Ruh-roh:

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred D. Thompson, who is campaigning for president as a "pro-life" Republican, accepted a lobbying assignment from a family-planning group to persuade the first Bush White House to ease a controversial abortion restriction...

[snip]

His task was to urge the administration of President George H.W. Bush to withdraw or relax a rule that barred abortion counseling at clinics that receive federal money.

Thompson's spokesman denies that the former senator has ever done lobbying work on behalf of NFPRHA, the family planning group in question, but the recollection of several people, including then-CEO Judith DeSarno, as well as minutes from a meeting say otherwise.

DeSarno said Thompson reported to her, after being hired, that he had held multiple conversations about the abortion "gag rule" with [John] Sununu, who was then the White House chief of staff and the president's point man on the abortion rule.

Thompson kept her updated on his progress, she said, in telephone conversations and over meals at Washington restaurants.

Sununu also denies that Thompson met with him or anyone else at the White House about loosening the restriction. DeSarno's response:

Thompson "owes NFPRHA a bunch of money" if he never talked to [Sununu], as he said he had.

This news comes at a bad time for Thompson who has been wooing the religious right, seemingly successfully. Now that the fundamentalist Christian kingmakers James Dobson and Tony Perkins have undertaken a campaign to undermine Romney's support among evangelicals because of his porn problem, Thompson seemed perfectly positioned to be the beneficiary of their no doubt pure-intentioned machinations. As Soren Dayton put it earlier this week:

Christian right leaders have found their man in Fred Thompson, after a long, but ultimately unsuccessful courtship with Mitt Romney. This reminds me of the 2003 and 2004 buttons and bumper stickers "Dated Dean, Married Kerry."

These poor evangelicals can't seem to catch a break. Just when they thought they'd found their metaphorical bride...err...groom... they find out he cheated on them with their abortion rights foes back in the dreaded 90s. So now what? To whom will they direct their affections? Well, a bunch of Iowan Christians seem to have already moved on:

More than 50 religious conservatives in Iowa are leading an effort to convince Republicans to support presidential candidate Sam Brownback.

In a statement, the Kansas senator said they share his goal of rebuilding families and renewing culture. He said they could play an important role in his bid for the GOP nomination.