Neocon Randy Scheunemann (McCain Policy Advisor) Lobbied for Stephan Payne

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McCain adviser lobbied for Stephen Payne

By PETE YOST – 13 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top foreign policy adviser to John McCain has lobbied the National Security Council, Congress and the State Department on behalf of Stephen Payne, the Texas businessman and longtime Republican fundraiser caught up in a controversy over whether he sought to sell access to the Bush White House.

According to records on file with Congress, McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann lobbied the Senate and House on behalf of Payne's firm, Worldwide Strategic Partners Inc., in 2002.

Scheunemann also lobbied the National Security Council and the State Department regarding energy issues in the Caspian region in 2005 and 2006 on behalf of another Payne firm, Caspian Alliance Inc., according to the records.
The fees to Scheunemann's firm amounted to $50,000.

On Monday, the McCain campaign said that from 2002 to 2006, Scheunemann periodically engaged in consulting relationships with the two companies and that Scheunemann was never on the payroll of either firm, but that he was an occasional outside expert consultant.

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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gapzbJD6CsnU1TsZ3KuBV2sZSjRwD922GM3O0

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1. More background:Top McCain Adviser Goes Way Back With Alleged Bush Library Schemer

Homeland Security Adviser Offering Cash-For-Access Deal Worked With McCain's Foreign Policy Adviser
By Andrew Tilghman - July 21, 2008, 3:55PM

Before last week, we'd never heard of Worldwide Strategic Partners and Stephen Payne, the (former) Homeland Security adviser who was caught on video soliciting big donations for the future George W. Bush Presidential Library fund while offering to arrange access to top White House officials.

But Randy Schuenemann, Sen. John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, has known him -- and been working with his business associates -- for years.

Worldwide Strategic Partners was one of Scheunemann's lobbying clients back in 2002, when Schuenmann worked for the lobbying firm Orion.

And more recently, Scheunemann was lobbying for a group called the Caspian Alliance. That group was one of Scheunemann's four registered lobbying clients in 2005 and 2006, and paid him a total of $40,000.

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http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/homeland_security_advisor_who.php