Randy Scheunemann brings his extensive real-world experience to the role of McCain’s Chief Advisor on Foreign Policy and National Security.  As founder and director of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, Scheunemann worked tirelessly for the rights of every Iraqi, closing shop shortly after the war began in 2003.  “Following the successful liberation of Iraq,” read a message on his group’s website, “the committee has ceased its operations.”

It’s that kind of moxie, as well as a client list that includes BP, Amoco, Lockheed Martin, and the NRA, that will guide the priorities of a President McCain, as he works to keep America safe at home and abroad.

Wayne Berman

Wayne Berman is John McCain’s National Finance Co-Chair. With a client list that includes Chevron, Texaco, and the American Petroleum Institute, Berman brings transparency to an American public hungry for a new way to do business in Washington.  Not the type to conduct closed-door policy meetings, Mr. Berman organized a series of June fundraisers with Oil Industry leaders that raised millions to help elect John McCain.  A tireless and selfless worker, Berman set up all the arrangements.  All McCain had to do was reverse his long-held position against offshore drilling.

To the McCain economic team, Mr. Berman brings a unique perspective on the current housing crisis.  As Managing Director of Ogilvy Government Relations — one of the few firms savvy enough to profit from the current housing meltdown — Berman wisely billed his client Ameriquest Mortgage before the lender was forced to pay for its role in the mortgage meltdown.

As a former Bush Pioneer, Berman’s deep Beltway roots exemplify the continuity of expertise, wisdom and fancy for fun titles that Americans have come to love about the current Administration.

Phil Gramm is giving candidate John McCain a crash course on how to steer the dynamic U.S. economy into the future.

Although Gramm had to resign his formal campaign advisor role when he courageously called the parasites who complain about our amazing economy a “nation of whiners” suffering from “mental depression,” he will continue to offer sage counsel on economic policy.

Gramm can draw on his experience deregulating federal energy systems, leading to Enron’s success (where wife Wendy served on the board) – and deregulating the mortgage industry, leading to the current dynamism in the housing market.

Gramm will help lead Lobbyists for McCain’s “No Taxes On Us” initiative, continuing the trend of shifting tax obligations off of corporations and the wealthy and onto the “little people.”  Under Gramm’s leadership at Swiss Bank conglomerate USB, the bank helped their wealthy clients hide billions in taxable income.

Gramm is a big backer of our Shrink Government program, but like many of us, his personal wealth and opportunities have come thanks to government spending – including government scholarships for his college education and advanced studies. For most of his life, Gramm has collected paychecks from the U.S. taxpayer.

Our veterans deserve the best care we can provide. But John McCain knows that such care can easily turn to coddling. It’s tough love and fiscal discipline that our fighting men and women respond to best and John McCain delivers.

That’s why in 2006 he stood up to the special interests who tried to improve Veterans medical services by shutting down lucrative corporate tax incentives.  Our soldiers and corporate leaders deserve better than the tired old gimmick of taxing Mr. Peter to care for Private Paul.

McCain has always stood with our nation’s veterans, sparing no detail in their service.  With an eye towards efficient care delivery, McCain voted to privatize support services at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2006.  And in 2008, McCain voted against Jim Webb’s GI Bill of Rights, noting — with the kind of insight that could only come from being a soldier himself — that offering college benefits would be bad discipline and “encourage more people to leave the military.”

This is the kind of tough love that the American people can continue to expect from John McCain.  

While others debate whether Climate Change* is real, John McCain knows it’s a real opportunity to grow the energy sector.  With 22 of his top advisers and fundraisers also working as lobbyists for the oil & gas industry, we can count on John McCain to take a balanced approach to this dire threat to our planet.  Even with mass species extinction staring him in the face, we know he won’t let special interests like the League of Conservation Voters (lifetime score of 26) push him around.

Like a double-hulled wide-body tanker in a Category 5 Hurricane, John McCain turns to salty old hands to navigate these uncertain waters.   Hands like senior policy advisor Nancy Mitchell Pfotenhauer, a former President of Americans for Prosperity, and long term representative of powerhouse Koch Industries.  When it comes to Global Warming, she knows it’s just an alarmist “song and dance.”

After four terms in the Senate (and 10 years on the Senate’s transportation Committee), we already have John McCain to thank for the extraordinary progress that Detroit has made in reducing greenhouse gasses.  Just imagine what he can do as President.

*Not to be confused with Global Warming, Climate Chaos, or other not yet market-tested terms.

Peace will only come to Iraq through the synergy of leadership.  And only John McCain has brought together the trifecta of foresight, continuity, and expertise, needed to achieve long-lasting stability and permanent bases in Iraq.

He had the foresight to know that “the Iraqi people will greet us as liberators”, the respect for continuity to tell President Bush ”I’m confident we’re on the right course,” and the wisdom to surround himself with experts like lobbyist-advisors Charlie Black and Randy Schuenemann

John McCain’s chief advisor on foreign policy and national security, Mr. Schuenemann was head of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq in 2003, where he promoted Ahmad Chalabi’s “tremendous attributes” and later stood by his friend when the U.S. had the nerve to accuse Chalabi of leaking secret information to Iran.

John McCain’s Senior Political Advisor, Mr. Black has worked for the Iraqi government and its embassies to the United States since the 1990’s. Now, as part of John McCain’s commitment to export a surge of Beltway values to the Iraqi people, Black plans to start Iraq’s first lobbying firm.

With this kind of synergy, we can maintain a lasting presence in Iraq well into the next century.

A proven self-dealer, Rick Davis has built a storied career of delivering for both his clients and his personal investments.  John McCain is wise to keep such sage counsel close at hand. 

Whether Davis is arranging meetings between McCain and Putin pal Oleg Deripaska or scoring McCain campaign contracts for his own companies, this scrappy street fighter is not one to back down from controversy.

McCain stood by Davis even when the National Security Council warned that the work Davis’ lobbying firm was doing for Ukrainian politicians was at cross purposes to American foreign policy.  Even though he knew about it as far back as 2005, McCain has kept Rick Davis on as an advisor to this day. 

This is exactly the kind of loyalty you can expect from a President McCain.

“Is there too much cronyism?” McCain’s Senior Advisor Charlie Black famously quipped about Iraq. “I just wish I could find the cronies.”  With this can-do attitude Black is leading the charge to bring Bush’s no-office-too-high-that-my-old-college-roommate-can’t-fill style of politics to the Iraqi frontier. 

A renown multi-tasker, Black can often be found in the back of the Straight Talk Express on the phone with any number of his prestigious list of international clients.  In one legendary moment Black had Somalia’s Mohamed Siad Barre on one line and Nigeria’s Ibrahim Babangida on the other and was still able to order Indian take-out for the staff.

This is the kind creative problem solving you can expect Black to bring to a McCain administration.

John McCain knows our current economic crisis is too dire to entrust to amateurs.  Instead, McCain turns to old Washington hands like Phil Gramm, one of his most trusted economic policy advisors, whose ingenious deregulations enabled Enron’s unprecedented growth. More recently, Gramm has left his mark on this decade’s housing boom through his current position as VP of UBS Warburg, a major innovator in the sub-prime mortgage industry. 

 John McCain has also proposed tangible ways to help America get back on track.  His summer gas-tax holiday may have been panned by Ivy League economists, but this has not swayed him from his promise to save American families a whopping $28 this summer.

This is the kind of maverick economic policy you can count on from John McCain.  

Energy Policy

Our nation’s security and prosperity depend on the next President making tough choices. John McCain has made them – staffing his campaign with experts from all corners of the energy sector.  Lobbyists like Wayne Berman (American Petroleum Institute), Frank Donnatelly (Exxon-Mobil), and Jack Oliver (Shell). In a McCain Administration men like these will open more public lands to domestic drilling.  For too long our public beaches and protected National Parks have been off limits. Opening up these areas will lower the price of gasoline by 10 cents by 2030.  These are real savings that can no longer be ignored.