August 20, 2008
Categories: John McCain
Cutting off the JTA
Rudy Giuliani's appearance on a McCain conference call got off to a rocky start when Ron Kampeas, the Washington, D.C. of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, compared an Obama advisor's trip to Syria -- the subject of the call -- to Giuliani's and McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann's paid work on behalf of Georgia (in Scheunemann's case) and Venezuela's Citgo and the Saudi government (in the case of Giuliani's law firm).
"You're making an issue of him taking a hotel room?" Kampeas asked -- and then dropped off the call mid-sentence.
"I think they cut me off," he said in an email just now.
Scheunemann noted that his lobbying contract, unlike Obama advisor Daniel Kurtzer's trip to Syria, was publicly disclosed and not "covert." Giuliani said that Citgo, which is owned by the Venezuelan government, is an "American company."
"I never represented Saudi Arabia," he said.
The Associated Press reported that Bracewell & Giuliani, a Texas-based energy firm, has represented Saudi Arabia.
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