Conflict of interest?

It took most of the week, but AP has finally focused on the financial ties between McCain's top foreign policy adviser and the Georgian government. Thise ties also bear on the speech McCain gave earlier in the year in which he spoke of a League of Democracies that would exclude Russia. We'll have to wait to see if this gets any follow up attention.

clipped from apnews.myway.com WASHINGTON (AP) - John McCain's chief foreign policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 1/2-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The payments raise ethical questions about the intersection of Randy Scheunemann's personal financial interests and his advice to the Republican presidential candidate who is seizing on Russian aggression in Georgia as a campaign issue. McCain warned Russian leaders Tuesday that their assault in Georgia risks "the benefits they enjoy from being part of the civilized world." On April 17, a month and a half after Scheunemann stopped working for Georgia, his partner signed a $200,000 agreement with the Georgian government. The deal added to an arrangement that brought in more than $800,000 to the two-man firm from 2004 to mid-2007. For the duration of the campaign, Scheunemann is taking a leave of absence from the firm.

The story goes on to note Scheunemann's extensive and apparently successful lobbying of McCain on behalf of Georgia. Moreover, it also details Scheunemann's membership in the Project for the New American Century and his role in generating public support for invading Iraq. If the Obama campaign can find a way to give this story some legs, it would strengthen their case for a McCain presidency being a third term of Bush foreign policy. While most attention is on domestic economic concerns, turning McCain's supposed advantage on foreign affairs into a liability would be a huge advantage for Obama.