WASHINGTON -- President Bush's first big fund-raiser since he won the White House - which included a bonus visit to the vice president's mansion for top donors - has Democrats reminding the GOP what it said about Clinton-era fund-raising tactics.
In advance of the Tuesday night extravaganza, expected to take in more than $20 million, watchdog groups and Democrats criticized a warm-up gathering that Republicans staged Monday night at Vice President Dick Cheney's residence for 400 big donors.
These critics said use of the government-provided mansion paralleled the Clinton administration's White House coffees.
"Now we have a better idea of what President Bush meant when he talked about restoring honor and dignity to the White House," said Phil Schilero, staff director for the Democratic minority on the House Government Reform Committee.
The committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Henry Waxman of California, urged a congressional inquiry of the use of the vice president's residence, complaining to the committee's chairman, Rep. Dan Burton (R-Indiana), that "you investigated (fund-raising activities) vigorously during the Clinton administration."
Waxman said Burton had not responded to an earlier Waxman request to delve into recent GOP fund-raising practices.
The Republican National Committee quietly added the Monday night Cheney reception to a money-raising drive that culminates with the highly publicized gala featuring Bush.
Fund-raising watchdogs said Cheney's use of the mansion for the dinner was no different from President Clinton's use of the White House or the use of the vice presidential home for events during the 1996 presidential campaign. The Clinton-Gore coffees became the focus of Republican-led congressional inquiries.
Legislation that would outlaw the large, mostly unregulated "soft money" donations that major party fund-raising events attract has cleared the Senate, but the House has yet to act on its own version.
Cheney spokeswoman Juleanna Glover Weiss referred all questions on the Cheney event to the Republican National Committee, which paid for it.
"This is not a fund-raiser," said RNC spokesman Trent Duffy, although "many if not most" contributors invited to Cheney's residence ``are major donors of $100,000 or more."
"A fund-raiser is an event where there is a contribution expected as a result of attendance," said Duffy.
In this case, the GOP donors already gave, or agreed to give.
At the time donors signed up for Tuesday night's presidential gala, "they did not know about this reception" with Cheney, said Duffy.
Jeff Cronin, spokesman for the watchdog group Common Cause, scoffed.
"The tactics are reminiscent of the Clinton era coffees, but so are the excuses," said Cronin. "To claim that this isn't a fund-raiser just because checks aren't changing hands is not credible.
"By that definition, Gore's attendance at the Buddhist Temple event was not attendance at a fund-raiser," said Cronin.
The Bush presidential campaign vigorously criticized Gore last fall for his insistence that he didn't realize he was attending a fund-raiser when he went to a Buddhist Temple "community outreach" event in Southern California where tens of thousands of dollars in illegal donations were funneled to the Democratic Party.
"I don't think there's any comparison" between the Cheney event and the Clinton White House coffees, said Duffy. "President Clinton personally authorized the use of coffees, and there were dollar amounts for each event that he authorized."
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., a vocal critic during the Clinton-Gore years, defended the GOP event. "I'm sure it's being done in an appropriate way, or Dick Cheney wouldn't be doing it," Lott said Monday.
