As we seek to sort out that L.A. Times story on Fred Thompson and the abortion group, we probably won’t be finding any public records or filings indicating when Thompson began working for domestic clients at Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn.

The relevant federal regulation covering lobbyists at that time was Federal Lobbying Regulation Act Of 1946, which only required an individual whose ‘principal purpose’ was to influence the passage or defeat of legislation in Congress to register with the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate and file quarterly financial reports. The FRLA was not clear what constituted lobbying as a “principal purpose,” which would trigger the reporting threshold.

This fact doesn’t prove Thompson did lobby for the group or that he didn’t; it just says that Captain Ed and I were looking in a dry hole by wondering if the date on the group’s minutes citing his hire contradicted public records of when Thompson worked as a lobbyist.

Interestingly, this information comes to my attention thanks to a Republican presidential campaign that isn’t Thompson’s, citing the Public Citizen Website.

UPDATE: Over at the Spectator, Philip Klein notes a Post article that says Thompson joined the firm in April 1991. So much for that idea…

Meanwhile, ABC News thinks there’s some meaning in John Sununu thinking their reporter’s questions on this topic are, um, ”dumb” is his word. ABC calls him “famously testy.” Well, maybe his reaction says something about him, or maybe it says something about ABC…