Scheunemann: McCain foreign policy advisor

The Washington Post reported that McCain's top foreign policy advisor, Scheunemann, was acting as a paid consultant to Georgian President until quite recently.

On April 17, 2008, McCain spoke 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. Also on that same day, Georgia signed a new, $200,000 lobbying contract with Scheunemann's firm, Orion Strategies. [...]

The contacts often focused on Georgia's aspirations to join NATO and on legislative proposals, including a measure co-sponsored by McCain that supported Georgia's position on South Ossetia, one of the Georgian regions taken over by Russia this weekend.

Another measure lobbied by Orion and co-sponsored by McCain, the NATO Freedom Consolidation Act of 2006, would have authorized a $10 million grant for Georgia.

The NATO Freedom Consolidation Act of 2006 was co-sponsored by McCain, and it opens the doors to the admission of the former Soviet Republics Ukraine and Georgia into NATO.