The “conservative” Boston Herald piles on...
Acting up: Thompson plays dumb
GOP thespian Fred Thompson can now be added to the long list of presidential candidates whose awkward pasts are haunting them.
According to the Los Angeles Times, minutes of a meeting held in September 1991 show that “staunch” pro-life candidate Thomspon worked for several months as a lobbyist for the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, an abortion rights group.
The Thompson camp is adamantly denying ever lobbying for the pro-choice group. But pols are popping out of the woodwork to express puzzlement at why the former actor and senator would declare the report false.
Judith DeSarno, president of the family planning association, confirmed Thompson’s employment to the Times, and former Rep. Michael Barnes (D-Md.), a colleague of Thompson’s, finds his denial “bizarre.”
Regardless of whether or not he worked with the family planning firm, why deny it, the thinking goes? Being a lobbyist is just like being a lawyer - you sometimes take on cases you don’t personally agree with. And if Thompson turns out to be lying now, well, he might as well go back to acting if he wants to play the president.