Let's Compare Dinner Notes, Shall We?
Clinton 'Dinner Scandal' Faux Pales in Contrast to Real Dinner Crimes Committed by Bush Administration
by Tamara Baker
Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2000 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA (AmpolNS) -- Well, we knew it couldn't last long.
Newsweek, the folks that along with their sister organization The Washington Post gave us CoupGate, have apparently decided that Gore is doing too well and that Dubya needs saving from himself, so they've created yet another FauxGate, this one involving Al's boss, Bill Clinton - quel horreur! - inviting his friends! and donors! to have dinner! at the White House!
Here's the horrifying scoop: Newsweek found that at a White House State dinner on Sunday night, "nearly...one of every six guests at the dinner in honor of Indian Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpayee had written a check to boost Hillary's Senate bid."
Wow! Clintons have dinner with friends and donors and honored guests at White House! Sun rises in East!
The fine people over at Salon's Table Talk were quick to point out that, as usual, Newsweek's newest Clinton-related FauxGate involved no illegal or unethical activity whatsoever on the Clintons' part. Ironically enough, however, an enterprising Table Talker with access to LexisNexis2 found this little ditty using the search terms "Bush campaign finance" :
The Washington Post
April 28, 1992, Tuesday
Final EditionPAGE A10
HEADLINE: Fund-Raiser Won't Be Coming to President's Dinner; Illinois Businessman, Accused of Coercing Donations, Met Earlier With Bush and Skinner
BYLINE: Charles R. Babcock, Ann Devroy, Washington Post Staff Writers
James R. Elliott won't be attending tonight's President's Dinner, the annual Republican fund-raising event at the Washington Convention Center, but the Illinois businessman and dinner co-chairman already has had a chance to mix with some of Washington's most powerful individuals.
Elliott, who was sued last week for allegedly coercing employees of his company to contribute to the dinner, was among a group of fund-raisers who met with President Bush in the Old Executive Office Building earlier this year. He and his attorney, former Illinois governor James R. Thompson, then met briefly with Chief of Staff Samuel K. Skinner in his White House office. Spokesmen for Elliott and Skinner said yesterday that nothing of substance was discussed. Elliott is a convicted felon whose relationship with a bank is being investigated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Now isn't that interesting?
Poppy Bush, he of the Iran-Contra and IraqGate pardons, he whose son talks loads about 'honor and dignity' (that is, when he's not saying stupid things around allegedly dead microphones), had as one of his major donors and dinner buddies a guy, James R. Elliott, who is not only a convicted felon, but was sued for trying to force his employees to attend fundraising dinners for the then-President Bush.
But wait! There's more!
This year's President's Dinner, expected to raise more than $7 million, has become a focus for criticism that the White House is being "auctioned" to the highest corporate bidders.
The literature for the dinner makes clear that fund-raisers will receive more benefits -- such as a seat at a choice table with a high-ranking Republican official -- as they sell more tickets. Those who raise $92,000, for example, get a picture with the president. Dinner spokesman Rich Galen said he was unsure if another top donor, Michael Kojima -- whose Los Angeles firm donated $400,000 -- would attend the dinner. Others who contributed to the dinner committee, according to a recent public filing, include General Motors Chairman Robert C. Stempel, oil man T. Boone Pickens's Mesa Limited Partnership and James M. Fail, controversial owner of several Texas savings and loans, who was accused of racketeering in a suit last week by the state of Arizona.
You must understand, folks: The GOP and its press allies love to engage in projection. The accuse Democrats of committing horrible things, when in reality the Democrats' hands are clean and the Republicans' hands are filthy dirty with the stains of the very sins they accuse the Democrats of committing. But I digress.
In addition, several companies and trade groups made hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of "in-kind" donations of food, liquor, hotel and limousine service; $84,346 worth of equipment came from CompuAdd computer company of Austin, Tex. Jim McAvoy, a spokesman for Elliott, said he advised Elliott, the head of Cherry Payment Systems, a credit card processing company, not to attend so he wouldn't be "caught up in a media circus."
This is just too precious for words.
So there it is, folks. Next time somebody else tries to create another phony dinner table scandal around the Clintons, just bring up this little blast from the past to remind them what real scandals were like, back in the Reagan-Bush years.