McCain Camp Tries To Downplay Top Aide Lobbying In Favor Of Gun Rights For Suspected Terrorists
McCain Camp Tries To Downplay Top Aide Lobbying In Favor Of Gun Rights For Suspected Terrorists
In 2007, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced legislation giving the Justice Department the discretion to prohibit gun sales to terror suspects. The legislation was supported by gun-control groups as well as the Bush administration.
Siding with the gun industry in opposing closing this “terror gap” was Randy Scheunemann, now Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) top foreign policy adviser. Newsweek reports that Scheunemann lobbied against the bill on behalf of the National Shooting Sports Foundation:
One group opposed to closing the loophole is the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun manufacturers’ trade association. Until this spring, one of its congressional lobbyists was Randy Scheunemann … Registration documents filed by Scheunemann’s company, Orion Strategies, list the terror-gap bill as one of its specific lobbying objectives, and the registrations listed Scheunemann as a lobbyist until he took a leave.
In response, the McCain campaign “declined to say if Scheunemann had ever lobbied McCain on gun-control bills.” McCain spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker said that Scheunemann is a “foreign-policy adviser.” In March, however, Scheunemann told National Journal that “he has weighed in with advice on Second Amendment and firearms issues” in advising McCain:
Officially the top foreign policy and national security adviser to McCain’s campaign, Scheunemann told National Journal in March he has weighed in with advice on Second Amendment and firearms issues. He said he had stopped lobbying for all his clients early this year, and his lobbying registration forms show that the NRA work ended at the end of 2007.
After McCain spoke to the NRA national convention in May, “Scheunemann spent most of his time at the event backstage — where McCain had a brief meeting with NRA leaders.”
Hinting at yet another conflict of interest, the McCain campaign “refused to answer questions about whether the senator supports or opposes the White House plan to close the loophole” giving expanded gun rights to terrorists, reports Newsweek.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
Figures…
August 25th, 2008 at 8:20 pmOT
If you want to puke Nancy PollLoser is on CSPAN stinkin’ up the place…
What a big nothing of a woman!!!
August 25th, 2008 at 8:23 pmRandy Scheunemann, come on down and have a seat next to Phil Gramm.
August 25th, 2008 at 8:29 pmThey wouldn’t let McCain have any guns when he was a POW.
August 25th, 2008 at 8:30 pmHow can there be a war on unarmed terrorists?
August 25th, 2008 at 8:32 pmWhy is it every time I hear McCain’s name I get this immediate image in my head of Barney Fife?
August 25th, 2008 at 8:33 pmTP,
Is there a political convention going on somewhere? I thought I heard something somewhere. Jus’askin’?
August 25th, 2008 at 8:35 pmWhat an insult. For all of his faults Barney Fife was a good man who cared about the people around him. John McCain is no Barney Fife.
August 25th, 2008 at 8:36 pmThe crawl at the bottom of the MSNBC says that Cindy McCain is going to Georgia to “assess civilian casualties”? WTF is up with that?
August 25th, 2008 at 8:39 pmLibertyLover
Maybe McSame needs a little free time to connect with his lobbyist bimbo or maybe Cindy has a lead on some cheap pills.
No, I’m wrong, she’s going shopping for an Eastern Whitehouse, you know, just in case the republiscums manage to steal another election.
August 25th, 2008 at 8:48 pmScheunemann was just speaking up for his constituency: The RW militias and the moonbat nunguts….
Sometimes I think the people that most want guns are the people the least to be trusted with such….
Cheers,
August 25th, 2008 at 8:53 pmSaint Augustine:
An eighth house? I hear Dubai has some nice properties, they can be Cheney’s neighbors in 2009.
August 25th, 2008 at 9:11 pmWe blogged about this tonight, too. It’s important to remember that Sen. McCain has not one, but two gun lobbyists in his campaign connected to scandal or questionable decisions.
James Jay Baker is co-Chair of McCain’s Sportsmen’s Committee, has billed over $2 million to the NRA in lobbying expenses, and is a contributor to the McCain campaign.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5606100&page=1
Baker also reportedly oversaw a spy operation run out of the NRA lobbying shop against the national gun violence prevention movement, when he was NRA-ILA executive director.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/mary-mcfate-sapone-gun-lobby-nra-spy.html
McCain has been silent not only about Scheunemann but about Baker as well.
Follow developments in the NRA spy scandal here:
http://www.bradycampaign.org/blog/category/nra-spygate/
Doug Pennington
Bradycampaign.org
August 25th, 2008 at 9:12 pmMore like the 12th or 13th I think, but who’s counting.
Just out of curiosity, I wonder how much beer Cindy supplies the Military?
August 25th, 2008 at 9:15 pmralph the wonder llama Says on an earlier thread,
August 25th, 2008 at 9:20 pmWasn’t there a concern troll who this morning was urging us to embrace Pat Buchanan?
Good call there.
…………………..
Sorry but Buchanan did publish an article which has been carried on antiwar.com and information clearing house that details randy’s activities for the Georgian government which has paid him over $700,000 in the last few years , and goes on to call him and the neo cons who are firmly entrenched in mccains machine treasonous .
I’m missing a couple of things here.
As McCain chooses his “policy advisors”. Wouldn’t it hold to reason that the extreme views of his advisors mirrors, in part, the McCain planned policy ?
From the right wing talking on the terrorist watch / no fly list, I understand that it is perfectly all right to limit travel of those on the list. After all, they wouldn’t be on it unless the govt had a good reason and if they shouldn’t be on it, all they have to do is call the FBI and clear up the matter.
That being so, why wouldn’t the same argument apply to a list for gun ownership ?
August 25th, 2008 at 9:59 pmEverything I’ve read about Scheunemann leads me to believe the man does what he does for one reason only. Money. He’ll work for the highest bidder. Having no principles, he could easily be bought even by enemies of the U.S. Maybe he already has, and it simply hasn’t come out yet.
As far as Cindy McCain going to Georgia…yeah, I saw that crawl on the bottom of the screen too. Just another cry for attention by the McCain campaign. Utter b.s.
August 25th, 2008 at 9:59 pmRepubs = guns = terrorists. Yet they continue to blame Dems.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:02 pmFor lobbyists, money trumps the well-being of our country…Hit him hard over this, Senator Obama…
August 25th, 2008 at 10:05 pmIsn’t THIS the SAME Randy that advises McKeating to attack Russia over Georgia? After making over $600,000 from the “poor Georgians” . . . we may not BE all Georgians, but some get treated like the favored son when the cash machine rings . . . .
Oh, POW, did POW I mention Pow that POW McCain was a former POW? jess wonderin . . . .
August 25th, 2008 at 10:09 pmMore on the Cindy McCain excursion to Georgia:
McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker confirmed Cindy McCain is enroute to the nation and said she is visiting as part of the World Food Program. She said she will meet with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and visit with wounded Georgian soldiers.
In the Time article, McCain aides denied that the trip was specifically designed to occur during the Democratic National Convention, and specifically on the day that her counterpart, Michelle Obama, is scheduled to speak.
“She’s on the phone with the World Food Program, he’s on the phone with Saakashvili,” McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace told Time. “It’s like this great picture of what they’ll be like in the White House.”
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/08/25/cindy_mccain_heading_to_republ.html
August 25th, 2008 at 10:12 pmimpeachcheneythenbush Says:
August 25th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
At least they aren’t being presumptuous. sarc/off
August 25th, 2008 at 10:25 pmIn 1948, Jim and Eugene Hensley were indicted for falsifying liquor records to conceal illegal distribution of whiskey against post-war rationing regulations. Both men were convicted in U.S. District Court on federal charges of conspiracy and Jim Hensley was also convicted on seven counts of filing false liquor records. While Eugene was sentenced to one year in federal prison, Jim received a six-month suspended sentence.
In 1950s, Jim and Eugene Hensley bought into the Ruidoso Downs racetrack in New Mexico with equal partner Clarence “Teak” Baldwin… Jim and Eugene concealed the existence of Baldwin,who had been banned from any ownership role. Jim and Eugene were given their Ruidoso Downs racetrack license in 1953, a decision John F. Simms, governor of New Mexico’s following administration called appalling.
In 1953 Jim Hensley and Kemper Marley were again charged with falsifying liquor records. This time Jim was defended by future Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist. He and Kemper Marley were both men were acquitted.
In spite of being a convicted felon, Jim Hensley was granted a state liquor license in 1955 to found a beer distributorship.
In 1981, Hensley hired his new son-in-law, John McCain, as Vice President of Public Relations for Hensley & Company. It was Hensley’s money and influential ties throughout the state of Arizona that helped McCain win his first campaign for the U.S. Senate.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:40 amHensley is Cindy McCain’s father.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:41 amSorry I forgot to add that.
Time to to go bed.
McCain aides denied that the trip was specifically designed to occur during the Democratic National Convention, and specifically on the day that her counterpart, Michelle Obama, is scheduled to speak.
Riiiiiight. Just like that it won’t be intentional that McCain will announce his running mate Mitt ( I flip flop more than McCain) Romney on Friday just in time to take away any post-convention poll “bounce” away from Obama. Straight out of Rove’s playbook.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:51 amHinting at yet another conflict of interest, the McCain campaign “refused to answer questions about whether the senator supports or opposes the White House plan to close the loophole” giving expanded gun rights to terrorists, reports Newsweek.
That makes me feel safe. Good thing we have McCain to keep us all safe from terrorists.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
August 26th, 2008 at 2:23 amAl Qaeda actually tells prospective followers that Florida is the best place to buy a large number of high-powered guns easily.
I think we should be told how much Scheunemann has received from the NRA.
My best friend from 1965-72 was Wayne LaPierre, now head of the NRA. He lies about where he went to university his junior and senior years because of his left-wing politics and wild partying. Those two years he went to S.U.N.Y-ALBANY—-NOT SIENA! I went down South, but traveled to Albany with him once.
August 26th, 2008 at 3:25 amMcCain’s lobbyist staff is one can of worms that Obama need to open up and expose repeatedly to the whole world that believes in “straight talk,” “mavericks,” leprechauns, and other flights of fancy.
August 26th, 2008 at 6:59 amAnybody can end up on an unconstitutional “Terrorist Watch List”. The morons in charge of “Homeland Security” probably think that it is the government’s responsibility to protect the American people and not the people’s right and duty to protect ourselves. It seems whenever there is a mass killing in the U.S.A., whether it be 9/11 or Columbine or Virgina Tech it always occurs in a “Victim disarmament Zone”. When is the last time your heard of someone shooting up a gun store or firearms range?
August 27th, 2008 at 1:17 amWouldn’t it make more sense to deny suspected Islamic terrorists their freedom of speech, religion and association? I think what makes the Right so crazy is the anti-2nd Amendment hypocracy.
August 27th, 2008 at 7:47 am