Both men attended intimate, separate coffees with the president in May 1996. Both men, or their businesses, also contributed relatively generously to 1996 campaigns - although not on the grand scale that has attracted national headlines.

Both men, however, say their White House visits had nothing to do with their contributions, and they saw nothing unseemly in the gatherings.

"Going into it or coming out of it, there was never any indication" that Clinton was asking for money, said Norma Wong, who worked with Waihee when he was governor and in his current job as a lawyer/lobbyist in the Honolulu office of Verner Liipfert Bernhard McPherson and Hand.

"There was no discussion of politics or fund-raising," said Gerry Keir, First Hawaiian's senior vice president for corporate communications, referring to Dods' meeting with Clinton. "It was a bunch of bankers invited to discuss bank-related issues."

Clinton and the Democratic National Committee hosted about 1,500 business and civic leaders at some 100 White House coffee klatches during the 18 months before the election.

The coffees, like the White House sleep-overs, have been criticized as crass fund-raising tools, with critics noting that many of the guests wound up giving generously to Clinton and other Democrats.

"People don't expect the White House to be used for this sort of purpose," said Bill Hogan, director of investigative projects for the Center for Public Integrity, a government watchdog group.

White House aides, although insisting no solicitations were made and therefore no laws broken, have conceded that even the president viewed the visits as a way of courting donors.

During the 1995-96 election cycle, the former governor donated $6,184 to Verner Liipfert's political action committee, according to FEC records. Verner Liipfert is one of the capital's top lobbying firms, and its PAC handed out hundreds of thousands of dollars to federal candidates and party campaign committees, according to the FEC.

The DNC alone received $92,800, FEC records show, although Republican committees and candidates also got contributions.

Waihee was out of the country and could not be reached for comment. But Wong said it is a regular practice of Verner shareholders to donate money to the firm's PAC.

The ABA, in turn, parceled out $1.3 million to congressional candidates, according to the FEC.

Dods' First Hawaiian, meanwhile, made campaign contributions through its own PACs, including $5,000 to the DNC, $5,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, $2,500 to Bunda and $2,400 to Rep. Neil Abercrombie.

First Hawaiian's Keir said campaign contributions are nothing new for the bank.

"Over the years, First Hawaiian has contributed to political campaigns, and to both parties," said Keir.

Other guests included Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, presidential counselor Thomas "Mack" McLarty and 16 top executives from banks across the nation.

The meeting was criticized last month by consumer activists, including Ralph Nader, who said it might have influenced decisions by federal bank regulators.

powered coffee klatch on May 2. The guests included Clinton and a dozen other state officeholders, union chiefs and leaders of ethnic organizations.

According to Wong, the invitation was extended to Waihee as a former governor. During the gathering, she said, the president and his guests discussed Congress, the economy and the presidential campaign.

"The discussion was very general in nature," she said.

Waihee, who has known Clinton since both were governors, was also one of the 938 guests identified last week as having spent the night in the Clinton White House. Waihee and his wife, Lynne, spent a night in the Lincoln Bedroom early in 1993 while they were here attending a National Governors' Association meeting, according to Wong.

"He was invited as one of the Democratic governors, someone who played a role in the campaign and as a personal friend," said Wong. Asked about the governor's sleep-over, Wong said Waihee had found the bed "lumpy."

"It's clearly been established that these were fund-raising events, part of the Democrats' fund-raising strategy," said Paul Hendri of the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington think tank that tracks money and politics. "They probably managed to stay within the law on these things, but it raises the question of whether it is appropriate for the president to be doing this."