Executive Slumber Party

The White House Sleep-over Guest List

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  • Don’t think you’ve got the clout to stay over at the White House? There’s plenty of Lincoln Bedrooms for the Rest of Us!

    Last month, the White House released a list of people who had been overnight guests of the Clintons between 1993 and 1996. These visitors were divided into five categories*, handily accompanied by descriptions in order to illuminate the nature of their relationship with the first family.

    View the full list or view the guest lists by category:

    Category Description Number of Guests
    Arkansas Friends “Persons whom the President or First Lady met as part of their lives in Arkansas or in conjunction with persons with Arkansas relationships and their accompanying guests (e.g., nannies, etc.)”

    Ed. Note: …and their maids and personal assistants and chauffeurs and…

    370
    Longtime Friends “Persons who are not from Arkansas whom the President or First Lady met in grade school, high school, college, law school and prior to the 1992 campaign and their accompanying guests”

    Ed. Note: Met the Clintons before they started hitting everyone up for donations.

    155
    Friends and Supporters “Persons that the President or First Lady came to know during or after the 1992 Campaign and their accompanying guests”

    Ed. Note: The Clintons just like them for their money.

    111
    Public Officials and Dignitaries “Former and current public office holders, Clergy, World Leaders, children of former Presidents, and their accompanying guests” 128
    Arts and Letters “Persons whom the President or First Lady met through the individuals’ professional activities in the arts, literature, and American culture and their accompanying guests”

    Ed. Note: Spielberg and Streisand are always good for a few bucks…

    67

    Interested in the dates of these visits? So were we, but the administration is keeping its lips zipped. Sleep-over dates are recorded in White House entry logs or “waves” records maintained by the Secret Service. So far, the White House has not been willing to release the full logs, but Ann Miller in the White House Communications Office says that specific requests for individual dates will be honored, “if there’s a newsworthy reason. We’ve answered some and said no to others.” Think one up, and make your request at (202) 456-2640.

    While you’re perusing the list, remember that despite these visitors’ close access to the President, and the extensive media attention to their stays at the White House, most of them weren’t financial heavy hitters. Our continuing coverage of campaign finance will let you know who really had Clinton’s ear (via his pocketbook). Watch for this year’s MoJo 400 to find out who the top contributors were.

    View the full White House Sleep-over Guest List

    *Names from two additional categories, “Chelsea’s Friends” (72 guests) and “Family” (35 guests) — referring to “relatives of the Clintons and their accompanying guests” — were not provided.

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    THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

    At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

    It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

    But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

    So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

    The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

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