Both campaigns unveiled harsh attack ads based on the proposed DHL deal Friday, a clear sign of how potent the issue has become in a crucial battleground state.
At the same time, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), took aim at McCain on Friday for refusing to disassociate himself from Ralph Reed, a conservative activist who worked closely with Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist who later pleaded guilt to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy.
Reed, who was not charged in the case, e-mailed friends last week to say he had joined McCain's Victory 2008 campaign team. He urged them to attend a McCain fundraiser this Monday in downtown Atlanta.
McCain aides said Reed is not hosting the event and has no role in the campaign. Indeed, he is hardly a popular figure. Many McCain supporters blame Reed for spreading smears during the South Carolina primary in 2000 that helped sink McCain's first presidential bid.
McCain has "become a desperate candidate who will say anything and accept money from anyone," said Waxman, chairman of the House committee on oversight and government reform.
McCain led the high-profile Senate investigation of Abramoff in 2005. Abramoff's former Washington law firm, Greenberg Traurig, hired Scheunemann at the time to help them with the Senate probe.
By then, Scheunemann carried considerable clout. After several years as a staff aide for congressional committees, he landed a job as senior advisor to Republican Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign. When that folded, he became national security advisor to Trent Lott, the Mississippi Republican who was then the Senate majority leader.
The following year, he was reportedly arrested for possession of an unregistered firearm found in his car when he drove to work at the U.S. Capitol. The Washington Times reported at the time that he had forgotten to remove a shotgun after a duck-hunting trip.
But Scheunemann became best known for his hawkish views on Iraq. A week after the 9/11 attacks, he and other prominent neoconservatives wrote President Bush urging a "determined effort" to oust Saddam Hussein even if no evidence linked him to the attack.
"Failure to undertake such an effort will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism," the group wrote.
Scheunemann followed up by founding the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an advocacy group that demanded regime change.
He also publicly promoted Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile leader later found to have provided false intelligence on Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction.
This year, Scheunemann has spoken on McCain's behalf to the Council on Foreign Relations and other influential groups. The campaign regularly issues news releases in his name, and he often takes the lead on conference calls to reporters.
On June 26, Scheunemann lambasted Obama at length in one such call after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a handgun ban in the District of Columbia. "He has voted to allow politically motivated lawsuits," he complained.
It wasn't foreign affairs, but Scheunemann knew the issue: He had worked as a lobbyist for the National Rifle Assn., as well as for manufacturers of firearms and ammunition, and sport shooting groups.
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bob.drogin@latimes.com
