Hill Takes Heat For House Parties

Hillary Rodham Clinton is involved in a "blatant abuse of power" by having Senate campaign contributors stay over at the White House or the Camp David presidential retreat, Republican rival Rick Lazio's campaign manager said Friday.

"History is again repeating itself and has reached a new low," said Bill Dal Col.

"The use of the Lincoln Bedroom and Camp David as accommodations for campaign 'supporters' is nothing less than a taxpayer-funded abuse of power, and is yet another example of why New Yorkers can't trust Hillary Clinton," Dal Col said.

Meanwhile, the Republican Leadership Council, which has spent heavily on anti-Clinton television advertising in New York, said Friday it would halt such efforts if the first lady agreed to sign Lazio's pledge to bar soft money from the campaign.

The congressman waved the pledge in front of Clinton's face during their first debate Wednesday night in Buffalo. She refused to sign it and continues to insist that Lazio get signed pledges from at least 14 outside groups, such as the RLC, that they will not run such independent ads before she will sign the pledge.

The actions served to continue pressure on the first lady's campaign over its fund-raising efforts.

The most recent filings with the Federal Election Commission show Lazio had $10.2 million on hand as of the end of August, while the first lady had $7.1 million. That does include the millions of dollars in soft money she has also raised through other committees.

Dal Col said that in addition to releasing the names of recent overnight guests at the White House and Camp David - something the White House has agreed to do - the Clinton campaign should "list the amount of dollars Mrs. Clinton's guests have contributed to campaign committees, and to stop this blatant abuse of power."

On Thursday, the fist lady said campaign contributors have been invited to such sleepovers, but denied any quid-pro-quo involving invitations in return for money.

"We have friends and supporters come and spend time with us and spend the night with us that we are getting to know and who like spending time with us," she said. "I don't see what's news about that."

The Clinton administration was criticized after the 1996 re-election campaign for inviting big donors to spend the night.

"The Lincoln Bedroom was never sold," Clinton said in 1997, when aides released a list of 938 guests who had spent the night at the White House to that point in the Clinton presidency. The list included political supporters, as well as entertainment luminaries and old Clinton friends.

In offering to bow out of New York's Senate race, the RLC's executive director, Mark Miller, said, "Mrs. Clinton has a personal credibility problem because she often says one thing and does another. With our offer today, Mrs. Clinton has the opportunity to prove she's not a hypocrite."

The RLC, which includes New York Gov. George Pataki among its leadership, has already spent about $1 million on anti-Clinton ads.

"It means one down, 13 to go," Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said. "Now it's time for Mr. Lazio to show real leadership and get the rest of his allies to sign on the dotted line and agree to stop their negative campaigns."

The Lazio camp is convinced Clinton has no intention of giving up soft money and that the demand for signed non-aggression statements from so many outside groups is proof of that.

"The Clinton campaign is addicted to soft money," Lazio said Thursday during a campaign stop in Rochester.

Responding to the RLC move, Lazio campaign spokesman Michael Marr said, "The heat just got turned up on Mrs. Clinton."

Marr said Clinton should also call on the "various left-wing outside groups that have already worked on behalf of her campaign to honor the pact." Marr cited the AFL-CIO and the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League as such groups.

Lazio has not been raising soft money for his Senate bid, but has not ruled out doing so if Clinton continues to use it.