Bush Aides Avoid Poverty

White House political adviser Karl Rove can dispense muffins at his bed and breakfast along with advice to the president while the incoming budget director, Joshua Bolten, can escape the dizzying zeros at his vacation home in Key West, Fla., when it's not rented.

The 2002 financial disclosure forms for President Bush's inner circle showed Monday that Rove, Bolten and other top aides are better off than most Americans. Similar reports issued recently about Senate and House members showed many of them also have big portfolios.

Rove owns the River Oaks Lodge Bed and Breakfast in Ingram, Texas, which earned him between $50,001 and $100,000 last year. Valued at $500,001 to $1 million, the bed and breakfast has a mortgage of $250,001 to $500,000. Rove also has mutual funds worth $700,000 to over $1.6 million.

Bolten, deputy chief of staff nominated to head the Office of Management and Budget, valued his Key West vacation home at $500,001 to $1 million. He earned between $15,001 and $50,000 in rent, with a mortgage of $250,001 to $500,000. He disclosed two investment funds with the same value range as the vacation property.

The administration's top economic adviser, Stephen Friedman, who was co-chairman of the Goldman Sachs investment firm, is also one of its richest.

Friedman, head of the National Economic Council listed more than $50 million in the Goldman Sachs Financial Square Federal Fund, which earned him between $100,001 and $1 million.

He sold Mosaic Group Stock, an investment that earned him more than $5 million, and made $5 million from the sale of Insight Capital Partners, which owned software and technology firms.

The disclosure forms only require reporting in broad ranges rather than precise amounts of investment income and values.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer received two expensive tickets to a Washington Wizards basketball game from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a value of $480. This more than doubled the $200 value he listed for a bowl signed by the president and first lady.

Fleisher's biggest investment was a Washington property valued between $100,001 and $250,000, earning him between $1,001 and $2,500 from a basement rental. No other investment was worth more than $50,000.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice received an extension to file her report.

Chief of Staff Andrew Card Jr. valued three of his mutual funds at between $100,001 and $250,000 each, one of them a retirement account. His largest investment income, $15,001 to $50,000, came from renting a two-family home in Holbrook, Mass. Income from his other investments earned less than $5,000.

Lewis Libby, assistant to the president and chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is better off than most White House staff members. He owns an investment of municipal bonds worth between $1 million and $5 million that earned interest between $100,001 and $1 million. He also listed a money market fund worth between $1 million and $5 million.

The president and vice president reported their finances in May.

Mr. Bush reported that his family had assets between $8.8 million and $21.9 million at the end of last year. Cheney valued his assets at between $19.1 million and $86.4 million.