There have been so many lobbyist ties to John McCain that we’re going to have to come up with an acronym for them: YAML.

The more I hear about John McCain’s foreign policy ideas, the more I get really really scared for America should this guy be elected (or selected by the Supreme Court, or whatever). We’ve known for a while that he wants to take a hard line against Russia, but it’s only now becoming clear exactly why he wants to take a hard line. It turns out that the McCain campaign’s senior foreign policy and national security advisor, Randy Scheunemann, was paid over $2 million as a lobbyist for several Soviet Bloc countries who wanted to gain entrance to NATO. These countries, conveniently, feel the same way about Russia as does Senator McCain. From the Salon article:

At various times from 2001 through early this year, Georgia, Latvia, Romania and Macedonia paid Scheunemann and his partner, Mike Mitchell, more than $2 million. Much of Scheunemann’s work focused on paving the way into the NATO fold. Two of Scheunemann’s clients, Latvia and Romania, were admitted to full NATO member status in 2004, after which they ceased paying him.

So let’s just get this straight. Lobbyist is paid to say, “Russia bad! Georgia, Latvia, Romania and Macedonia, good!” Lobbyist joins Republican Nominee’s campaign to help create foreign policy guidelines for Republican Nominee. Republican Nominee comes out and says, “Russia bad, Georgia, Latvia, Romania and Macedonia, good!”

How is it possible that so many conservatives say John McCain stands up to lobbyists and corporate interests when everywhere you turn, there’s a lobbyist in his campaign? I just don’t get it, but perhaps I’m not seeing something clearly. Perhaps some John McCain supporter can enlighten me?

At the VERY least, there is a huge conflict of interest here. Bottom line, a lobbyist for these Soviet countries has the ear of the GOP nominee, and it appears as if the GOP nominee is creating his ideas on foreign policy at least in part under the influence of this lobbyist. YAML on which the media will probably let the “maverick” slide.