trying to Remember wrote:
Wasn't there a story at the time of the transition from Clinton to W. Bush that Clinton's team took all the W's from the White House keyboards?
Payback for Bush senior's prank in 1993. But no proof either occurred. Seems to be a tradition kept quiet.
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Bush Unconcerned By Reports of Pranks
Aired January 27, 2001
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush, meeting with a bipartisan group of governors, says his administration is not focused on what some Clinton-Gore staffers may have left behind.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There might have been a prank or two, you know, maybe somebody put a cartoon on the wall, but that's OK. It's time now to move forward.
WALLACE: But at the same time, the Bush White House says it is informally documenting what happened. And so, what are Clinton staffers accused of doing before Bush aides arrived? According to Republican sources, Ws were removed from computer keyboards, signs, such as the Office of Strategery, were tacked on doors poking fun of the president's malapropisms and phone lines were cut, according to the Bush team, but not by workers who were busily repainting and recarpeting the White House.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY DESIGNATE: Well, I don't think that the people who are professionals who make it their business to go and prepare a White House for new arrivals would cut wires.
WALLACE: But some former aides in the Clinton-Gore administration in essence say show me the evidence.
MARK LINDSAY, CLINTON ADMINISTRATION ATTORNEY: I have not heard one person who has been able to come forward and speak and say it on the record that they actually observed these things.
KIKI MCLEAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I guess what I'm concerned about is frankly that what may have been a prank, while perhaps immature and inappropriate, is all of a sudden being blown into something that maybe it's not because no one's saying exactly what it is. They're just leaving the air of it hanging out there.
WALLACE: Further, former Clinton-Gore staffers say when they arrived in 1993 they found offices in disarray, Bush-Quayle bumper stickers taped on desks and phone extension labels removed. But Republicans who worked in that departing administration say they know of no such acts of mischief.
C. BOYDEN GRAY, FORMER BUSH OFFICIAL: I remember that period very, very vividly. It was a difficult period, as it always is, both going in and coming out, and I'm not aware of there being any pranks that were foisted on the incoming crew.
WALLACE: While transitions are always difficult, political observers say this one has been compounded by the bitter feelings following the post-election battle.
WALLACE: And Mark Lindsay, President Clinton's head of administration, also tells CNN that he walked through the White House right before the hand over and saw not one instance of vandalism. Other Clinton aides are accusing the Bush administration of playing politics with what may have been a few isolated and minor pranks. The Bush team for its part is not responding to that charge. Aides are indicating this story is over as far as they are concerned -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Kelly, all the talk of pranks sort of brings me back to high school. I start remembering a lot of the jokes we played. Is all this attention sort of taking away from the more important issues facing the administration right now?
WALLACE: Well, the Bush team doesn't think so. I mean it says it is looking forward, not back. It is trying to put as much attention as possible on the President's first week and his education reform agenda, and that is why when questions surfaced about some presidential pardons, as well as some gifts President Clinton and the First Lady may have received before leaving office, the Bush White House pretty much had no comment.
As for these alleged pranks, in the middle of the week the Bush team was saying it was cataloguing what happened, but wouldn't reveal what it found to the press. It seemed just yesterday the Bush team backed away even more from that, saying this cataloguing is just one person in his head putting together, keeping track of what has happened.
So clearly this new White House is trying to move forward and saying what happened in the past is in the past. Their eyes are on the weeks ahead -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Kelly Wallace live from the White House, good to see you. Thanks a lot.
WALLACE: Absolutely.
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0101/27/smn.10.html