White House releases visitors list

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The White House released records of 481 visitors Friday in what it called an unprecedented step in "government transparency."

The list includes a wide range of lobbyists, labor leaders, lawmakers, executives and activists, along with some marquee Hollywood names who visited the executive mansion between Jan. 20 and July 31.

As President Barack Obama tried to jump-start the economy, numerous Wall Street executives and bankers' representatives visited, The Hill reported. They included John Mack, head of Morgan Stanley; Vikram Pandit, head of Citigroup; Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs; and Edward Yingling, head of the American Bankers Association.

Lobbyists Steve Elmendorf of Elmendorf Strategies and Tony Podesta of the Podesta Group visited.

Former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., showed up 11 times. He met with administration officials Larry Summers, Rahm Emmanuel and others. Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman and 2004 presidential candidate, stopped by to see senior White House adviser David Axelrod.

Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union, came to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. at least 19 times and met with Obama five times, The Washington Post reported.

The list includes only those visitors about whom a specific request was made on the Whitehouse.gov Web site since last month. In December, the White House said it would release all visitor records.

"Today marks a major milestone in government transparency," Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, wrote in a posting on the White House blog.

The White House also rolled out the red carpet for the likes of George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington and Serena Williams.

Others who visited had famous names but not fame (or infamy). The Jeremiah Wright is not the Chicago preacher who caused a fuss during Obama's campaign. The Michael Jordan is not the basketball great. The William Ayers is not the former member of the Weathermen. The Michael Moore is not the filmmaker.