DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997           TAG: 9702270411

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Focus 

                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

LINCOLN DIDN'T SLEEP HERE, BUT. . .

Sources: The Washington Post, Associated Press

Photos

Guests Dick Lamm, Lillian Vernon and Wille Brown

ABE DIDN'T SLEEP HERE, BUT. . .

The Lincoln Bedroom has a storied history, even though Abraham

Lincoln never slept there: The king of England once stayed the

night.

Now, add to its pedigreed guest roster the 938 guests invited by

the Clintons to spend the night at the White House during the past

four years. The roster, released Tuesday, runs the gamut from

Hollywood neon to Little Rock neighbor.

Big financial donors and fund-raisers pop up repeatedly - not

coincidentally, critics say. Among them:

Movie director Steven Spielberg, who gave $200,000 to the

Democratic National Committee for the 1996 election.

Hollywood producer David Geffen, who donated $200,000 and raised

$1 million.

Lillian Vernon, a major Democratic Party donor and head of the

country's seventh-largest catalog retailer, which has a distribution

center in Virginia Beach.

Ron Burkle, a California grocery store executive who donated

$100,000 and raised more than $750,000, in addition to hosting a $12

million fund-raiser at his estate.

Dirk Ziff, a former publishing executive who donated $300,000

after having lunch with the president in October 1995.

Alan D. Solomont, a Boston nursing home executive, who gave more

than $120,000 personally and through his firm, and raised another

$750,000.

Even for the jaded and the politically connected, a White House

sleep-over remains something special. No five-star hotel can rival

the cachet of the Lincoln Bedroom. Some highlights:

Former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm got a 1 a.m. tutorial from Clinton

on the Chilean social security system. When Lamm awoke early the

next morning, he found Clinton had already slipped a memo and a

handwritten note under the bedroom door following up on their

discussion.

San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown thought the mattress in the

Lincoln Bedroom was too lumpy. ``I took everything - everything that

had `White House' on it,'' Brown confessed. (Actually, just some

stationery and a photo he shot of himself with a disposable camera.)

Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson said he and his wife chatted

about urban policy and golf over a low-fat dinner in the Clintons'

private quarters before settling into the Lincoln Bedroom. ``We

didn't see any ghosts, but it was very exciting,'' Abramson

reported.

David Leopoulos, an old Clinton friend from Arkansas, recalls

stumbling onto a hallway meeting between Clinton, Vice President Al

Gore and some senators when he wandered out of the Lincoln Bedroom

in his PJs in search of a midnight snack. ``For a little guy like

me, it's just a pretty awesome thing,'' Leopoulos allowed.

Victor Fleming, a municipal judge from Little Rock, and his wife

stopped by the White House to drop off their daughter for a visit

with Chelsea, the Clintons' daughter, and ended up spending the

night. Before turning in, he watched a basketball game with Clinton

and had a pizza delivered to the White House gates. ``It beats the

heck out of the Holiday Inn,'' he said.

Was it Illegal?

Entertaining political contributors at the White House would be

illegal if: A set price were charged for the visit.

Donations were solicited in the mansion.

President Clinton says there is evidence that either of those

conditions was met.

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