Posted on 03/10/2004 11:47:32 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
President Bush played host to dozens of overnight guests at the White House and Camp David last year, from world leaders to some of his most loyal supporters, including friends who double as campaign fund-raisers. Bush and first lady Laura Bush have invited at least 270 people to stay at the White House and at least the same number to overnight at the Camp David retreat since coming to Washington in January 2001, according to lists the White House provided The Associated Press. Elton Bomer, a lobbyist, Bush donor and former Democratic lawmaker who served in then-Texas Gov. Bush's administration, said his stay in the White House living quarters was like visiting friends in a "a very nice home." "The mattresses are very, very nice and the pillows are very nice," said Bomer, who visited in October 2002 with about 18 other Texans. "It's not ostentatious at all. There's no gilded gold leaf or anything like that." Some Bush guests stayed in the Lincoln Bedroom, a historic room that gained fame in the Clinton administration amid allegations that Democrats were rewarding big donors such as Hollywood celebrities Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streisand with accommodations there. In all, the Clinton family invited at least 938 overnight guests to the White House in their first four years. Bush's criticism of the Clinton fund-raising scandal is one of the reasons the White House identifies guests. In a debate with Vice President Al Gore in October 2000, Bush said: "I believe they've moved that sign, 'The buck stops here,' from the Oval Office desk to 'The buck stops here' on the Lincoln Bedroom. And that's not good for the country." Bush's overnight guest roster is virtually free of the famous - pro golfer Ben Crenshaw is the biggest name - but not of campaign supporters. At least nine of Bush's biggest fund-raisers appear on the latest list of White House overnight guests, covering June 2002 through December 2003, and-or on the Camp David list, which covers last year. They include: _Mercer Reynolds, an Ohio financier, former Bush partner in the Texas Rangers baseball team and former ambassador to Switzerland. Reynolds is leading Bush's campaign fund-raising effort. He was a guest at the White House and the Camp David retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains. _Brad Freeman, a venture capitalist who is leading Bush's California fund-raising effort, has raised at least $200,000 for his re-election campaign and is also a major Republican Party fund-raiser. Freeman stayed at the White House. _Roland Betts, who raised at least $100,000 for Bush in 2000, was a Bush fraternity brother at Yale and a Texas Rangers partner. Betts stayed at the White House and Camp David. _William DeWitt, a Bush partner in the oil business and Texas Rangers who has raised at least $200,000 for Bush's re-election effort, stayed at the White House. _James Francis, who headed the Bush campaign's 2000 team of $100,000-and-up volunteer fund-raisers and was a Bush appointee in Texas when Bush was governor. Francis was a White House guest. _Joseph O'Neill, an oilman and childhood friend who introduced Bush to Laura Bush and raised at least $100,000 for each of Bush's presidential campaigns, stayed at the White House. _Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and New York Gov. George Pataki, who each raised at least $200,000 for Bush's re-election campaign, were White House guests. _James Langdon, who raised at least $100,000 for Bush, is a Washington attorney specializing in international oil and gas transactions. Langdon, whose clients include the Russian oil company Lukoil, is a member of Bush's foreign intelligence advisory board and served on Bush's 2000 presidential transition team on energy policy. "Some of these guests are old classmates, some of them have been friends of theirs for many, many years," White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said. "They enjoy the opportunity to spend time with them." Langdon, who stayed at Camp David a few weeks before Russian President Vladimir Putin did last September, said Bush's invitations to him and the other fund-raisers differ from the allegations of the Clinton years. "Of course I'm a fund-raiser - I support him in every way I can. But my relationship with him and his wife and his family spans more than three decades," said Langdon, a friend since Bush's early years in Texas. "I certainly don't need to be rewarded with a trip to Camp David for doing what I'm doing." Guests do not have to reimburse the government for their stays. Los Angeles attorney Donald Etra stayed at Camp David once and the White House several times. Etra, a Bush classmate at Yale, said he and his wife were invited as friends, not because they are donors. Each gave Bush $1,000 in 2000. Describing a Lincoln Bedroom stay, Etra said it is almost impossible to sleep. "It is so unbelievably exciting and unbelievable that you are staying in the White House," he said. "One hesitates to put a coffee cup down on the coffee table because there's an original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation under glass."
Roland Betts, was a Bush fraternity brother at Yale and a Texas Rangers partner. Betts stayed at the White House and Camp David.
_William DeWitt, a Bush partner in the oil business and Texas Rangers, stayed at the White House.
_James Francis,was a Bush appointee in Texas when Bush was governor.
_Joseph O'Neill,an oilman and childhood friend who introduced Bush to Laura Bush stayed at the White House.
_Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and New York Gov. George Pataki, were White House guests.
_James Langdon, served on Bush's 2000 presidential transition team on energy policy.
So, One straight up fund raiser, two nationally prominent Republicans, and several longtime friends, who ALSO served in a FUNDRAISING capacity, not FUND GIVING (Like Clintons DNC donors.)
Considering that there is a world of difference (to anyone with a brain, which lets the author out) between people that raise hard money for a candidate, and people that give scads of unregulated soft money to a political party, this article fairly screams Kerry Campaign ad, and should be regulated by the FEC as such.
President Bill Clinton's guests in the Lincoln Bedroom gave a total of at least $5.4 million to the Democratic National Committee during 1995 and 1996, according to a study for CNN by the Campaign Study Group.
The CNN study found 24 overnight White House guests who gave $100,000 or more to the DNC. CNN's $5.4 million figure does not include money given to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, or any state party committees.
It reads, Run it all by HRC.
Actually, it was the fact that they were donors. The additional fact that some of them were sleazoids was incidental. The problem was not that Clinton, or any other president, used the Lincoln Bedroom as a guest room. That's gone on forever. The problem was that DNC and Clinton/Gore fundraisers were using the Lincoln Bedroom and White House meetings with Slick as the hook for a monetary ask. ("Write a check for $50,000 and you get a 30 minute meeting with Himself.") Indeed, several of the people who spent the night during the Clinton years had never met Bill or Hillary, and their "personal visits" occured when the prez was out of town. Motel Six stuff.
The people Bush has invited seem to be folks with whom he has had a longstanding personal relationship -- i.e., friends, and mainly from pre-political days at that. The fact that a few of them are also Bush supporters and donors/fundraisers seems to be incidental. Judging from the published list, it looks like the best way to get an invite these days is to have been a co-owner with Bush of the Texas Rangers.
"Yes, pursue all 3 and promptly -- and get other names of the 100,000 or more," Clinton wrote, apparently seeking names of people who had given $100,000 or more to the Democrats. Clinton went on: "Ready to start overnights right away -- give me the top 10 list back, along with the 100."
Two staunch Clinton supporters: "Night Court" star Markie Post and Hollywood mogul Linda Bloodworth-Thomason -- bouncing like out-of-control schoolchildren on the antique bed in the historic Lincoln bedroom.
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