Breaking the 12th Commandment: Fred Thompson and the “Abortion Lobbyist” Story

Evangelical Outpost ^ | July 19, 2007 | Joe Carter

[pissant]

A minor speed bump?

[cripplecreek]

Haven’t you learned yet? All unfavorable stories about Fred are lies and Mitt Romney steals straw polls.

Sheesh.

[SittinYonder]

The clock ticks Fred. That’s all you need to know.

[pissant]

I think this guy actually lays it out fairly, like Brody did. Not a Fred bash, more a warning to be frank.

[cripplecreek]

That’s really all I want, honesty.

[elizabetty]

Unlike the former governor, Thompson developed a solid record of support for the pro-life cause during his time in the Senate

How is this unlike the former Governor who developed a solid record of support for the pro-life cause during his time as Governor???

Seriously, can anybody just be HONEST?

[Huck]

The truth is that abortion has almost nothing to do with presidential duties. Fred apparantly is a federalist. That’s what I want in the White House. If they want to kill babies in Massachusetts, let their government decide. If they want to outlaw the practice in Mississippi, fine by me. What’s a Greyhound bus ticket cost? Woopdidoo. Abortion is a waste of time as a presidential issue.

[rhombus]

Wait a minute someone on FR once told me that Reagan never said that when they were trashing ABF (all but Fred).

[mnehring]

Why does this keep coming up? The ‘lobbying charge’ has been debunked because the person who hired the firm said they never talked with Fred, nor did the John Sununu ever speak with Fred on behalf of that group:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/07/sununu-thompson.html

Quote—”He never met with me,” said Sununu. “I have absolutely no recollection of Fred Thompson coming in to see me, I don’t think it ever happened, and he never lobbied me on that issue.”—

Not only that, but it was found that Thompson didn’t even work for the lobbying firm on the dates the group hired them:

http://newsbusters.org/node/13983

Quote—Take a look at registrant #2661 in the FARA search system. Fred D. Thompson, according to their records, starts as a lobbyist for foreign business on 10/10/1991 and terminates on 9/17/1993, which is when he decided to run for the remainder of Al Gore’s term in the Senate. That gives some indication that Thompson started lobbying for Arent in October and not September of 1991. (There is another link with scans of the employment records I’ll find later..)

In addition, the problem with this is that all this flies in the face of his 100% pro-life voting record, 100% rating by the National Right to Life Committee, and 0% rating by NARAL.

http://vote-smart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=22003&type=category&category=2&go.x=8&go.y=14

In response to these attacks, the National Right to Life Committe even wrote this letter:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1865389/posts?page=163#163

Email from the National Right to Life Committee (Fred alert!)
National Right to Life Committee | July 8, 2007 | Karen Cross

Posted on 07/13/2007 12:23:28 PM CDT by Sturm Ruger

It appears that there is an attempt to create confusion regarding former Senator Fred Thompson’s pro-life position.

You can go to National Right to Life’s website to see Senator Thompson’s voting record against abortion, euthanasia, and experimentation on unborn babies’ bodies. As you can see, Senator Thompson had an excellent pro-life voting record while in the U.S. Senate.

I am concerned that someone may be misleading you about his record. Regardless, I assure you it was not from National Right to Life. National Right to Life PAC supported Senator Thompson for the U.S. Senate in 1994 and 1996, and considered him to be a very pro-life Senator.

Senator Thompson has since reaffirmed his pro-life position. I am attaching a link to the statement he made to the National Right to Life Convention:

Fred Thompson’s statement to the National Right to Life Convention

Thank you for your interest and concern on this critical issue.

Sincerely,
Karen Cross
Political Director
National Right to Life Committee
512 10th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004

[pissant]

Debunked. You haven’t read the papers today, apparently.

[Russ]

No, I don’t believe Reagan ever broke his 11th Commandment which was to never speak ill of a fellow Republican. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t disagree with their position on issues (which he did) but I don’t recall him ever attacking a fellow Republican on a personal level. In fact, I never remember Reagan attacking anyone on a personal level.

[saganite]

Hmm. I’d like to see those billing records and see what kind of typewriter they were written on.

[mnehring]

Sure have.. they are just rehashing the old stories and spinning the fact that Thompson is only saying he ‘doesn’t recall’ ever dealing with them as failure to deny. It is a lame attack that flies in the face of his voting record... It is all a big circle of attacks where one article references another article which references the first article..

[pissant]

This is a evangelical Thompson supporter. And it was Fred’s campaign manager that made the flat denial, not Fred. He has yet to correct his official statement.

[mnehring]

Actually, notice what is said.. the author doesn’t claim to have the records.. he just heard that someone had the records.. similar to the typical ‘unnamed source’ that we see from the NYT and other MSM outlets all the time..

I could say that I heard that someone said their brother’s, uncle, first cousin twice removed had records that Bill Clinton was really Elvis.. That isn’t evidence he owns any Blue Suede Shoes..

[pissant]

He was simply brutal to Ford, deservedly so in the 76 campaign.

[llevrok]

Not a Fred bash, more a warning to be frank.

Hopefully, not barney FRANK !

[TommyDale]

So what if Fred Thompson did bill 19 hours for a less-than-holy client? Does anyone think that attorneys practice for free, and only for causes they espouse? Do they not even sometimes defend murderers? 19 hours of billable time devoted to a group like this hardly constitutes a lot of serious work, and certainly not much time for “lobbying”.

[pissant]

LOL. Yeah, I noticed that.

[saganite]

Well, it did say Arwnt Fox (whoever that is) found the billing records so we have someone to go to and ask those billing records be made public. Then we can get a good look at them.