20A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
心语如海 心语如海
---
NATION
MONDAY,AUG.19,2002
BIG SPICE. SMALL PRICE.
White House sleep-overs include donors and friends
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Bush and first lady Laura Bush have invited dozens of friends and relatives to sleep over at the White House, from Republican fund-raisers to Texas pals such as pro golfer Ben Crenshaw and country singer Larry Gatlin.
country singles.
The issue of White House sleepovers arose during the Clinton administration when it was learned that the Democratic Party was rewarding big donors with overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom.
The Bushes' roughly 160 guests include at least six of the president's biggest fund-risers and their families. White House spokeswoman Anne Womack said she didn't know whether donors, or any other Bush guests, have slept in the Lincoln Bedroom.
"The president and Mrs. Bush enjoy spending time with their friends and family and have invited friends and family to stay as guests in the White House." Womack said.
record $100 million for the Republic can primaries.
A half-dozen Bush donors and fund-raisers known as "pioneers" are among the guests on a list released late Friday by the White House. Each raised at least $100 for Bush's 2000 campaign, helping him take in a
They include Roland Betts, a Yale classmate of Bush and a former partner of his in the Texas Rangers baseball team; venture capitalist and Republican National Committee fund-riser Brad Freeman; Texas rancher and state Sen. Teel Bivins; Boston businessman Joe O'Donnell; and Joe O'Neill of Midland, Texas, an olmil and childhood friend of Bush credited with introducing him to Laura Bush.
Womack said the fund-raisers are also longtime friends of the Bushes.
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog group, said that whether the Bushes are letting contributors stay in the Lincoln Bedroom "matters symbolically," regardless of whether the donors are also family friends.
"The Republicans made a very big deal about it during the Clinton administration," Noble said. "In this whole business, the whole issue is perception."
perception. The halting of White House tours for the general public since the Sept. 11 attacks may present a new issue for the Bushs, he said.
"The American public's access to
the White House has been severely restricted," Noble said. "So you may have an increased perception problem if, in fact, large contributors are getting access to the White House."
Bush has said he wouldn't use overnight invitations to the White House in any quid pro quo with donors.
"There's something sacred about the Lincoln Bedroom," he told The Associated Press in an interview last year.
In contrast to the star-studded guest list Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton compiled — from Barbra Streisand to director Steven Spielberg and actors Jane Fonda and Tom Hanks — no members of the Hollywood elite have stayed overnight in the Bush White House.
But there are some famous names in the crowd, including Crenshaw, a Bush family friend and campaign donor from Austin, Texas; country music performer Gatin; and Texas musician and author Kinky Friedman. Republican governors, including Pennsylvania's Tom Ridge, now Bush's chief adviser on domestic security: Jane Hull of Arizona, George Pataki of New York, John Rowland of Connecticut, Bob Taft of Ohio and John Engler of Michigan also are among the guests.
Tragedy taints 9/11 birthdays
The Associated Press
National Center for Health Statistics
NEW YORK—Sept. 11 used to be Andrew Williams' birthday.
Andrew Williams said.
That date is now so saturated in sadness, "it doesn't seem like a good day for celebration any more," said the 33-year-old musician from Owego, N.Y. Starting this year, he's switching to Sept. 10.
switching to September, Joe Reamsynder, however, isn't budging. The 17-year-old from Westville, Ohio, said he'll observe his birthday Sept. 11 as usual.
More than a million Americans have birthdays or anniversaries on Sept. 11, according to Census Bureau and
in other seperations.
"If I let them take that away, that would mean the terrorists had won one more thing," he said.
"People are going to feel guilty celebrating," said Robert Butterworth, a trauma psychologist in Los Angeles. "The response that we've been conditioned to is sadness and anger."
Now, some of them are wondering if there is an appropriate way to celebrate on a date that evokes thoughts of mass destruction and death. Others are considering ways to avoid the date.
Some people said they were simply too close to the catastrophe to think about celebrating.
"I will never have another birthday," said Marie Hoerner of Port Richey, Fla., whose son, Ronald Hoerner, was killed in the World Trade Center.
She and her husband had traveled to New York to be with their newlywed son on Sept. 11, her 84th birthday.
"In the morning he said to me, 'Mom, later on when I come the four of us will go out for your birthday dinner.' He kissed me on the cheek and said, 'I'll call you.'
Leah Vidal, a New York City actress who turned 31 the day the twin towers collapsed, doesn't think the national memory will ever fade.
"I was of two minds about the fact that it was happening on my birthday," she said. "One was that it was a very silly thing to be thinking about. The other was that I took it very personally. 'This is my birthday, I can believe they did this to me on my birthday.'"