Posted on 07/06/2007 5:33:23 PM PDT by new yorker 77
WASHINGTON (AP) - Fred Thompson, who is weighing a Republican presidential bid as a social conservative, "has no recollection" of performing lobbying work in 1991 for a family planning group that was seeking to relax an abortion counseling rule, a spokesman said Friday. The Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site that Thompson was retained by National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association to lobby the administration of President George H.W. Bush to ease a regulation that prevented clinics that received federal money from offering any abortion counseling.
At the time, Thompson, a lawyer, worked as a lobbyist at Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn, a Washington firm.
"He may have been consulted by one of the firm's partners who represented this group in 1991," Thompson spokesman Mark Corallo said Friday in a statement. "As any lawyer would know, such consultations take place within law firms everyday."
The newspaper cited minutes from a meeting of the association when Thompson's work was discussed as well as the recollections of five individuals.
Judith DeSarno, the association's former president, told The Times that she had specific memories of discussing Thompson's lobbying work with him in phone conversations and during meals at Washington restaurants.
Minutes of a Sept. 14, 1991, meeting of the association, cited by the newspaper, states: "Judy (DeSarno) reported that the Association had hired Fred Thompson, Esq., as counsel to aid us in discussions with the administration." According to The Times, DeSarno said Thompson told her he discussed the abortion restriction with John Sununu, then chief of staff to Bush.
Sununu told The Times that he didn't recall Thompson ever discussing the abortion restriction with him. "In fact, I know that never happened."
"It is not unusual for one lawyer on one side of an issue to be asked to give advice to colleagues for clients who engage in conduct or activities with which they personally disagree," Corallo said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Beez -
If you don’t realize that the FRedheads are something of a cult here on FR, then you are not very aware. They go, en masse, to threads about all other candidates and trash them. They especially are attracted to Hunter and Paul threads.
Incidentally, since you are making assumptions about my preferences, I will spell them out. I really like Hunter, Tancredo, and Paul. I especially dislike CFR members Romney, Thompson (fred and tommy both), Rudy, and McCain. If I am forced in the general election to choose a CFR one world government socialist (Hillary or Obama) against one of the aforementioned one world order CFR capitalists, I’ll vote for the Republican. But, unlike the Fredheads, I see him for who he is.
There have been plenty of purges here on FR. A lot of people saw George W. Bush for what he was before most others and got run off. Now most FReepers acknowledge that Bush is a disaster, with the exception of his Iraq policy, which they accept unquestioningly.
I may eventually get banned. However, I never swear, and I never personally attack other FReepers. Too bad many of the Fredheads do not play by the same rules.
You know it's not true pissant.
The best way to know if it is a lie to ask yourself, when can you tell a democrat (AP, NYT, ETC.) is lying? When their lips move (not original..)
I’m comfortable with Fred on his current position on abortion. He now wants to have R v. W overturned and claims emphatically to be pro-life. Same with Mitt. I trust neither are faking it.
But if he did indeed lobby for a pro-abort group, it will have a negative impact. That said, I do not trust the MSM to report the whole story about a conservative. I assure you, though, that it will force Thompson to respond.
I think he is precisely as pro-life as Bush. 100% exactly like Bush, which means I am not worried about Thompson on this issue.
That's a lie.
Good rule of thumb.
Your post is sickeningly flawed and desperately pathetic.
I believe Thompson but not Romney. Romney is trouble. He doesn’t have the record to match the rhetoric. Liberals will easily paste together a Romney vs. Romney piece that will make the GOP look like fools.
Fred's taking a page out of Hillary's playbook. This is the old "Uh, I don't recall," gambit she used with great success in stonewalling the Whitewater investigaton.
Fred also can't remember the two pro-choice election-year questionnaires he filled out years apart.
So much to remember about one's position and clients on abortion, so little time.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
No doubt that Romney will be subject to lots of flip flop ads. That does not mean he is insincere though. I’m not a Romney guy though, as you can tell by my tagline.
Many people dislike Rudy . People who cherish their Second Amendment rights don’t like Rudy .. and with good reason .
You believe he doesn't remember?
That takes naivete to a whole new level.
Then why did you say he is toast?
The headline is a fake and the first paragraph is deliberately misleading as well.
The law firm that he worked for apparently lobbied for a loosening of the rule forbidding funding of abortions. But Fred had nothing to do with it.
Possibly someone may have spoken to him about it, but he doesn’t remember that, either.
All I can say is that over the years I have had colleagues who have done things I did not approve of. That’s life, unless you become a hermit. Not even the Church is free of such problems.
Attempted hit on Fred!
I doubt the accuracy of the MSM always, so I’m givng him a solid benefit of the doubt. But he will have to respond strongly, cause this is gonna spread like wildfire.
Duncan Hunter will not be Prez ....sorry to break it to you .
Because if true (unlikely) and he did lobby for this group, it will sink him in the GOP primary.
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