September, 08 2008, 01:30pm EDT
Who Is Randy Scheunemann?
McCain's neocon foreign policy adviser has been a lobbyist for arms companies & Saakashvili's Georgia
WASHINGTON
Randy Scheunemann is a top advisor to the McCain campaign, Lobbyist and a former director of the neo conservative Project for New American Century.
The Real News spoke to veteran freelance writer and Senior Analyst at Political Research Associates Chip Berlet about Randy Scheunemann and his relationship with McCain. "Basically he is a neo conservative which in the context of American politics means he belongs to a very small group of intellectuals who think that America should basically take over the running of the world and spread democracy through ideas first and military power second."
About his relationship with McCain the web site RIGHTWEB reports: He introduced the senator to the foreign ministers of Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia as they tried to win admission to NATO, and a representative of Taiwan as it lobbied for free trade, records show. Mr. Scheunemann also accompanied Mr. McCain to Latvia in 2001 and Georgia in 2006.
"It certainly is a colourful way to suggest that Scheunemann would pay a very major role in shaping McCain's foreign policy which is entirely true. It is hard to predict if Scheunemann will play that role but he wouldn't play that role in its pragmatic way. We are talking about a very aggressive pro militarist, pro interventionist, neo conservative ideologue here who make Kissinger and Brezenski seem almost like Buddhists in comparison."
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