I'll be right back
with the pollen counts after
Your Local on the 8s!
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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
1991!
Too long ago regardless.
I am more interested in someone’s positions for the last decade or so.
If the GOP nominates the best man, he will.
I believe Thompson is honest about his position. That is how I meant it. But yes, I believe if he says he doesn’t remember, he doesn’t remember. Thompson has given no indication to me that he is a liar. If you look at his resume, he has done a thing or two in the past 16 years.
Really bizarre that they would put out a hit piece late on a Friday.
I’m not as trusting about Mitt on that particular issue.
I’m fine with Thompson replying to this, it comes with the game of politics. If he can’t handle this, he’d never handle the real trials a major candidate faces.
But my reading of this is that it is a lot like what was reported about John Roberts. It’s standard practice in firms to offer advice to collegues if requested on a case. I’ve been there, done that, as far as reacting to this type of story in 2005 during the Supreme Court fight. Unless further details arise waranting a red flag, I find this a much hyped non event.
If it settles your mind to hear a response from Fred about this directly, I hope he does so. But for me, I’m still tracking him on the previous issues stated. Amnesty, the get a long D.C. culture, and which side of the Senate divide he’d find himself most comfortable. With his friend Mccain, or Sessions and DeMint.
These are the issues preventing me from giving him unqualified support so far, even though I’m no hostile to him. And it’ll be on these issues whether I vote for him or not.
Um, how about at face value? Decriminalized isn't the same thing as legal. If abortion were made illegal but not criminal, it could still carry fines and cost a doctor performing one his license.
That is an outrageous assertion.
When has Fred ever promised that, if elected, he would outlaw abortion?
The GOP is too afraid to nominate someone that they believe would lose to Hitlary . Thompson can beat her and Romney can beat her, as they will appeal to the masses while bringing the base to the table. A candidate has to be able to do both , neither Hunter(base) nor Rudy(middle) can do it .
All Fred has to do is say it's hogwash.
Instead he says he can't remember.
I wonder if Fred remembers ramming McCain-Feingold down our throats. I wonder if FRedheads remember. For that matter, I wonder if they even care.
Fred and McCain are the only candidates of the bunch who have actually led a direct successful assault on our First Amendment freedoms. FRedheads justly despise McCain for his part. But they make excuses for Fred.
They will always make excuses for Fred--be it abortion, McCain-Feingold, his less-than-stellar senate record, whatever.
What a pathetic pack of enablers.
I don’t know about that. Bush’s first EVER VETO, halfway into his second term was against embryonic stem cell funding from the government. That suggests a level of high importance to Bush that I’m not sure thompson equals quite to the same degree. But I do think, mostly, in practice they’d be the same on social conservative issues. It really doesn’t matter if the passion is equal pound by pound anyway, so long as the action is similiar. If I’m wrong about the equality of their passion, great, but the record on the issue matters most to me.
Fred is my fallback guy right now. There is nothing he can do or say to vault him over Hunter (for me anyway). This is more along the lines of him fighting to knock out a couple of the big three. If he can’t handle this and other issues (McCain Feingold, squishy on illegals, etc) then it will be tough for him to KO Rudy and Mitt. We shall what happens.
WRONG! He said he would not criminalize young women in distress. He wants to go after the butcher that did it.
What happened to your cute little queer nickname for Fred?
Look I was being sarcastic. Didn't "he's very, very, very old" seem a little over the top to you?
Americans are irony deficient.
You guys don't let the truth get in your way, do you?
LOL, you would toast him for littering. I can't even figure out what the article is alleging.
If Hunter wins the GOP nomination, he will beat Hillary/Obama like a drum. Hunter is a much better debater than the rest of the pack. That said, I agree too many GOPers are afraid of nominating someone with so little name recognition. My job is to change that.
“They go, en masse, to threads about all other candidates and trash them. They especially are attracted to Hunter and Paul threads.” BUMP!
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