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Monday, May 17, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Clinton's Las Vegas sojourn nets $400,000, but no golfing
The president's hectic schedule prevents him from fitting in a day on the links with a buddy from college.
By Jane Ann Morrison
Review-Journal
President Clinton's overnight trip to Las Vegas netted about $400,000 for the Democratic National Committee and capped a four-day trip that raised more than $3 million for the party.
Air Force One touched down at 5 p.m. Sunday, about half an hour behind schedule on Clinton's arrival from San Diego.
The best views of the president were from inside two gated communities in the Las Vegas Valley -- Canyon Gate and Quail Ridge Estates. The only unscheduled stop occurred when Clinton halted the motorcade for Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones, who spied her children waiting on a grassy knoll inside Canyon Gate as she rode with him in the presidential limousine to the second fund-raiser.
The motorcade stopped and a few Canyon Gate residents grabbed quick photos.
Outside Canyon Gate, about 50 protesters waved signs saying "Stop the bombing" and "Stop Wagging the Dog," a reference to the 1997 film in which a Hollywood producer stages a fake war in a European country to increase a president's popularity before an election.
Moments before, about 100 people had paid $1,000 each to drink champagne and nibble appetizers at the Canyon Gate home of Dr. Elias Ghanem, chairman of the Nevada Athletic Commission and a friend of Clinton and the president's late mother.
Regarding the killings in Littleton, Colo., and Kosovo, Clinton said, "What bedevils us most is the darkness of the heart, the fear of the other. ... When you strip it all away, it was, `You're different than me, I'm afraid of you. Therefore I don't like you.' "
"We can't stop every war," Clinton told his audience, as he stood in front of Ghanem's home media center with four television sets. "But on the eve of the 21st century, we won't tolerate mass killing based on religion, race and ethnicity."
About 30 others paid $25,000 a couple to dine with Clinton at the Quail Ridge Estates home of his Georgetown University undergraduate pal Brian Greenspun, editor of the Las Vegas Sun.
Clinton planned to stay overnight at Greenspun's home, but a golf game anticipated for this morning at Lake Las Vegas was scratched so Clinton could return to Washington, D.C., seven hours earlier than planned.
Aides said the president looked ahead to an overly full travel schedule for the week -- New York on Wednesday, Littleton on Thursday, Virginia on Saturday, and Grambling, La., on Sunday -- and decided he needed some more time in the office today.
Air Force One was scheduled to leave at 8 this morning from Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport.
In his speech at Ghanem's, Clinton mentioned his hectic pace in recent days, from his European trip to see U.S. troops, to this party fund-raising trip that started Friday in Seattle, then included three stops in California before Las Vegas.
He said he was "slightly disoriented" and joked that because he was in Las Vegas, he wished impressionist Rich Little could give his speech.
While the Ghanem crowd included the state Democratic hierarchy, the three Democratic members of the Nevada congressional delegation and Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, who is hoping to become a U.S. senator, it also included Republicans such as Las Vegas Councilman Larry Brown and Sig Rogich, former adviser to Presidents Reagan and Bush.
At Ghanem's, Clinton urged the party faithful to re-elect their Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley, but he was a bit more generic when referring to the seat Sen. Richard Bryan is giving up.
Clinton said to elect a Democrat, but he didn't name Del Papa, who has said she is running. Nor did he encourage votes for Greenspun, a Republican, who also is considering changing parties and running for the job.
The visit to Las Vegas was the sixth by Clinton since he became president.
This West Coast trip was a purely political trip and will be paid for by the Democratic National Committee, but DNC spokesman Rick Hess was unable to estimate how much the three-state trip cost the party. "It's worth our while to use him as our most effective fund-raiser," Hess said.
Clinton's second speech began at 10:40 p.m. after a salmon dinner catered by gourmet Wolfgang Puck. He sounded tired and the dinner-party crowd received a shorter talk than the cocktail crowd had earlier, and he delivered it with less emotion. However, he again touched on his theme that the fear of people who are different is behind the violence in Kosovo and Littleton.
Among the audience at Greenspun's was gaming executive Claudine Williams, lobbyist Harvey Whittemore and Polo Towers executive Steve Cloobeck, another Democrat considering a bid for the Senate.
In both events, Clinton urged the audience to support Democrats and stressed he wasn't saying this for his own benefit. "I'm not running for anything any more."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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