your lamp! It goes so well with the rest of this stuff!"
Clintons cart off truckload of gifts ( Amount is called 'absolutely unprecedented")
Crime/Corruption News Keywords: CLINTON, GIFTS, BRIBERY,
Source: Detroit Free Press
Published: January 21, 2001 Author: KENNETH R. BAZINET
Posted on 01/23/2001 10:30:04 PST by MrMuse
By KENNETH R. BAZINET
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- Bill Clinton and his wife accepted a massive amount of gifts last year, most of it in furniture, art, rugs and flatware that could fill much of their new mansion in Washington.
A member of a previous administration called the amount of gits carted off as "absolutely unprecedented ...I've never heard anything like it."
The final financial disclosure statement of the Clinton presidency also showed the couple's legal defense fund chipped in $1.05 million for attorney fees in 2000 as a result of various federal investigations faced by the administration.
The Clintons' assets, including investments, savings and income, were listed at $1 million to $5 million in the report, which requires presidents and their families to estimate their net worth.
The release of the disclosure statement Friday night was part of a day-long document drop at the White House as Clinton wound up his second term in office.
But it was the seven pages of gifts that the Clintons received last year that broke from the norm for the Clintons. The most they had ever reported before was $23,602 in gifts, in 1999.
By comparison, $52,853 in gifts in 1992 was the most President George Bush listed in his four annual disclosure statements.
The gift issue was so sensitive that Lori Krause, director of the White House Gift Office, advised the press staff who released the disclosure form to be cautious.
"Please keep in mind that the first family has stressed to my office their desire for privacy regarding the gifts they receive," Krause said in a White House memo.
Among the biggest gifts were two sofas, an easy chair and an ottoman valued at $19,900 from Steve Mittman of New York; china worth $4,920 from movie mogul Steven Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw; two coffee tables and two chairs estimated at $7,375 from songwriter-philanthropist Denise Rich of New York, and $4,787 in flatware from husband-and-wife actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen.
The class of '68 at Georgetown University, the former president's alma mater, gave the Clintons a $38,000 basket set by artist Dale Chihuly, and Chihuly himself chipped in a glass sculpture worth $22,000.
The Clintons also were given a travel humidor, china cabinet and a copy of President Abraham Lincoln's Cooper Union Speech worth $9,683 from insurance magnate Walter Kaye, who lobbied to get Monica Lewinsky her White House internship.
Other gifts included a $5,000 rug from Martin Evans of Chicago, a sofa valued at $2,843 from Brad Noe of North Carolina, a cashmere shawl and flatware worth $5,767 from Morris Pynoos of Beverly Hills, Calif., and a painting listed at $3,000 from Joan Tumpson of Miami.
Actor Sylvester Stallone gave the president boxing gloves valued at $300, actor Jack Nicholson gave him a golf driver worth $350 and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns (PBS' "Jazz") forked over an $800 photo of Duke Ellington.
Lamps, more flatware, antiques, a portrait of Buddy the dog, television sets, a DVD player and a leather jacket were among the remaining gifts.
"It's almost enough to furnish an entire house," said one source who reviewed the list.
Sheila Tate, Nancy Reagan's White House press secretary, called the amount and value of the gifts "absolutely unprecedented."
"Now we know why they had to have such a big house," an incredulous Tate said.
"I've never heard anything like it," she added. "These are not the kind of gifts you take with you. It's usually a silver bowl with your name on it."
I did not need to see that again.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...our old GUILD posts would add even more.:-)
Dear Howlin , Would you please add me to your Ping Lists?
God Bless
Robert