Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Quick Reference
Fred Thompson FAQ: THE Fred Thompson Web Resource
Posted on 07/18/2007 8:24:13 PM PDT by Josh Painter
Someone I know with some connections in DC is telling me that Arent Fox, the law firm Fred Thompson worked for when he was a lobbyist, has found the billing records that details Thompson’s lobbying efforts on behalf of a pro-abortion group and that some journalist will be reporting it soon. This is the story the LA Times broke a while back.
I’m sure that this will be painted as a bombshell revelation, given that Thompson is the nominee-apparent for the GOP, but I’m not quite sure it’s as explosive as advertised.
First, I’m told that the records detail Thompson doing about 19 hours of work for this client over the course of 14 months, and all of that work consisted of Thompson finding out information about the positions certain politicians had and sharing what he knew of the elder Bush’s administration’s stance on abortion. These records do not detail any lobby work done specifically with Senator Sununu.
Second, Thompson has been consistent in his response to this. He has denied ever lobbying Sununu, and he says he doesn’t remember (but doesn’t deny) doing any work on behalf of this client. Given that this work took place 16 years ago, it’s not unreasonable to think that Thompson doesn’t remember this.
I still find it funny that the left is busying itself trying to cast Thompson as something other than a staunch conservative. As soon as he wins the nomination (and he will, trust me), the left/media will busy themselves trying to paint him as a right-wing extremist.
Personally, as a staunchly pro-life conservative, I could care less about Thompson’s personal feelings about abortion. As President, the abortion issue is out of his hands. Roe vs. Wade declared abortion as a constitutional right, so unless that ruling is overturned or we add a new amendment to the Constitution there’s nothing he can do.
He can influence the issue, of course, through his judicial appointees and for that job Thompson is perfectly suited. He is a staunch federalist, and believes that the abortion issue should be left up to the various states. Again, given the current state of the abortion issue (it lays with the courts), the most we can hope for is good judges who will rule based on what the Constitution actually says.
Thompson will appoint those kind of judges.
Update: The New York Times is the first to this story, but soon it’ll be everywhere. Here’s the key graf:
"According to records from Arent Fox, the law firm based in Washington where Mr. Thompson worked part-time from 1991 to 1994, he charged the organization, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, about $5,000 for work he did in 1991 and 1992. The records show that Mr. Thompson, a probable Republican candidate for president in 2008, spent much of that time in telephone conferences with the president of the group, and on three occasions he reported lobbying administration officials on its behalf.
Mr. Thompson’s work for the family planning agency has become an issue because he is positioning himself as a faithful conservative who is opposed to abortion."
Consider this faithful conservative who is opposed to abortion completely underwhelmed.
yawn
What's the deal with that? - giving them some cut rate I guess because he really deep inside loves abortionists.
The records were recovered last week from a wastebasket in a Kinko’s in Abilene, Texas.
This will hurt Thompson badly and may even keep him from entering the race. The fact that he was willing to lobby on behalf of a pro-abortion group shows that he did not have a deep moral opposition to abortion. Also, his campaign is going to face a major credibility problem since even though Thompson’s denials were more nuanced his campaign spokesman was quoted saying that the lobbying allegations were false.
Tomorrow's New York Times tries to keep alive the "issue" of Fred Thompson's work on behalf of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. The Arent Fox law firm has apparently found its billing records and provided them to the Times--they should give the Rose Law Firm lessons in how to preserve billing records--and the files confirm that Thompson did a de minimis amount of work for the abortion rights group in 1991 and 1992.
Specifically, over that one to two year period, he spent a whopping 3.3 hours lobbying "administration officials" on behalf of the organization, and also talked to its president 22 times, presumably advising her about how to take her case to the executive branch. Nothing in the records contradicts Thompson's statements that 1) he has no recollection of working on behalf of this group, and 2) he is quite sure that he did not lobby John Sununu on its behalf.
Arent Fox's current chairman, Marc Fleischaker, says, “Regardless of whatever the political ramifications are, Fred was being a good colleague by helping out one of the firm’s partners." No good deed goes unpunished, I suppose.
The Times article isn't especially unfair; it notes Thompson's pro-life voting record and quotes his post on Power Line on his role as a lawyer. But the bottom line is that there is nothing here: a lawyer represents all kinds of clients. This particular representation, on Thompson's part, amounted to very little.
What's interesting, I think, is that the news outlets that are pushing this story are not conservative. They seem to think that the story will somehow discredit Thompson among conservatives, presumably because conservatives are too dumb to understand how law firms and the legal process work. The appropriate response from the right would be, I think, a yawn. So far, that's what we've seen.
And this may be why his July 4th announcement and September announcment have been delayed. I think he should stand up like a man and said “yes I did it and I changed my mind.” What is the big deal? Mitt Romney did it and Guiliani never even changed his pro-abortion stance.
Fred needs to get in now and face the music. He is starting to look a little cowardly. I want to see him in the next debate.
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