Fred Thompson Defended
July 19, 2007
A supporter close to Fred Thompson's unofficial campaign tells The Brody File that the current controversy over Thompson's work on behalf of a pro-choice group is a result of "poor communications."
Here's an email I just received from this close supporter:
"The way this has developed has been pretty unfortunate, apparently involving foggy memories from 15+ years ago, and let's face it some poor communications. Let me give you some background.
There's been a lot of confusion and inaccurate reporting about Thompson's position - did he deny, or does he claim not to remember? Are those contradictory positions?
For what it's worth, Thompson's denial was to the allegation the LAT made - that Thompson lobbied Sununu for this group. Period. That was what the LAT claimed they had proof of, and that was what we thought was being denied.
Later, the allegation changed a bit - notice that Sununu is not in this NYT story? - and in response to that, Thompson has acknowledged that he genuinely doesn't recall whether he'd ever spoken to people from that group in '91. I believe he's been, and remains, consistent on those two points:
He didn't lobby Sununu for this group, and…
He doesn't recall whether he ever spoke to, consulted, offered legal or political information, etc for this client.
As far as I can tell, there's nothing in these NYT records that suggests Thompson lobbied Sununu, as was alleged. It appears that Thompson was simply consulted, and asked questions of people he knew in the Bush administration. To the best of my understanding, those are the facts."
This story alone won't hurt Thompson.
But expect rival campaigns to go after him as they package this incident with those pesky pro-choice friendly questionnaires he filled out in the 1990's.
Loyal FDT fans won't abandon him but will the Thompson campaign be able to define their candidate before the media and his Republican rivals do?
The race is on…and Thompson isn't even officially in the race yet.
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