WHITECLUBHOUSE:

The club has long been a subject of fascination as a window into the Newport old guard. A 2003 New York Times piece reported, "Diversity ... has made scant inroads on the Newport of Bailey's Beach, whose membership profile might be defined less by who people are than what they are not. 'Jewish, yes,' Audrey Oswald, a lifelong member replied, when asked about the club's demographic composition. 'Blacks, not really.'"

(The paper went on to note that the late Eileen Slocum, a legendary Newporter and Bailey's member, did have biracial grandchildren who visited.)

The current focus on Bailey's came when the New York Post, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico and other national outlets picked up comments Whitehouse made last week to the website GoLocalProv.

Asked whether Bailey's has any non-white members currently, Whitehouse replied, "I think the people who are running the place are still working on that, and I'm sorry it hasn't happened yet." He declined to condemn Bailey's, describing its existence as "a long tradition in Rhode Island" and suggesting its members "just need to work our way through the issues."

Tweet   @brothersjudd