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Reporting from Washington -
President Obama on Friday released a list of people who have visited the White House recently, and some of the most controversial names from his past are among them. But only the names.
Although a Jeremiah Wright did drop by, it wasn't that Jeremiah Wright -- just a guest who happened to have the same name as the president's controversial former pastor.
Same for William Ayers, a White House guest who was, according to the administration, not the former radical who caused such trouble for his friend and neighbor during the campaign.
That's the cautionary tale that accompanies the first release of the White House visitors' log -- at least as one of the president's lawyers presents it.
There's an "important lesson here," wrote Norm Eisen, Obama's special counsel for ethics and government reform, in a blog post on the White House website. "This unprecedented level of transparency can sometimes be confusing rather than providing clear information."
The names came to light in the release Friday of a partial list of people who have visited the White House, in keeping with a policy that administration officials announced over the summer to begin making the logs public. The White House released several hundred names; as many as 100,000 people visit the White House each month.
Initially, the Obama team followed the Bush administration practice of keeping the visitor lists secret. After the open-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed suit, however, Obama decided the records should be public.
By the end of this year, the White House will begin publishing complete logs of visitors who have visited since Sept. 15. Records of visits prior to that date will be available only in response to requests for specific names.
"There are heightened privacy concerns in this era," said Anne Weismann, chief counsel for CREW. "That said, we're talking about what's going on in the White House, the people's house, and this information can be important."
The documents released Friday show that union leaders have spent considerable time within the compound. National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy has been by several times. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and philanthropist George Soros have been frequent visitors, too.
Most of the results aren't surprising. Word of visits by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Afghan President Hamed Karzai, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, actors Hill Harper and George Clooney and tennis phenoms Serena and Venus Williams does not exactly make for a news flash.
Ah, but what of Michael Jordan and Michael Moore, whose names also showed up in the list?
Never mind them, Eisen wrote. They're not who you think they are.
"The well-known individuals with those names never actually came to the White House," he said. "Nevertheless, we were asked for those names and so we have included records for those individuals who were here and share the same names."
cparsons@latimes.com
Although a Jeremiah Wright did drop by, it wasn't that Jeremiah Wright -- just a guest who happened to have the same name as the president's controversial former pastor.
Same for William Ayers, a White House guest who was, according to the administration, not the former radical who caused such trouble for his friend and neighbor during the campaign.
That's the cautionary tale that accompanies the first release of the White House visitors' log -- at least as one of the president's lawyers presents it.
There's an "important lesson here," wrote Norm Eisen, Obama's special counsel for ethics and government reform, in a blog post on the White House website. "This unprecedented level of transparency can sometimes be confusing rather than providing clear information."
The names came to light in the release Friday of a partial list of people who have visited the White House, in keeping with a policy that administration officials announced over the summer to begin making the logs public. The White House released several hundred names; as many as 100,000 people visit the White House each month.
Initially, the Obama team followed the Bush administration practice of keeping the visitor lists secret. After the open-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed suit, however, Obama decided the records should be public.
By the end of this year, the White House will begin publishing complete logs of visitors who have visited since Sept. 15. Records of visits prior to that date will be available only in response to requests for specific names.
"There are heightened privacy concerns in this era," said Anne Weismann, chief counsel for CREW. "That said, we're talking about what's going on in the White House, the people's house, and this information can be important."
The documents released Friday show that union leaders have spent considerable time within the compound. National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy has been by several times. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and philanthropist George Soros have been frequent visitors, too.
Most of the results aren't surprising. Word of visits by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Afghan President Hamed Karzai, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, actors Hill Harper and George Clooney and tennis phenoms Serena and Venus Williams does not exactly make for a news flash.
Ah, but what of Michael Jordan and Michael Moore, whose names also showed up in the list?
Never mind them, Eisen wrote. They're not who you think they are.
"The well-known individuals with those names never actually came to the White House," he said. "Nevertheless, we were asked for those names and so we have included records for those individuals who were here and share the same names."
cparsons@latimes.com
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