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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...

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... From the time he was elected to the Senate from Tennessee in 1994 until he left office...

During his 1966 campaign for governor of California, Ronald Reagan purportedly established the so-called 11th Commandment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican." A direct corollary--a 12th Commandment, if you will--could be stated as: "Thou shalt not speak ill of your candidate on your own blog." But just as Reagan himself broke his rule when it was warranted, I will break mine. I'm a firm advocate for Fred Thompson; I believe he is the best choice both for the GOP nomination and for the Presidency. I am also a firm advocate for integrity; I believe that you should...

After the Los Angles Times came under fire for a possibly bogus story on former Sen. Fred Thompson lobbying for a pro-abortion group, a New York Times article on Thursday claims billing records prove it to be true. The Times reported that Thompson spent nearly 20 hours in 1991 and 1992 lobbying for the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association to get the Bush administration to drop its policy preventing taxpayer funding of groups that promote or perform abortions in other nations. He spent 20 hours working for the group as an attorney at the Arent Fox law firm...

This may be the political version of Evolution. The New York Times is out this morning with a story about billing records that show Fred Thompson did indeed charge for his time while helping a pro-choice group. Details from the article below: Billing records show that former Senator Fred Thompson spent nearly 20 hours working as a lobbyist on behalf of a group seeking to ease restrictive federal rules on abortion counseling in the 1990s, even though he recently said he did not recall doing any work for the organization. According to records from Arent Fox, the law firm based...

Winning the backing of religious conservatives in the United States has sparked a battle between Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, is credited with firing the opening salvo when he questioned the pro-life credentials of former Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, The Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Thompson, who is expected to enter the GOP race, first denied and later confirmed that he had lobbied for the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association in the early 1990s. He would be the only Southerner in the race, if he enters, and...

NYT: Billing records show Fred did lobby for abortion group; Update: Pro-Fred blogger apologizes to LA Timesposted at 8:44 am on July 19, 2007 by Allahpundit(Allahpundit [also known as Allah] is a blogger best known as the author for defunct blog Allah Is in the House, a satirical political blog existing 2003-2005, and as an active contributor to Michelle Malkin's Hot Air.)Patterico beat me to the punch. What on earth was Mark Corallo thinking when he told the LA Times no way nuh uh never happened when he didn’t know that for a fact? Did the campaign even think to...

The L.A. Times has appended the following paragraph to its online version of the story about Fred Thompson’s lobbying: An earlier version of this article included a passage in which Judith DeSarno said Fred Thompson reenacted a cowboy death scene from one of his movies. The version of the article that was printed in Saturday’s newspaper replaced the earlier, online version. That newer version omitted the reference, because confirmation of the name of the movie could not be made before the story got reprinted. Based on DeSarno’s account, the scene that she said Thompson reenacted appears to be from “Keep...

Washington Prowler Gary Marx, a senior adviser to former Gov. Mitt Romney, apparently has started a Fred Thompson clipping service, along the way adding a bit of editorial perspective. Marx, along with state Romney folks, spent most of Monday peddling the partially discredited Los Angeles Times articles that claimed Thompson lobbied for a pro-abortion group back in 1991. Over the past 36 hours, the story has literally changed twice on the L.A. Times website, with facts removed or recollections changed. That hasn't stopped Marx, who serves as a senior aide to Romney for outreach to social conservative groups, from emailing...

Some good news this morning for Fred Thompson. Tony Perkins, head of the influential Family Research Council tells The Brody File that the latest news about how Thompson may have lobbied for a pro-choice group is really a non-story. If you're not familiar with the story, read the latest. Here's what he sent me through an email: "From what I've heard people are not biting on the story." They consider the source as well as the modus operandi, someone steps forward who is pro-life and is appealing to conservatives and he is attacked for being pro-abortion in an effort to...

Jim Geraghty over at National Review Online is reporting on an interesting thing concerning this story that the L.A.Times printed last weekend claiming that some abortion advocates hired Fred Thompson to lobby the White House for them over a pro-abortion issue in 1991 (NewsBusters story here). It seems that the story as originally posted on the LAT website has been altered with no notice of the change, nor an explanation of why it was changed. Once the removed sentence is looked into, though, it becomes clear that it was removed in an attempt to clean up the story to remove...

Jim Geraghty over at NRO brings up some more questions regarding the recent L.A. Times hit piece on Fred. Also, a sharp mind in Washington tells me, "if the abortion group isn't willing to produce the invoices they paid the law firm (which will have every [bad word]ing lawyer's name on the bill), they should go to hell." Finally, in the comments on Captain's site, a commenter notes this detail: But Judith DeSarno, who was president of the family planning association in 1991, said Thompson lobbied for the group for several months. At one of the meals, she recalled, Thompson...

“Facts” disappearing without a trace from LAT bombshell on Fred’s abortion lobbying posted at 5:11 pm on July 9, 2007 by Allahpundit Send to a Friend | printer-friendly Jim Geraghty posted this more than two hours ago. How on earth is it not already all over the right-wing blogosphere? As luck would have it, I myself blockquoted that story at length and can confirm that Jim’s right. The original paragraph: At one of the meals, she recalled, Thompson re-enacted a cowboy death scene from one of his movies. She also remembered him telling her that Sununu had just given him...

“Facts” disappearing without a trace from LAT bombshell on Fred’s abortion lobbying.

Spokesman Mark Corallo adamantly denied that Thompson worked for the family-planning group. "Fred Thompson did not lobby for this group, period," he said in an e-mail. In a telephone interview, he added: "There's no documents to prove it, there's no billing records, and Thompson says he has no recollection of it, says it didn't happen." In a separate interview, John Sununu, the White House official whom Thompson was hired to contact, said he had no memory of any lobbying and doubted it took place. Sununu said in a telephone interview: "I don't recall him ever lobbying me on that at...

Over at Captains Quarters, Captain Ed ponders an interesting question brought forth by one of his readers. Apparently, the only evidence of Fred's work at National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association is a copy of the NFPRHA's board minutes from September 14, 1991 that claims that the group had hired Fred. The big question is, at what point did Fred begin working there? Here's what Captain Ed found. Now a new bit of indirect evidence has been found. Arent Fox brought Thompson into the firm to be "of counsel" in 1991 for his expertise in their lobbying business, including...

WASHINGTON — Republican political activists said Saturday that reports that Fred D. Thompson had lobbied to ease a controversial abortion restriction have cast a shadow on his effort to persuade social conservatives — a key constituency in his emerging bid for the White House — that he is an unwavering opponent of abortion. Some Republican activists urged caution in evaluating Thompson's record. Others considered it damaging for questions to arise about his position on abortion, a litmus-test issue for many social conservatives. "That would not be helpful," said Paul M. Weyrich, a conservative leader who has not endorsed a presidential...

Fred Thompson must be scaring the crap out of the Democrats because they've unleashed a week's worth of negative attacks against him -- and he's not even a candidate yet. The most recent 'attack' comes from Judith DeSarno of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. She told the Los Angeles Times that Thompson once lobbied for the group back in 1991. DeSarno is hoping that her revelation will diminish Thompson's appeal to social conservatives who believe that killing an unborn baby is murder. Thompson denies the charge saying he never worked for the group. "Fred Thompson did not...

Imagine you're the district attorney character on, say, television's long-running "Law and Order." You have five witnesses who say they either saw the accused, or learned contemporaneously, that the accused did the alleged bad thing. Then imagine the accused's defense is essentially a variant of "I don't recall. There's no paper trail. Nope, I didn't do it." And the accused has a friendly witness who at first doesn't recollect if the accused did the bad thing, then ratchets up to "It didn't happen." If you're the DA, you probably still think you've got a case, right? Maybe you'll just let...

Former Rep. Michael D. Barnes (D-Md.), a colleague at the lobbying and law firm where Thompson worked, said that DeSarno had asked him to recommend someone for the lobbying work and that he had suggested Thompson. He said it was "absolutely bizarre" for Thompson to deny that he lobbied against the abortion counseling rule. "I talked to him while he was doing it, and I talked to [DeSarno] about the fact that she was very pleased with the work that he was doing for her organization," said Barnes. "I have strong, total recollection of that. This is not something I...