Posted on 07/24/2002 9:51:46 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Former President Clinton received the loudest and longest applause as Arkansas' seven living governors were introduced to a crowd of more than 1,500 gathered to raise money for renovation of the Governor's Mansion.
Coming together for the first time ever, the seven men entered the Statehouse Convention Center banquet hall Tuesday in the order of the years they served in the state's top post.
Former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, who resigned in 1996 and was succeeded by current Gov. Mike Huckabee after Tucker's Whitewater-related conviction in federal court, also received loud applause from those who had paid $125 to attend.
Clinton said in an interview before the event that the mansion holds special importance for him because he was living there when his daughter Chelsea was born. Clinton lived in the mansion for 12 years before becoming president.
"It's high time to modernize the mansion," he said.
Skip Rutherford, president of the Clinton Presidential Library Foundation and master of ceremonies on Tuesday, said the event raised more than $300,000, exceeding the $250,000 goal.
The renovation of the mansion forced the Huckabee family to move out in August 2000 and spend 16 months in a triplewide mobile home. The governor went along with plenty of jokes -- including several late-night TV jabs -- when the first family adopted the wheeled dwelling.
The family moved back in late 2001, although the expansion project at the mansion is still under way.
Each governor's administration was reviewed in a video. The audience applauded every governor, except for the late Orval Faubus, whose mention silenced the crowd. Arkansas gained national notoriety in 1957 when Faubus tried to prevent Little Rock Central High School from desegregating.
Clinton paid tribute to the governors gathered for the event.
"The world could learn a lesson from this evening. We have fought, we have made up, and we have fought again," he said. "All over the world today, I see people in terrible trouble because they cannot get beyond our differences to our common humanity ... because they cannot sit down with an adversary and shoot the breeze like we are doing tonight."
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Clinton?
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