Fred Thompson backpedaling away from previous statements on Abortion Lobbying

[DeadCanDance]

More Evidence Of Fred Thompson's Pro-Choice Lobbying:

The New York Times reports that billing records have been unearthed that prove Fred Thompson did lobbying work for the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association in 1991 and 1992, when they were attempting to convince the George H. W. Bush administration to relax the gag rule on abortion advice from organizations receiving federal funds. Thompson charged the group a total of $5,000 in the records found thus far, for activities that included talking to leaders of the group on the phone and lobbying administration officials on their behalf.

Thompson spokesman Mark Corallo, who had originally denied that Thompson worked for a pro-choice group, is now backing off somewhat: "It is not unusual for a lawyer to give counsel at the request of colleagues, even when they personally disagree with the issue."


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/u...6b77a1b05&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

 

[Paulie]

I'm not one to make the issue of Abortion into the be-all-end-all issue of conservatism, but how DARE you run for president as a conservative, when you spent political time and money professionally lobbying the federal government for pro-choice rights.

What a fucking fraud this man is.

The only way this man compares to Reagan is the fact that he was a horrible actor.

 

[Annie]

More Evidence Of Fred Thompson's Pro-Choice Lobbying:

The New York Times reports that billing records have been unearthed that prove Fred Thompson did lobbying work for the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association in 1991 and 1992, when they were attempting to convince the George H. W. Bush administration to relax the gag rule on abortion advice from organizations receiving federal funds. Thompson charged the group a total of $5,000 in the records found thus far, for activities that included talking to leaders of the group on the phone and lobbying administration officials on their behalf.

Thompson spokesman Mark Corallo, who had originally denied that Thompson worked for a pro-choice group, is now backing off somewhat: "It is not unusual for a lawyer to give counsel at the request of colleagues, even when they personally disagree with the issue."


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/u...6b77a1b05&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

and a bit of context, links at site, including the nyt one above:

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/010566.php

...

UPDATE & BUMP: The New York Times did the follow-up, as it turns out, but otherwise it seems about as advertised. It starts by saying that Thompson did "nearly 20 hours" worth of work for the NFPRHA, which again implies no continual working relationship. However, the Times says that the billing records show that he reported lobbying Bush (41) officials three times on the group's behalf:

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.

In fact, it says that Thompson spent three and a half hours lobbying the White House -- but it doesn't say whom:

The billing records from Arent Fox show that Mr. Thompson, who charged about $250 an hour, spoke 22 times with Judith DeSarno, who was then president of the family planning group. In addition, he lobbied “administration officials” for a total of 3.3 hours, the records show, although they do not specify which officials he met with or what was said.

That seems a little thin, although if it appears on billing records, one has to assume he at least chatted with someone. However, it's clear that Fred was not the lobbyist for the NFPRHA, not unless they only spent 3.5 hours trying to effect policy change over 14 months. The current partner of Arent makes it pretty clear that Fred was consulting and not lobbying:

The family planning association became a client of Arent Fox through Michael Barnes, a former Democratic congressman who was then a partner at the firm. The firm’s current chairman, Marc Fleischaker, said, “Regardless of whatever the political ramifications are, Fred was being a good colleague by helping out one of the firm’s partner.”

So it appears that Barnes was the lobbyist, and Fred consulted ... occasionally. I don't think Fred intended to live on $5,000 every 14 months, and Barnes would be the obvious choice for lobbying at any rate.

As one of the commenters on this post wrote, this story is a nothingburger. However, Fred's team needs to make sure they don't make matters worse when nothingburgers arise in the future. Patterico calls the response an "unforced error", and he's right. It's one of the bumps in the road that serve as opportunities for improvement, but overall, my friend John at Power Line is correct -- this story is essentially a yawn. "Lawyer Consults! Film At 11!"