Clintons enjoy Vegas hospitality

Ed Koch and Timothy Pratt

Thursday, Aug. 23, 2001 | 11:03 a.m.

Former President Bill Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea, are not your typical Las Vegas tourists, but they are trying.

Bill golfs. Chelsea visits hotel art galleries. They both take in shows. Their plans for the rest of the week's stay are not written in stone.

"Bill gets up every morning, he knows he has certain obligations, and then the rest of the day he plans what he will do just like any other tourist who comes to Las Vegas," said Sun Editor and President Brian Greenspun, Clinton's college friend from Georgetown.

"This is Chelsea's first visit to Las Vegas, and as a 21-year-old she can fully enjoy the benefits offered to adults in this town. She has followed her father around town, has spent time with friends and has visited a number of the hotels, again like any other young tourist would do."

But not every tourist is greeted like the Clintons -- minus Bill's wife and Chelsea's mother Hillary, who did not join them on this trip.

Shortly after Chelsea got off the plane earlier this week, a bag check employee at McCarran International Airport got a little carried away. When she spotted the former first daughter, her eyes widened and she threw her arms around the Oxford-bound Stanford graduate and shouted: "I love you. I love you and your whole family."

"It was a warm, spontaneous welcome I'm sure Chelsea will not forget," said Greenspun, who on Wednesday played a round of golf with Clinton at the Bali Hai golf course at the Four Seasons, where the Clintons are staying. They plan to sneak in another round of golf amid planned events today.

When Bill and Chelsea attended illusionists Siegfried and Roy's show at the Mirage Tuesday night, loud whispers about their presence spread quickly through the crowd before the show began. When the famed magicians introduced the Clintons during their performance, the house lights went up and they got a tremendous ovation from the audience.

As evidence that their schedule is pretty loose, the Clintons, at the last minute Wednesday, invited 108-year-old World War I veteran William Brown to the Four Seasons so Bill could meet him.

Brown, scheduled to receive France's Legion of Honor at a ceremony in Las Vegas today, was quoted in a front page feature story in Tuesday's Sun as saying that one of his unfulfilled goals was to meet his favorite U.S. president, Bill Clinton.

A beaming Clinton, having changed from casual golf togs to a blue business suit and bright red tie, greeted Brown and several of the veteran's family members, who came to meet and have pictures taken with the ex-president.

"Thank you for serving our country," Clinton said. Brown answered that what he remembered most about serving his country in France was that he had to do a lot of walking.

"I'll bet you did a lot of walking after the war to stay in shape for so long," Clinton said. Brown attributed his apparent good health to a lifetime of hard work; he retired at about age 80.

Brown told Clinton that he looked "just like you do on TV."

On Wednesday night Clinton attended what Greenspun described as "a casual get-together with friends," which also was a fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee. The organization was tightlipped about what the guests paid and about how much money was raised.

Greenspun, who has held Clinton-attended fund-raisers in his home, said Clinton is one of the Democratic party's "most prolific fund-raisers," but he declined to estimate how much the party had hoped to raise.

Newly-elected National Democratic Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who attended the fund-raiser, also was evasive on the money-raising issue, saying that Clinton "agreed to help out, even though he doesn't want it to appear that he's too heavily involved in the party's activities, since he does tend to take up a lot of oxygen when he's in a room."

Attempts to reach a spokesman today at the DNC in Washington D.C., for details on Wednesday night's fund-raiser were not successful.

Clinton's visit has included addressing a convention of 8,000 sales representatives from a Japanese company called the MIKI Group, which manufactures vitamins and a supplement made from prune extract.

Clinton, in his second visit to Las Vegas since leaving the White House, addressed the conventioneers in three groups of about 2,700 Monday through Wednesday at the Cox Pavilion.

In April, Clinton visited Las Vegas with his wife, but they spent much of that visit relaxing.

Bill Clinton, who is scheduled to leave Friday, hopes to spend much of the rest of his free time in Las Vegas playing golf, going to art exhibits and "spending quality time with Chelsea," Greenspun said.

"Just stuff typical tourists do."