by Charles Memminger
Friday, October 25, 1996
I have just one question about the convicted drug dealer who was able to weasel himself into the White House and pose for pictures with Hillary Clinton and the vice president: Where was Craig Livingstone at the time? White House photo op
was bad exposureAh. You've already forgotten Craig Livingstone. I'll remind you. He was the chubby hick who was in charge of White House personnel security. He's the genius who gathered more than 700 FBI personal files of people who, curiously, mainly turned out to be Republicans.
The rationale for having the files was that not just anyone can be allowed to chow down with the prez and hobnob in the Lincoln Room. Background checks have to be made so that White House security knows which guests will be allowed steak knives at dinner and which will have to wrestle their filet with a butter knife and spoon.
That makes a certain amount of sense. There's a lot of wackos in the general Washington, D.C., area. The White House itself acts kind of like a nut magnet.
What was fishy with the Livingstone affair was that he screened mainly Republicans, including many who had been in the White House numerous times. And when things get fishy enough in Washington, someone slaps the term "gate" to the proceedings and heads have to roll. So, the fishy Livingstone episode became "Filegate" and the corpulent doofus was quietly sent packing to Presidential Scandal Footnote Land.
Now it turns out that a sleazy large-scale cocaine dealer named Jorge Cabrera had absolutely no trouble sliding into the White House to hang in the country's premiere 'hood. His ticket inside was a $20,000 donation to the Democratic National Committee.
Ordinarily, this wouldn't be too surprising. After all, Clinton has turned the White House into a glorified Motel 6. If you contribute enough money to his campaign, you even get to spend the night. I suspect there's even a rate card: $10,000 (Light snack on the veranda); $19,000 (Dinner and photo with the president); $20,000 (Dinner and photo with the First Lady); $50,000 (One Night Sleep-over); $100,000 (One Night Sleep-over In Sleeping Bag at Foot of Bill and Hillary's Bed); $250,000 ... well, you don't want to know.
So what? If people gave me lots of money, I'd let them sleep at my house, too.
BUT my question is where was that hotshot security guy Livingstone when Cabrera's name came up as a White House guest? Even a rookie police reporter from a Arkansas weekly newspaper could have checked the court records and found out that this guy was a convicted drug dealer. And Livingstone had the entire Justice Department at his fingertips.
This is the kind of thing that really irritates conspiracy theorists. You know, the kind of guys who scrawl on telephone poles: "I'm being followed by the CIA. They have planted a computer chip in my brain."
We've grown up thinking that at least the sneaky, spying part of our government works. We assume that there's a file on all of us somewhere. Then it turns out that not only is the government incapable of spying on all of us, it can't even screen known criminals from sitting down to dinner with the president. Instead of spooky agents lurking around every corner, we have boobs like Livingstone watching the front door.
I mean if you can't stop a guy like Cabrera with a felony paper trail running from here to San Quentin what chance do you have stopping a terrorist with a clever cover?
I'm just really disappointed. You'd think that after serial killer and part-time clown John Wayne Gacy posed for photos with First Lady Rosalynn Carter, the White House Cafe and Motor Lodge would at least raise its prices to attract a better class of criminal.
