Hello, Operator? Get Me Charo

By PAUL GRAY/

Students of White House culture have begun to notice a peculiar strain of what might be called the Las Vegas syndrome. First, UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian turned up in the Oval Office for a Bush handshake. Then Siegfried and Roy, the lion tamers and Strip headliners, also appeared in the President's office. Finally, during a Bush campaign stopover in Rochester, Minn., who should pop out of nowhere to sing the national anthem but Mr. Las Vegas himself, Wayne Newton. The odd sightings can all be traced to Sigmund Rogich, the President's events coordinator, who grew up dirt poor on the outskirts of Las Vegas and is now one of the Administration's few self-made millionaires.

With reporting by David E. Thigpen