Randy
Scheunemann
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Randy
Scheunemann,
founder and president of the public relations firm Orion Strategies, is a
well-connected lobbyist and political insider who has advised a number of
conservative political figures, supported the work of various
neoconservative-led advocacy groups, and lobbied on behalf of defense industry
clients and foreign governments.
Along with neoconservative figures like
Robert Kagan and William Kristol,
Scheunemann served as a director of the now-defunct Project for the New American Century
(PNAC), a letterhead group that played an important role in building
support for the Iraq War and an expansive “war on terror.”[1] He also headed the
Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI), a post-9/11 advocacy outfit that
pushed for war in Iraq. Like PNAC, CLI played a key
role forging a coalition of Beltway figures who supported a Middle East agenda
that had at its core toppling Saddam Hussein.[2] Other CLI members included
Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman
(I-CT).[3]
Despite his close association with
right-wing factions, Scheunemann has also advised the liberal Open Society
Institute, founded by billionaire financier George Soros. In November 2010, Salon.com’s
Justin Elliott reported that federal disclosure forms reveal that Scheunemann’s
lobbying firm, Orion Strategies, had “since 2003 been paid over $150,000 by
[Open Society Policy Center] for
lobbying work. … The lobbying, which has continued to the present, centers on
legislation involving sanctions and democracy promotion in Burma.”[4]
During the 2008 presidential election,
Scheunemann served as an advisor to Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign. Among
his roles was to advise VP candidate Sarah Palin on foreign policy. (At Palin’s
suggestion, Tea Party favorite and failed Republican Senate candidate Christine
O’Donnell enlisted Scheunemann and Weekly Standard online editor Michael
Goldfarb to help her with debate prep during the 2010 midterm
elections.)[5]
Scheunemann also added his voice to a
neoconservative-led campaign in early 2013 to sink President Barack Obama’s
nomination of former Sen. Chuck
Hagel (R-NE)—a foreign policy realist who had clashed in the past
with neoconservatives and members of the Israel lobby—to head the Department of Defense. Although both
Scheunemann and Hagel backed John McCain’s 2000 presidential bid, David Kurtz of
Talking Points Memo pointed out that “No single person might embody a foreign
policy approach more diametrically opposed to Hagel’s than Scheunemann does. The
Hagel nomination represents everything that Scheunemann stands against.” In a
line that Kurtz dubbed “rather weak” and “petty,”[6] Scheunemann quipped that
Hagel, “who is now the über-realist about not committing ground troops, had no
compunction about endorsing the guy [McCain] who wanted all options on the table
[in Kosovo]. His endorsement made—to put it mildly—no difference in the
campaign.”
Randy Scheunemann
Randy
Scheunemann is the founder of Scheunemann
& Associates, a director at the Project for the New American Century, a
consultant for Orion Strategies,
and was a consultant, Iraq policy for the U.S. Department of
Defense.
Note: Scheunemann
& Associates was the lobby firm for the National Rifle Association of America
(NRA).
Roy Innis is a
director at the National Rifle Association of
America (NRA), and was a trustee at the Hudson Institute (think tank).
Donald Kagan is a
trustee emeritus at the Hudson Institute
(think tank), a director at the Project for the New American Century, and
his son is Robert
Kagan.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Hudson Institute (think tank), the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank).
George Soros is the
chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open
Society, the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, and is Jonathan Soros’s father.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think
tank), and the Atlantic Council of
the United
States (think tank).
Robert Kagan is
Donald Kagan’s son, the co-founder
of the Project for the New American
Century, was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a
senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank).
Chuck Hagel is the
chair for the Atlantic Council of the
United
States (think tank), and the
secretary for the U.S. Department of
Defense.
Jonathan Soros is
George Soros’s son, the vice
chairman for the Open Society
Foundations, and a director at the Open Society Policy
Center.
Orion
Strategies is the lobby firm for the Open
Society Policy Center.
Randy
Scheunemann is a consultant for Orion
Strategies, the founder of Scheunemann & Associates, a director at
the Project for the New American
Century, and was a consultant, Iraq
policy for the U.S. Department of
Defense.
Scheunemann
& Associates was the lobby firm for the National Rifle Association of America
(NRA).
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