Opinion: Sparks fly from Sununu
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The dispute over whether Fred Thompson once lobbied on behalf of easing an abortion-related restriction remained alive Monday, courtesy of John Sununu.
The Times a few days back broke the news that, based on several interviews and a document from the time, Thompson in 1991 signed on with the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Assn. to help it fight a ban on abortion counseling by clinics receiving federal money. The Times’ Michael Finnegan reported that the group’s president recalled Thompson telling her several times that he had pressed the case against the restriction during talks with Sununu, then the White House chief of staff in President George H.W. Bush’s administration.
Sununu told Finnegan he recalled no such conversations and, as he reflected further on the matter, said they had not occurred. In his new comments, given to ABC News, Sununu said Thompson ‘never met with me.’ He added, ‘I have absolutely no recollection of Fred Thompson coming in to see me, I don’t think it ever happened, and he never lobbied me on that issue.’
When asked if perhaps Thompson might have met with one of his underlings, Sununu flashed the temper that became so well known during his White House tenure. ‘That’s the kind of dumb question that makes you wonder what’s wrong with the press,’ he responded. ‘How do you get a job working for ABC asking a question like that? Did he meet with someone on my staff? Did he meet with someone in the street?’
We can’t help but note that, colorful as that particular quote may be, it’s a non-denial denial (in parlance from the days of the Watergate scandal).
A spokesman for Thompson, who is expected to soon officially enter the Republican presidential race, had denied to Finnegan that he had lobbied for the family planning group --- an assertion strongly countered by several of those who had worked for it or were familiar with its efforts.
Intriguingly, Thompson on Saturday issued his version of a non-denial denial when quizzed directly about the flap. ‘I’d just say the flies get bigger in the summertime. I guess the flies are buzzing,’ he told the Washington Post.
Check out the electronic version of the Finnegan story and you’ll now find a copy of minutes of a 1991 board meeting of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Assn. at which Thompson’s hiring is noted. The pertinent section is underlined.
-- Don Frederick