McCain Camp: Obama "Bizarrely In Sync With Moscow"

[ErinBerin84]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/10/mccain-camp-obama-bizarre_n_118013.html

McCain Camp: Obama "Bizarrely In Sync With Moscow"


Last week, Barack Obama's campaign flagged a potential conflict of interest in John McCain's response to the conflict between Russia and Georgia: McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann lobbied on Georgia's behalf from 2004 to 2006. McCain has fired back:

"The Obama campaign's attacks on Randy Scheunemann are disgraceful. Mr. Scheunemann proudly represented a small democracy that is one of our closest allies in a very dangerous region. Today, many are dead and Georgia is in crisis, yet the Obama campaign has offered nothing more than cheap and petty political attacks that are echoed only by the Kremlin. The reaction of the Obama campaign to this crisis, so at odds with our democratic allies and yet so bizarrely in sync with Moscow, doesn't merely raise questions about Senator Obama's judgment--it answers them."

[Overseas]

1. Just a tactic. Divert attention from ONE MORE PAID FOREIGN LOBBYIST on McCain Team /nt

[eShirl]

2. eShirl: McCain Campaign "Gobsmackingly In Synch With Karl Rove"

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Likely McCain statement : Georgia and Louisiana border will be the next hotspot

[rucky]

4. speaking of offering "nothing more than cheap and petty political attacks"

what's McCain's policy? It's almost like his sole campagin strategy is to speculate on what President Obama would do.

[Fleshdancer]

5. Is he really making lobbyists out to be selfless?

"Mr. Scheunemann proudly represented a small democracy"? Only because he was paid to do so.

[Inuca]

6. This is INCREDIBLY dirty and nasty n/t

[Seen the light]

7. That attack is up next: "Obama's a commie!!!!!!"

[IndianaGreen]

8. It was Georgia who struck first in South Ossetia, not Russia!

While Americans were engaged in our insular issues (tire gages, Edwards' affair, etc.) there have been many warnings by Russia on the situation faced by ethnic Russians in South Ossetia. The BBC in particular has been on top of this issue for several weeks.

Why am I not surprised that American political class is using selective memory when discussing this issue? Why did the US oppose a cease-fire resolution introduced by Russia two days ago in the UN Security Council?

There are people in this country who would love to have a second Cold War in order to keep the arms merchants and the security apparatus going full speed ahead as we disengage from Iraq, and as Osama bin Laden fades from memory.

And let's not forget how the Clinton Administration and the Bush regime have used NATO as an agent of provocation and aggression since the end of the Cold War.

Day-by-day: South Ossetia crisis

THURSDAY 7 AUGUST

Georgian forces and separatists in South Ossetia agree to observe a ceasefire and hold Russian-mediated talks to end their long-simmering conflict.

Hours later, Georgian forces launch a surprise attack, sending a large force against the breakaway province and reaching the capital Tskhinvali.

South Ossetian rebel leader Eduard Kokoity accuses Georgia of a "perfidious and base step".

The head of Georgian forces in South Ossetia says the operation is intended to "restore constitutional order" to the region, while the government says the troops are "neutralising separatist fighters attacking civilians".

Russia's special envoy in South Ossetia, Yury Popov, says Georgia's military operation shows that it cannot be trusted and he calls on Nato to reconsider plans to offer it membership.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7551576.stm

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. Randy Scheunemann is an extremist foreign policy neoconservative NUT!!!! and a PNAC board member

Randy Scheunemann: McCain Adviser Campaigned for War

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) speaks with his director of foriegn policy and national security Randy Scheunemann (L), as they board McCain's chartered plane at Washington's Ronald Reagan Airport, May 16, 2008. (Associated Press)

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/17/randy_scheunemann_mccain_advis.html

By Peter Slevin
CHICAGO -- Randy Scheunemann, the foreign policy adviser to Sen. John McCain who today accused Sen. Barack Obama of a "policy of delusion" toward terrorism, was a prominent advocate of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in the lead-up to the war.

In late 2002, Scheunemann helped create The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq and became the group's executive director. Its mission, pursued with the Bush administration's blessing, was to build public support for the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

McCain (R-Ariz.) was on the committee, along with Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), former Secretary of State George Shultz, retired Army Gen. Wayne A. Downing and former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), who described the project at the time as "a group of people who will talk to Americans about why the liberation of Iraq is something the United States ought to do.

Scheunemann is a longtime GOP foreign policy specialist who has also worked on the staffs of former Senate Republican leaders Bob Dole (Kan.) and Trent Lott (Miss.) He was a board member of the neoconservative think tank, the Project for the New American Century, which often reflected the views of Bush administration hardliners.

In recent years, Scheunemann has registered as a lobbyist for several foreign governments, including Georgia, Macedonia and Taiwan, according to published reports. His firm has also lobbied for the National Rife Association and defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

From Talking Points Memo:

Do Your Job: Stop Ignoring Scheunemann's Past

By Josh Marshall

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/203960.php

As you can see, the McCain campaign is moving ahead with a new stab-in-the-back style attack on Obama over Iraq. But as Team McCain is raising the volume on these slash-and-burn style attacks, it's time for some coverage of the guy who's McCain's brain on Iraq. Remember, McCain's pitch on Iraq is that he was a critic of Bush, not a supporter, on the poor decisions and lies that got us into the current mess. In the McCain paradigm, he starts fresh with the 'surge'. That's where he takes ownership, as it were, of Iraq.

But look who's advising him on Iraq, who's crafting Iraq policy. That would be Randy Scheunemann, McCain's top foreign policy advisor. And he's the guy who today accused Barack Obama of wanting to lead America to defeat in Iraq for political gain.

Scheunemann was a core participant in the lobbying, plotting and organized campaigns of deception that led America to war in Iraq. He was a close collaborator with Ahmad Chalabi through the 1990s. He helped draft the Iraq Liberation Act, which created the new funding stream for Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress. At the start of the Bush administration he signed on as Don Rumsfeld's 'consultant' on Iraq at the Pentagon. And then when the administration started cranking up the machinery for the propaganda campaign in favor of war he went back on the outside to form and lead the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, to lead the press and lobbying campaign to make sure the war got started on schedule.

Remember, US intelligence later found evidence that Chalabi, in addition to foisting a bunch of bogus intelligence and lying informers on the US and pocketing a lot of US taxpayer dollars, had provided highly classified US intelligence to Iran. Scheunemann worked closely with Chalabi for years in his efforts to get the US into war with Iraq. He was also a go-between between Chalabi and McCain. Now that he's taking such a high-profile role on the Iraq issue in the 2008, Scheunemann's history with Chalabi and the use of bogus intelligence to get the nation into war is unquestionably highly newsworthy.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/203960.php

[monomach]

10. OMG OBAMA'S A COMMYNEST? WE'RE SCREWN!

:scared:

[BlooInBloo]

11. HAHAHAHA! I guess McDumbAss thinks everyone is as old as he is.