Randy Scheunemann, McCain's Foreign Policy advisor was paid lobbyist for Georgia unti March 08

Robert Scheer is author of a new book, “The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America.” he has a nice article at Common Dreams.

Randy Scheunemann, was a director of the Project for a New American Century (whose website has been taken down) . For 4 years until March he was also a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government - sometime after he had become John McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser. see our post Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Randy Scheunemann - McCain's pit bull / carer
It was Scheunemann who, after working on the McCain 2000 presidential campaign, headed the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which championed the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In 2005, while registered as a paid lobbyist for Georgia, Scheunemann worked with McCain to draft a congressional resolution pushing for Georgia’s membership in NATO. Still on the Georgian payroll a year later , Scheunemann took McCain on a jaunt to Georgia to met Saakashvili , no doubt giving some support to his bellicose taunts on Tsar Vladimir Putin.

On Feb 8th this year McCain didn' t speak but issued a statement at the Munich Security Conference "Georgia and Ukraine have expressed their desire for a NATO Membership Action Plan. We should offer it to them at the summit. These two nations have every right to aspire to democracy and security as other states closer to the heart of Europe. Ukraine and Georgia have difficult neighbors and domestic challenges; they are young democracies and their road ahead will be difficult. But they should know that we will support them every step of the way, and we can show them this by supporting their aspirations at Bucharest.(20th NATO Summit 2-4th April 2008) "

Fast forward to the events over the weekend ....

"Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory," said the ageing candidate in Iowa on Thursday.

On Tuesday this week he was getting sharper "We've seen this movie before in Prague and Budapest," McCain said on Fox News. "And I'm not saying we are reigniting the Cold War, but, this is an act of aggression in which we didn't think we'd see in the 21st century. "

This is the 3 am moment writ large, and in real life Big John can talk big and simultaneously emphasize Senator Obama's lack of experience dealing with foreign affairs.

"Sen. McCain has talked for years about the dangers of Russian policies in the way they conduct themselves and undermine the sovereignty of their neighbors," said Randy Scheunemann - paid friend of the President of this beleaguered little country said on Tuesday.

In a fancy little twist someone has noted that yesterday Big John was talking reflectively about this ancient country describing Georgia as “one of the world’s first nations to adopt Christianity as an official religion.” The Wiki page describes Georgia as “one of the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity as an official religion.” ...there are other examples as well.

Readers might remember we posted Tuesday, December 18, 2007 about Vani - The Golden Land of Colchis and the Washington exhibition Wine, Worship and Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani," on view Dec. 1 through Feb. 24, 2008 at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, presents spectacular gold, silver, ceramic vessels, jewelry, Greek bronze sculpture, Greek and Colchian coins, and Greek glassware. Together these objects provide a rich and informative view of the ancient land of Colchis and its principal sanctuary city, Vani, a town in the Imereti region of western Georgia.

So fine was this that the US Ambassador had got involved.and you could read about the exhibition and also ... this fascinatingly prophetic piece that we printed at the time.

How ..."One of the priority tasks of Georgia's foreign and security policy is a full integration into the Euro-Atlantic community, which will enable our country not only to insure its security but also to contribute its own share to strengthening of peace and stability in the world. We keep right on target for democratic development and are willing to assist other countries too in the democratization processes, to which the establishment of peace and stability is one of the essential prerequisites.

Of great importance, in this context, is the participation of Georgia's armed forces in international peace operations. Since 1999 Georgian peacekeepers have been engaged actively in an effort to protect peace and stability in various regions of the world, within NATO-led and Anti-terrorist Coalition’s operations.

With this involvement in international peace operations, Georgian military units get the benefit of experience in interacting with the NATO member and partner states, which brings them in a closer alignment with the standards applying in the NATO member states.

The first peace operation Georgia was involved in was the NATO-led operation in Kosovo (KFOR)."

Naturally now that nasty old Mr Putin has shoved up the price of gas they are keen to display their anti-communist values and Washington is delighted to help in any way ...

Wonderful thing diplomacy. (We said at the time)

Some folks say this little excursion into the Georgian countryside came out of the blue.