In which we learn one possible reason John McCain has been so sympathetic to the Georgian cause:
John McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 1/2-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
The payments raise ethical questions about the intersection of Randy Scheunemann’s personal financial interests and his advice to the Republican presidential candidate who is seizing on Russian aggression in Georgia as a campaign issue.
McCain warned Russian leaders Tuesday that their assault in Georgia risks “the benefits they enjoy from being part of the civilized world.”
On April 17, a month and a half after Scheunemann stopped working for Georgia, his partner signed a $200,000 agreement with the Georgian government. The deal added to an arrangement that brought in more than $800,000 to the two-man firm from 2004 to mid-2007. For the duration of the campaign, Scheunemann is taking a leave of absence from the firm.
What a good idea.
But apparently, the Georgian president is bummed that he hasn’t gotten the return he expected on his investment, telling McCain that “he needs to move from words to deeds.” Asks Josh Marshall:
Isn’t John McCain just a presidential candidate? Not actually president? Is he really supposed to be running his own freelance foreign policy as part of his campaign?
And just imagine if Barack Obama had dared to do this.
Update: And now Marshall’s reporting that McCain is sending his own delegation to Georgia.
It very much looks like John McCain is trying to seize control of the country’s foreign policy right now, before the man has ever been elected president.
This is megalomania; this is dangerous. Marshall has Georgian President Saakashvili telling Georgians that the US military was moving in to take over control of the countries air and seaports - and the Pentagon contradicts that five minutes later.
Meanwhile, McCain has been talking to Saakashvili every day. Asks Marshall:
What’s he telling him? Is he confusing the situation?
Is this a coup - in this country? McCain’s appointed himself proxy to the vacationing President Bush. Who the hell does he think he is?
