White House Literally Closing Its Doors to American Citizens

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May 13, 2001

White House Is Denying Pulling In Welcome Mat

By ELAINE SCIOLINO

WASHINGTON, May 12 — At the height of a blockbuster tourist season in the nation's capital, Carl Patterson, the supervisor of the bus drivers at Martz Gray Line, is not a happy man. He just cannot seem to get the tourists on his buses into the Bush White House.

"Up until this administration, we normally got 8 to 10 busloads of tourists into the White House four, five times a week," Mr. Patterson said. "Now we're lucky if we get one in once a week. Today we needed 80 tickets; we got 10. I got drivers who have been here 30, 35 years and all they talk about is how the White House is letting fewer people in.

"It's just not right. We are the people and that is our house."

Without a friend in the White House or a link with one's congressman, getting into the president's mansion has always been a test of patience and endurance. Between 10 a.m. and noon, Tuesdays through Saturdays, the White House is open to the public, provided it has not been closed to accommodate an official event. There have never been enough tickets to go around.

But new procedures imposed by the Bush White House have fueled the impression among people in the tourist trade that it is simply harder for ordinary Americans to get in.

Senior White House officials acknowledge that they have been trying to regulate and decommercialize White House visits. To that end, they say, they are encouraging prospective visitors to avoid organized tours.

They recommend that visitors get their feet in the front door by standing in line at the White House Visitors' Center (the line sometimes starts before 5 a.m.) or by contacting their representatives in Congress, who receive tickets for guided tours for their constituents. (The public tours are unguided.)

The decision "to crack down," as one White House official put it, was made by Joseph Hagin, the deputy chief of staff; the White House Visitors' Office; and Hector Irastorza, deputy assistant to the president for management and administration.

White House officials also said that they wanted the last visitor out by 12:30 p.m., whereas on slow days the Clinton administration sometimes allowed visitors to pour through until 2 p.m. White House officials say that the Clinton White House might have given out more tickets to visitors than the Bushes do, but it then sometimes arbitrarily cut off access with no advance notice.

So are the Bushes less welcoming than the Clintons were? The White House strongly denies it, providing figures from the National Park Service to show that the number of visitors to the Bush White House in the first months of this year is comparable to the number of visitors in the last two years of the Clinton administration. Bush administration officials also assert that all they are trying to do is make visits to the White House more pleasurable and less commercial.

"The White House welcomes large numbers of visitors, consistent with previous administrations," said the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer. "The tours are free. We discourage the practice of having vendors or outside groups make a profit by charging unsuspecting tourists, including any tour that would charge money for access to the White House even as part of a larger tour."

That sort of statement enrages tour operators. "How on earth do we profit on it?" asked Ginny Moser, a tour guide and former president of the Guild of Professional Tour Guides of Washington, a private organization of 500 guides. "We're not buying and selling tickets. We're talking about busloads of kids who get out of their hotels and to the White House by 5:30 a.m. who can't get in. We know that this new administration has cut down on the number of tickets for the public. We're the citizens, and all of a sudden the White House has clammed up."

To demonstrate that the White House had not closed its doors to the public, officials there released figures from the Park Service. In April, for example, an average of 4,057 people a day took the public tour, compared with 4,208 the year before. In March, an average 3,631 a day took the public tour, compared with 3,644 the year before. In all cases, some tourists were guests of the White House who did not have to get tickets and were put at the front of the line.

In May 2000, the numbers were higher: an average of 4,670 people took the public tour each day; in June, 4,404 people; and in July, 4,346.

Rachel Frantum, the manager of the President's Park, as the Park Service calls the White House, said the service recently began a system of giving about 2,300 tickets a day to the public. "The process is more consistent than what it was in the past, and we know two weeks in advance how many tickets we're going to have," Ms. Frantum said in an interview. "Before, it was not consistent. I don't want to say it was haphazard, but it was different each day."

Ms. Frantum confirmed that in this administration, "the White House is cleared by 12:30." Another White House official said that this administration put a high premium on punctuality and was trying harder to honor times stamped on the tickets than the Clintons did.

"It used to be a cattle call; hurry, hurry, hurry, get through it," the official said. "There is definitely a difference."

Clare Pritchett, director of the White House Visitors' Office, declined to be interviewed.

Tour operators would certainly agree that this administration is tougher on them than previous administrations were.

"It used to be if you were in the visitors' line at 11:59, you got in," said Carol Bessette, a tour operator who teaches a class on White House history and works with Elderhostel Inc., a nonprofit travel organization for people over 55. "Now word has come through our guild that the line often is cut off at 10:30. I now tell my seniors groups not even to bother with the White House."

-- GOP Pulls Out Welcome Mat (go@home.com), May 14, 2001

Answers

"the White House is cleared by 12:30."

sure, that's georgie's nap time. can't have all those noisy people wandering about when he's tryin' to sleep.

-- (it's@OUR.house), May 14, 2001.


"It's just not right. We are the people and that is our house."

But, GW Bush already knows he didn't need "the people" to get into the White House - all he needed was 271 electoral votes. He proved to the world that it's their house, not ours.

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), May 14, 2001.


Little Nipper said "baa baa baa baa baa baa". Intelligent folks reply "stop regurgigating the Democrats.com pablum".

-- dem zombies (follow@your.leader), May 14, 2001.

Repuligoon Nazis won't be bothered by anything Dumbya does, as long as he doesn't try to restrict their freedom to kill others. When it gets to the point where that is the only thing we can legally do, then they're going to wish like hell they could get their freedoms back.

-- (democrats are @ better. shooters), May 14, 2001.

Hey Dem - boy do you have your head way up in your ass. Ya breathe in shit and spew forth shit. Your a regular little nazi whore repug! You repugs really suck! Why not go kill yourself?

-- Tony Baloney (Fuck you@repugs.com), May 14, 2001.


Can anybody translate Idiot to English? I doubt Tony had anything important to say, but I'll need a translation just to be sure.

-- dem zombies (follow@your.leader), May 14, 2001.

hmmmm....dem you are as dumb as your twit leader dumbya. I will put it simple (in idiotese) for you. Take a gun, load it, stick it in your ass and blow your fucking head off! bwaaaahaaaa bwaaahaaaaa repugs are so fucking stupid it hurts! Make them stop!! bwaaaahaaaa bwaaahaaaaaa!

-- Tony Baloney (Fuck the@repugs.com), May 15, 2001.

Hey Tony Baloney,

Did you miss your welfare check today, you dumbshit entitlement- sucking worthless pile of dogmeat.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), May 15, 2001.


Tony Baloney is a Conservative troll. Keep it up guy, you're doing a great job.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), May 15, 2001.

I believe in being fiscally conservative and socially liberal. As far as being a troll Lars - what you say is what you are. (learned that from the seven year old). Here's another one from the seven year old, "loser, loser dumbya loser, get the picture duh!" or how about, "Fuck you and the gas guzzlin SUV you rode in on!" bwaaaahaaaa!

-- Tony Baloney (Fuck the@repugs.com), May 15, 2001.


Take a gun, load it, stick it in your ass and blow your fucking head off! bwaaaahaaaa bwaaahaaaaa

Tony sounds like Mr. Polly.

-- (MrPolly@we.miss.you), May 15, 2001.


Tony sounds like a sheep - baaaaaaaaaa

-- dem zombies (follow@your.leader), May 15, 2001.

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