White House visitor logs show up famous names

October 31, 2009 10:26:12 AM

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Did Barack Obama's controversial ex-pastor Jeremiah Wright visit the White House? Or did the great Michael Jordan shoot some hoops with the president on his basketball court?

The answer to both questions is no.

But those famous names, and others, were thrown up in an exercise in government transparency Friday, when the Obama administration released the first 500 names on a list of the 100,000 people cleared to visit the White House every year.

Though the administration touted the release as evidence of "transparency like you’ve never seen before," the list did spark confusion, as some people with famous names were listed on the visitor logs.

The White House said several "false positives" of people saddled with famous names were on the list of 500 guest entrances to the White House, including that of one Jeremiah Wright.

The famous Wright caused uproar during Obama's campaign when tapes of incendiary sermons emerged. Another false positive was 1960s radical William Ayers, who opponents tried to link with Obama during his candidacy.

Other near misses for famous people included Jordan, liberal film director Michael Moore and rapper Robert Kelly ("R. Kelly").

"The well-known individuals with those names never actually came to the White House," said Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform.

"There’s an important lesson here as well. This unprecedented level of transparency can sometimes be confusing rather than providing clear information," he said.

But several famous people did seem to be listed in the records as bona fide White House visitors, including chat show queen Oprah Winfrey, who was cleared in on January 20, the day of Obama's inauguration.

And Al Gore, the former vice president is shown with four clearances to visit the place he used to work, though not to see the president.

Hollywood star George Clooney is listed as having been cleared through the White House gates. Clooney visited the administration in February to lobby for more action on Darfur.

Poignantly the released names also include some of what were the last visits to the White House of Senator Edward Kennedy, the veteran Democrat and friend of Obama, who died in August.

The logs also reveal several visits from leading players on the financial industry, as the Obama administration sought to rescue the struggling sector from collapse.

Edward Yingling, chairman of the American Bankers Association made several visits to the White House -- which had already been made public.

Several top bank CEOs also visit the presidential mansion for meetings along with political players like Service Employees International Union president Andrew Stern and Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women.

The White House said in September it would open its visitors' books for the first time, posting online the names of almost most everyone who comes calling.

An exception will be visitors whose appointments cannot be disclosed because of national security imperatives or their necessarily confidential nature -- such as a visit by a possible Supreme Court nominee.

Critics have accused successive administrations of secrecy and of concealing from the public the names of lobbyists and other political players influencing policy.

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