The Cheney and McCain Web: Less Than Six Degrees of Separation

Lest We Forget The Keating 5

John McCain's foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann, was lobbyist for Georgia until last March - small world, isn't it? Scheunemann has been linked to the lobbyist who is currently being investigasted for the "Cash for Access" scandal.

If Randy Scheunemann goes down in the scandal, how much of John McCain will go down with him? O.K., let's go through this mess with some clarity (as much as is possible):

Randy Schuenemann, foreign policy adviser to John McCain, was a lobbyist for the Republic of Georgia until last March

• Randy is currently the President of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI)
• The CLI was created by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC)
• Randy is also on the board for PNAC.
• Randy was Trent Lott's National Security Aide.
• Randy was an adviser to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as an expert on Iraq.
• Randy had a close association with Amad Chalabi.
• Stephen Payne is a Bush associate being investigated by the Homeland Security Department for allegedly brokering access to top administration officials for "six-figure donations" to the George Bush Presidential Library.
• Randy Scheunemann is on Stephen Payne's payroll.
• The Washington Times reported that Yerzhan Dosmukhamedov of Kazakhstan worked with Payne to arrange a visit of Vice President Dick Cheney to Kazakhstan.
• The "donation" for this arrangement was $2 million via a Kazakh oil firm (KMG) to Payne's company.
• Payne denies the payment was made.
• Dick Cheney* went to Kazakhstan in spite of the human right violations it has been cited with.
• A sister company to Payne's Company, WSP, Worldwide Strategic Energy
• (WSE), of which Payne is also president, has a subsidiary, Caspian Alliance, which is the sole US representative for KMG.
• Randy Scheunemann is listed in the WSE brochure as part of its executive team.
• Scheunemann and Associates, Randy's lobbying firm, is reported as having represented the Caspian Alliance in 2005.
• Kazakhstan borders the Caspian Sea (where we have troops), Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and China.
  

Got all of that? In other words, there's a messy scandal in the air involving John McCain's chief foreign policy adviser.

Randy Scheunemann --- Stephen Payne --- Dick Cheney --- Kazakh Oil (KMG) --- Caspian Alliance --- Randy Scheunemann.

There are several coincidences here: Randy Scheunemann's deep involvement with Georgia and John McCain's fiery stance against Russia; Scheunemann's direct ties to a lobbyist being currently investigated for "Cash for Access" bribery scandal.

Rule #1 about Washington: THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES Is John McCain going to relive the Keating 5 scandal of 1991?

Just a thought.

BTW: Kazakhstan is certainly not the country "Borat" wanted us to imagine:

Watch this Keith Olberman interview concerning the whole McCain "war, war, war" policy:



*During his trip to Kazakhstan, Cheney ignored the country’s bad record on human rights and declared his “admiration for what has transpired here in Kazakhstan over the past 15 years.” Earlier this month, Payne told an undercover Times report that Cheney was more interested in what Kazakhstan “could do on energy” than “making them toe the line on human rights.”