McCain campaign continues to obscure the record on Scheunemann and Payne

Last night, I reported that top McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann lobbied for International Business & Energy Development Corp--a firm tied to Stephen Payne, the disgraced Republican operative caught offering access to top Bush administration officials in exchange for donations to the G.W. Bush Library. This afternoon, the AP echoed this claim. However, the correspondent left key assertions by the McCain camp unchallenged. Scheunemann has had no business relationship with Payne since July 2006 and has no knowledge of Payne's business activities since that time, the McCain campaign said. International Business & Energy Development Corp., is the third of Payne's firms to emerge as paying money to Scheunemann. The payments from mid-2001 to mid-2003 totaled $80,000, for issues ranging from monitoring legislation... [read full story]