DINNER FOR SIX (FIGURES)

By JEFFREY H. BIRNBAUM/WASHINGTON

Last year the Democratic Party disavowed a brochure that promised contributors of $100,000 perks such as a couple of meals with President Clinton and Vice President Gore as well as "impromptu meetings" with other Administration bigwigs. Reacting to the public's outrage, party officials pledged to stop such explicit quid pro quos. At the time, party co-chair Don Fowler said, "The President is concerned about certain appearances of marketing the presidency." But some contributors say Marvin Rosen, the Democratic Party's finance chairman, has privately resumed the practice. Donors tell TIME that Rosen, a Miami lawyer, recited a laundry list of benefits to the big-money contributors he met in New York City and elsewhere. For $100,000, they say, Rosen has said a giver can get a short meeting with the President in the White House; $10,000 to $50,000 would earn a dinner with the President at a posh Washington hotel. One Democratic business executive said Rosen even hinted at staying overnight at the White House. Rosen denies he has offered anything other than the usual dinner invitations to givers. Says he: "I have been very conservative."

--By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum/Washington