WASHINGTON — Randy Scheunemann operated for years deep inside Republican foreign policy circles, a burly, bearded lobbyist with powerful patrons, neoconservative credentials and little public profile.
Today, as John McCain's top foreign policy and national security advisor, Scheunemann serves as spokesman and surrogate for the probable GOP presidential nominee on issues from NATO enlargement to gun control in American cities.
Scheunemann's dual roles came into sharp relief, and potential conflict, last week when McCain voiced impassioned support for Georgia after Russia's incursion into the Caucasus nation Aug. 8. Georgia, as it happened, is one of Scheunemann's former lobbying clients.
Scheunemann, 48, told reporters on McCain's plane that the senator from Arizona had spoken by phone to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili "every day since" the crisis began to show his interest in Georgia's plight.
But McCain's advisor also had an interest in Georgia.
The pro-Western government in Tbilisi has paid $830,000 to Scheunemann's two-member lobbying firm, Orion Strategies, since 2004, according to records at the Justice Department's foreign agents registration office.
In all, the files show, Orion has earned $2.5 million lobbying for foreign governments since 2001. The total includes a $200,000 contract, signed April 17 this year, with Georgia's National Security Council. McCain spoke by phone with Saakashvili that day and then issued a statement denouncing Russian moves to "undermine Georgian sovereignty," records show.
Scheunemann, who also served as McCain's foreign policy advisor in his unsuccessful 2000 White House campaign, personally lobbied McCain or his top aides more than 40 times on behalf of Georgia and other foreign governments, records show.
Orion's lobbying forms also cite four Senate resolutions that McCain later sponsored or co-sponsored on behalf of Georgia, as well as bills benefiting Orion's other foreign clients: Latvia, Macedonia, Romania and Taiwan.
Reached by cellphone Friday in Colorado, where McCain was campaigning, the former lobbyist declined to comment and referred all questions to campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.
Rogers denied even the appearance of impropriety in the case. Scheunemann's former advocacy for foreign governments does not affect the policy advice he gives McCain, Rogers said.
