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Presidential Perks

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.

Members of Congress have more say about stamps than you and I but even they can be 
trumped.

The Stop Family Violence charity stamp was supposed to be issued with a ceremony this 
weekend in Denver. Colorado senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell pushed the stamp through 
Congress. But President Bush was signing a domestic violence bill on Wednesday, so the 
stamp's launch was moved up three days and switched to the White House with practically 
no notice.<KNLS/AITM: ..catching stamp collectors, mailers and even postal workers by 
surprise.>

It's hardly the first time the White House has gotten into the act. Jimmy Carter, fighting 
for re-election, promised the Sons of Italy a stamp for an obscure Italian diplomat -- 
without telling the Postal Service first. A year later, Nancy Reagan wanted to use a 
certain stamp on her Christmas cards, and a second version was issued. Bill Clinton didn't 
like a stamp depicting the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan, and it WASN'T useded.

And then there was F-D-R, who not only called for specific stamps, but even sketched a few
of them!

That's stamp collecting this week. 


I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News. 

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