The L.A. Times has appended the following paragraph to its online version of the story about Fred Thompson’s lobbying:
An earlier version of this article included a passage in which Judith DeSarno said Fred Thompson reenacted a cowboy death scene from one of his movies. The version of the article that was printed in Saturday’s newspaper replaced the earlier, online version. That newer version omitted the reference, because confirmation of the name of the movie could not be made before the story got reprinted. Based on DeSarno’s account, the scene that she said Thompson reenacted appears to be from “Keep the Change,” a TNT television western that would have been in production around the time of the lunch and dinner that she described.
Somewhere out in that Army of Davids, there must be a David who has seen this movie and can tell us about it.
Here is the Internet Movie Database entry for the movie.
P.S. Interesting that the paper published something online that wasn’t confirmed. Are there different standards for online stories vs. print?
P.P.S. I just posted this at Hot Air, and I’ll reproduce here my thoughts on what it means:
The blogosphere has forced the paper to explain why it whisked away the sentence in question — and that’s a good thing. But the rumors of the death of the story’s credibility were greatly exaggerated.
By the way, I don’t think the story, if true, means that pro-life conservatives should despair at the idea of a Thompson candidacy. All this story means, if it’s true, is that he didn’t feel strongly enough about abortion in 1991 to turn down work for an abortion rights group. That doesn’t mean he agrees with the agenda of abortion rights groups — or that he would appoint bad judges, which is the only relevance of any of this.
Trust me, his judges would be better than Hillary’s.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:
The Georgia Supreme Court has voted to hold a hearing more than two months earlier than originally planned in the case of a Douglas County man who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.
A hearing is now set in Genarlow Wilson’s case for July 20 at 10 a.m. In voting today, the court reversed an earlier decision to deny a speedier process, a ruling that would have delayed a hearing on the appeal until October.
My best wishes to Mr. Wilson for a speedy release.
I haven’t talked about this before, but I have always thought this case was outrageous. Don’t get me wrong: when my daughter is 15, I hope she won’t be engaging in oral sex with 17-year-olds or anyone else. But the idea that consensual oral sex by teenagers could lead to a mandatory 10-year prison sentence is, in my view, beyond the pale.
And — by the way — every prosecutor I have ever discussed the case with agrees.
From a NEWSWEEK article on Bush’s decision to commute Libby’s sentence:
Behind the scenes, Bush was intensely focused on the matter, say two White House advisers who were briefed on the deliberations, but who asked not to be identified talking about sensitive matters. Bush asked Fred Fielding, his discreet White House counsel, to collect information on the case. Fielding, anticipating the Libby issue would be on his plate, had been gathering material for some time, including key trial transcripts. Uncharacteristically, Bush himself delved into the details. He was especially keen to know if there was compelling evidence that might contradict the jury’s verdict that Libby had lied to a federal grand jury about when—and from whom—he learned the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, wife of Iraq War critic Joe Wilson. But Fielding, one of the advisers tells NEWSWEEK, reluctantly concluded that the jury had reached a reasonable verdict: the evidence was strong that Libby testified falsely about his role in the leak.
Well, that Fred Fielding isn’t much of a conservative anyway.
UPDATE: Deadpan tag added for the humorless.