Pro-Con: Are the newly released White House visitor logs useful? Yes

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The White House visitors’ logs released Friday afternoon represent just those names about whom inquiries had been made at Whitehouse.gov.

Within the narrow confines of those 481 names released, one can catch glimpses of the world of celebrity — George Clooney! Oprah! Denzel! Brad Pitt! Serena Williams! — and also weigh the clout of movers and shakers in D.C.

The big winner in the latter group: labor leader Andy Stern of the Service Employees International Union, who visited the White House 19 times. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka visited seven times. Power-lobbyists Tony and Heather Podesta visited four times and three times, respectively, according to the records. Center for American Progress president John Podesta, who headed the Obama transition, visited at least 12 times. Other frequent visitors included former National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

Wall Street players have had a lot of interest in Mr. Obama’s doings, and visitors have included JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs’ Gary Cohn, Citigroup’s Vikram Pandit, and the former chief executive of AIG, Maurice Greenberg.

Jake Tapper, ABC News

Posted on Tue, Nov. 03, 2009 10:16 PM

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