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Clinton's Last Junket? - Editorial
05/31/00
The President is going to Portugal, and bringing a slew of staff with him. Is this a reasonable trip, or a big old junket?
A source on the Hill passed along the following press release from the White House. It announces an upcoming presidential trip to Portugal, with a listing of the staff accompanying him.
On looking through the listing of staffers attending the trip (below, left), it starts to look awfully long for a simple trip to Portugal. Not trying to knock Portugal here, but it's not exactly Moscow in terms of its geopolitical importance (a dagger pointed at the heart of Gibraltar?). There are nearly 60 staffers going on this trip, including a lot of titles of "special assistant" that do sound quite official. (Though I'm reminded of a recent "X-Files" episode in which FBI special agent Dana Sculley yells at a suspect "Stop, Special Agent!", and the lady looks at her and responds "What's so special about YOU?").
Having said that, the trip does have some pretty important components. While in Portugal, Clinton is meeting the leadership of the European
Union to talk about trade and defense issues. And after Portugal, the
President will then be going to Moscow to meet with Russian President
Vladimir Putin, on Sunday. It's fair to say that both meetings are
important, and therefore the President should be well-staffed.
There's an interesting issue here in that our
government officials, in Congress and the
Executive Branch, write and/or implement
legislation that affects domestic policy,
foreign policy and international trade. We
certainly want our government officials to
have first-hand experience taking legitimate
fact-finding tours to better inform
government policy.
But the problem arises on two accounts.
First, if the trip is paid for by a private
entity or foreign government, concerns
about bias arise. Is that company, or government, hoping to curry favor
with the official? But if we had a blanket policy where the government
paid for all the trips, we might have a situation where no one went on any
trips (in order to be able to say they aren't wasting taxpayer money), but
under that scenario our government officials might miss legitimate trips
they need to assess what's really going on in, say, the Middle East. Or
we might get a situation where the bums still took all the trips they
wanted, and simply charged them to the taxpayers, which also stinks.
As for this specific trip to Portugal, it sounds rather important, and the
President certainly needs his "people" with him. But presidential trips,
along with congressional travel delegations, always seem to have large
contingents of aides assigned to them, whether they're going to Moscow
or simply Minneapolis (no offense, Minneapolis). Do officials in
Washington really need THAT many people assisting them on a trip -
there are 60, after all, going with Clinton to Portugal and Russia? And
how do we decide when a certain number is too many?
I figured I'd do a quick Web search and find out what other celebrated
federal government junkets have taken place over the last few years. I
have to say I was surprised that I could find almost no information on
junkets on the Web. Other than an article here or there, none of the large
government watchdog Web sites appear to have special sections on
junkets, or else I simply couldn't find them (please let me know if you find
any, I'll post them here).
Below is the official White House press release, and a table at right of a
few other congressional junkets I found on the Web.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Lisbon, Portugal)
____________________
For Immediate Release May 29,
2000
OFFICIAL DELEGATION
ACCOMPANYING THE
PRESIDENT TO PORTUGAL
Official Delegation
The President
Ambassador Gerald S. McGowan,
U.S. Ambassador to Portugal
Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State
William Daley, Secretary of Commerce
Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky,
United States Trade Representative
Representative Patrick Kennedy
Steve Ricchetti, Assistant to the
President and Deputy Chief of Staff
Samuel Berger, Assistant to the
President for National Security Affairs
Bruce Lindsey, Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President
Joseph Lockhart, Assistant to the President and Press Secretary
Connie Mariano, Physician to the President
Loretta Ucelli, Assistant to the President and Director of
Communications
Susan Esserman, Deputy United States Trade Representative
Elaine Shocas, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State
David Lane, Chief of Staff,
Department of Commerce
Alan P. Larson, Under Secretary of State for Economic and Business
Affairs, Department of State Mary Mel French, Chief of Protocol
Richard L. Morningstar, U.S.
Ambassador to the European Union
Richard Boucher, Spokesman,
Department of State
James Steinberg, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Douglas Band, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Advance
Lael Brainard, Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Policy and Deputy
Director of the National Economic Council
James Kennedy, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Press
Secretary
Jennifer Palmieri, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary
Lieutenant General Donald L.
Kerrick, USA, Senior Military Advisor to the Secretary of State
Antony Blinken, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs, National Security Council
Travelling Staff
Brooke D. Anderson, Special
Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Communications,
National Security
Council Nanda Chitre, Special Assistant to the President and Assistant Press Secretary
Philip J. Crowley, Special Assistant to the President, Deputy Press
Secretary and Senior Director of Public Affairs, National Security
Council
Heather Davis, Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Presidential Scheduling
Julie Eddy, Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Presidential Scheduling
Anne Edwards, Special Assistant to the President and Director, Press
Advance
Kirk Hanlin, Special Assistant to the President and Trip Director
Marisa Luzzatto, Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director
of Advance
Tomasz Malinowski, Special Assistant to the President and Senior
Director for Foreign Policy Speechwriting, National Security Council
Edward Widmer, Special Assistant to the President and Director for
Speechwriting, National Security Council
Charles Ries, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European
Affairs
Charles Duncan, Director, Office of White House Liaison, Department of
State
John Duncan, State Department Liaison to the National Security Council
for the APEC/WTO Task Force
Hal Shapiro, Senior Advisor for International Economic Policy, National
Economic Council
Suzanne George, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State
Wendy Arends, Director of Surrogate Scheduling, Cabinet Affairs
Mark Bernstein, Director of Press Pool Operations
Jeannie Bull, Director, Office of Presidential Travel Support, Department
of State
Cynthia Gire, Director for Strategic Planning and Advance, National
Security Council
Michael Hammer, Assistant Press Secretary for Foreign Affairs and
Director for Public Affairs, National Security Council
Tom Rosshirt, Director for Speechwriting, National Security Council
Hoyt Yee, Director for European Affairs, National Security Council
Justin Coleman, Associate Staff Secretary
Sheba Crocker, Executive Assistant to the Deputy Assistant to the
President for National Security Affairs
Penny Price, Protocol Gifts Officer
Laura Marcus, Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff
Sarah Gegenheimer, Assistant Press Secretary
Betty Currie, Personal Secretary to the President
Kris Engskov, President's Aide
Christine Anderson, White House Press Office Manager
Jason Schechter, Special Assistant to the Press Secretary
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