prepped his boss for an April 17 phone call with the president of Georgia and then helped the presumptive Republican presidential nominee prepare a strong statement of support for the fledgling republic.

The day of the call, a lobbying firm partly owned by the adviser, Randy Scheunemann, signed a $200,000 contract to continue providing strategic advice to the Georgian government in Washington.

John McCain thinks there's nothing wrong this.

He thinks it's just fine to base his foreign policy vision on the advice of someone who has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by foreign nations to lobby the American government.

And as if that weren't absurd enough, he thinks it's outrageous that anyone would dare criticize him for doing just that.

But McCain just doesn't understand why this is so important. It's not an issue of whether the advice is right or wrong -- the issue is that by taking advice from someone who was paid by a foreign government to give it, McCain is sending a signal to the world that he would continue the cronyism that defined the Bush years.

And four more years of Bush is a risk we can't afford to take.

Foreign lobbyists first

While Aide Advised McCain, His Firm Lobbied for Georgia
Campaign Dismisses Timing of Phone Call, Contract

By Matthew Mosk and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers - Wednesday, August 13, 2008; A03

Sen. John McCain's top foreign policy adviser prepped his boss for an April 17 phone call with the president of Georgia and then helped the presumptive Republican presidential nominee prepare a strong statement of support for the fledgling republic.

The day of the call, a lobbying firm partly owned by the adviser, Randy Scheunemann, signed a $200,000 contract to continue providing strategic advice to the Georgian government in Washington.

John McCain thinks there's nothing wrong this.

He thinks it's just fine to base his foreign policy vision on the advice of someone who has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by foreign nations to lobby the American government.

And as if that weren't absurd enough, he thinks it's outrageous that anyone would dare criticize him for doing just that.

But McCain just doesn't understand why this is so important. It's not an issue of whether the advice is right or wrong -- the issue is that by taking advice from someone who was paid by a foreign government to give it, McCain is sending a signal to the world that he would continue the cronyism that defined the Bush years.

And four more years of Bush is a risk we can't afford to take.

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