2004 Republican Convention in NYC

[Agglomeration]

GOP Taps New York to Host '04 Convention

Mon Jan 6, 2:25 PM ET *Add Elections - AP to My Yahoo!

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Republican Party leaders on Monday chose New York as the site for their 2004 presidential nominating convention.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the decision "a tremendous boost for the city."

"New York is exactly the right place for the president and for the Republican Party," Bloomberg said. The convention will be held the week of Aug. 30. "The labor unions have been exceptionally helpful in assuring the Republican Party that the convention will go forward with all of the efficiencies" the party wanted, he said.

Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. and New Orleans had been among the finalists along with New York. But New York had been considered a favorite for several months.

Democrats announced earlier they would hold their convention in Boston during the week of July 26. The GOP convention will be held during the week of Aug. 30.

New York Gov. George Pataki said, "The Republican National Committee (news - web sites)'s selection of New York City to host the Republican National Convention in 2004 is yet another sign of the confidence people have in New York and sends a message to America and the world that New York is back."

New York had plenty of advantages because of Bloomberg, who is a Republican, its many hotel rooms and the attention it got as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But GOP officials had logistical questions, such as how the city would house large numbers of media representatives who would be covering the event.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, had pushed hard for Florida to get the convention, but Republican officials also worried about possible protests in the state because of the contested 2000 presidential elections.

New Orleans had many advantages as a convention city, but Republicans lost a close and bitterly contested Senate runoff election a month ago when Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu (news, bio, voting record) held off a determined challenge from Republican Suzanne Terrell.

Pat Brister, the Louisiana Republican Party chairman, said she did not believe Landrieu's victory had anything to do with it.

"I know New York put together a good package," she said. "They certainly can do a convention. They have the hotels and facilities and New Orleans also can do that. I just think it was a business decision.

The selection of New York was recommended by the RNC's Site Selection Committee. That move in practical terms resolved the issue of convention location, although the party must still reach a contract with the city and conduct a vote of the full 165-member RNC.

Marc Racicot, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and Ellen Williams, chairwoman of the party's site selection committee made the announcement following a conference call Monday.

The full RNC will act on the recommendation at its winter meeting from Jan. 29-Feb. 1.

"We believe New York will provide an outstanding backdrop to showcase our candidate and our party in 2004," according to a GOP release.

Tampa Mayor Dick Greco called it "a very difficult choice" and said "it was a business decision, strictly a business decision, and all the cities could have furnished everything they needed."

Greco said the city would bid again in 2008.

[Edward]

NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/07/nyregion/07REPU.html

January 7, 2003
Republicans Pick New York as Site of '04 Convention
By ADAM NAGOURNEY


WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 — The Republican Party tentatively designated New York City today as the site of its 2004 national convention, selecting one of the most heavily Democratic cities in the nation as the place to renominate President Bush in about 18 months.

It would be the first time in the city's history that it played host to a Republican convention.

Republican officials said they chose New York over two competing cities, Tampa and New Orleans, in part because of what they described as the enormous political and emotional symbolism that has become attached to the city since the terror attack on Sept. 11, 2001. They also said New York had offered the best package of financial incentives, including a pledge to raise $53 million in private contributions to defray the estimated cost of $80 million for the gathering.

New York officials, led by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Gov. George E. Pataki, both Republicans, had lobbied urgently for the convention to be held at Madison Square Garden, arguing that it would be a psychological and financial lift to the city during difficult times.

The recommendation was made unanimously today by the Republican site selection committee in a telephone conference call.

It is expected to be ratified by the 165 members of the Republican National Committee at its annual meeting in Washington this month.

Mr. Bloomberg was called away from a news conference announcing the city's Winter Festival at Lasker Rink in Central Park this morning to take a call from Marc Racicot, the Republican national chairman. Mr. Racicot, a former governor of Montana, was relaying the results of the conference call approving what was, in reality, a White House decision. Mr. Bloomberg returned to his lectern, an ice sculpture chiseled for the occasion, to share a bit of news that his administration had been anticipating for more than a month.

"I just got a call from Gov. Marc Racicot, informing me that he recommended to the site selection committee a host city for the next Republican National Convention, and that the host committee unanimously endorsed his recommendation," Mr. Bloomberg said, with conscious understatement. "I am pleased to inform you that that is New York City."

The Republican Party's selection of New York, an event that would have seemed almost unfathomable just two years ago, was the result of a confluence of factors that has made the city an increasingly irresistible choice to the White House.

It started with the terror attack itself, which shaped Mr. Bush's presidency and now seems certain to provide a constant backdrop to his renomination, party officials said.

In addition, New York, a Democratic city and a symbol of ethnic diversity, offered itself as a stage for the Republican Party at the very time that the party has been seeking to portray itself as appealing to moderate and minority voters. That effort has been complicated over the past month by the remarks by Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi that even Republicans described as racially insensitive and forced him to step down as Senate majority leader.

While few Republicans believe that holding the convention in New York would improve Mr. Bush's chances of winning a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 million, several argued today that they achieved the admittedly mischievous result of forcing Democrats to pay attention to a state that they would prefer to take for granted.

Finally, New York now has a Republican governor and New York City a Republican mayor, which is helpful both logistically and symbolically.

The city is the home of the nation's best-known ex-mayor of either party, Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is expected to figure prominently in the convention. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, is up for re-election in 2004, and the party presumably would use the convention platform to help the prospects of his Republican opponent.

In an initial display of support after the attack, both the Republican and Democratic Parties had said they would consider holding their conventions in Manhattan. The Democratic Party ultimately decided against holding what would have been its sixth convention in New York since 1868, choosing instead to go to Boston, after party leaders said they would consider coming back to New York only if the city abandoned efforts to recruit the Republicans.

Aides portrayed the decision as a major victory for Mayor Bloomberg, and disputed the suggestion that it was an emotional calculation driven by the Sept. 11 tragedy.

"9/11 was never part of our pitch," said Kevin Sheekey, a special adviser to Mr. Bloomberg. "Either they felt the emotional impact and wanted to be there for that reason or they didn't, and it wasn't something we could affect. What we could do is negotiate rates with hotel rooms."

Mr. Racicot said in an interview today that New York was chosen because it had offered the best package of benefits to the Republicans, and he also cited the "enthusiasm that they displayed and the opportunity to showcase our party and our candidates" to the nation. He said gathering in a city so closely identified with tragedy and patriotism was clearly a factor as well.

"I think the entire country has become more closely connected, or reconnected, with the city in a very intimate way," he said, "in a very important way, and being able to coincidentally further that relationship is a good thing."

The city held one of its pivotal negotiating sessions with the Republican site selection committee last month at the new Ritz-Carlton in Lower Manhattan, where the windows on one side of the hotel offer a view of the Statue of Liberty and the windows on the other side look out on the clearing amid what was once a dense wall of buildings where the twin towers had stood.

Roland W. Betts, a member of the committee of Republicans assembled by Mr. Bloomberg to lobby the White House, is a close friend of Mr. Bush. Mr. Betts said he directly pressed the events of Sept. 11 in lobbying for the convention with both Mr. Bush and Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser.

"What we focused on was that New York was the best background for the convention, growing out of the events of Sept. 11," Mr. Betts said in an interview. "The alternatives were inappropriate. Florida would have been all about the last election, and we would have to relive hanging chads."

New York officials said the convention, scheduled for the last week in August, would bring 50,000 people and $150 million into the city.

Republican and city officials said that the convention would cost about $80 million to put on, but that the city's only expense would be about $25 million for police overtime and other law enforcement costs.

The incentives package of $53 million from private sources would help defray convention expenses. City officials provided data to Republican officials to demonstrate that the city has been a prime source of political contributions to Republican candidates.

The city also provided Republican officials with signed promises from labor leaders that they would not conduct the kind of strikes or work slowdowns that have troubled other convention planners in New York, and that any disputes would be submitted to binding arbitration.

City officials guaranteed convention planners 22,000 hotel rooms, including 17,000 within a mile of Madison Square Garden, and promised that 9,000 would be available to delegates for $156 a night. In addition, an estimated 15,000 reporters, who in other cities have worked in tents, trailers and spare office space, would be placed across Eighth Avenue from the arena in the Farley Post Office Building, which is to be converted into the new Pennsylvania Station.

Republican officials said that Tampa was unable to match the offer on hotel rooms, and that in Florida delegates would have been scattered far from the convention site. The other major competing city, New Orleans, was unable to match New York City's promise of financial assistance.

"I was disappointed," said Pat Brister, the Republican chairwoman of Louisiana. "I would have loved to have it in New Orleans. We gave it our best shot."

A spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, Jennifer Palmieri, said Democrats were neither surprised nor concerned by the Republicans' decision. "We always thought the Republicans would go to New York, and that is one of the reasons we felt we couldn't go," she said. "We knew the Republicans would be the governor's and the mayor's first priority, and we would always be playing second fiddle."

[Edward]

NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/07/nyregion/07PART.html

January 7, 2003
With Party Convention in Hand, City Scrambles for Big Spenders
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD


This is really all about the parties. Big parties.

And the money. Big money.

New York has made its case for the former, enticing the Republican National Convention here on Aug. 30, 2004, and it is dangling its assets — the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Rainbow Room, Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal — to attract the latter.

"I don't know if it is myth or not, but there is a sense that Republicans have more money," said David Adler, the chief executive of BiZBash .com, an online magazine covering the event-planning industry. "They have bigger parties. They appreciate parties and events, and like mingling and networking."

At any convention, the parties, social rather than political, tend to command as much attention, if not more, than the business of nominating candidates, which is usually a foregone conclusion.

But securing a ticket to the "in" soiree is another matter entirely.

Event planners say any restaurant in New York that has some theme vaguely connected to the other 49 states will probably get snapped up by state political organizations. And for those who are not invited, forget reservations at high-end restaurants for convention week.

The parties, the dinners, the entertainment choices that are all part of convention week, bring in the jobs, money and taxes that a city like New York covets. Philadelphia, which was home to the Republican convention in 2000, calculated a direct economic benefit of $170 million.

A report released by Philadelphia 2000, the host comittee for the event, said that of that money, in excess of $40 million was spent on the more than 1,000 receptions, parties and other events.

Philadelphia also got something else out of playing host that it had been desperately trying to attain. The Philadelphia 2000 report conceded that it was trying to put "the region on the map once and for all as one of the premier hospitality destinations in America."

New York already ranks among the nation's top three tourist destinations (No. 1 for foreign travelers, No. 3 for domestic, behind Orlando, Fla., and Las Vegas) and, according to Tradeshow Week, it is second behind Las Vegas in big conventions.

Still, Cristyne L. Nicholas, president and chief executive of NYC & Company, the city's tourism and convention promoter, said that in light of 9/11, New York needed to boost its image as a safe place to visit, as well as one that can pull off big events without a hitch.

In 2000, many of the parties were underwritten by corporations and big donors, alarming government watchdogs who see such events as an opportunity to buy access.

A new campaign finance law prohibits the political parties from raising and spending the unregulated contributions from corporations known as soft money, but the Federal Election Commission has not yet put out a full set of rules on how the law applies to convention financing.

Few predict that any rules, short of banning sponsorships outright, will cut down on big corporate-sponsored events, especially in this town.

Expect a rush to book locations.

"It will start tomorrow," Mr. Adler said, "if it hasn't started already."

[enzo]

We could certainly use the money, I just don't look forward to the inevitable political marketing they will be spewing in regards to ground zero. It would be the same if the Dems held their convention here, but the national Republican Party through the years has mostly trashed, insulted and ignored NYC from Congress and the White House. To see them suddenly roll into town to capitalize on our tragedy really pisses me off. I hope businesses in the city price gouge the hell out of them.

I'm already cringing.

[amigo32]

LOL! *But, then they would demand more personal tax cuts to offset their NY expenditure. *:)

[Edward]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/09/nyregion/09REPU.html
March 9, 2003
G.O.P. Meeting Offers Glimpse Far in Advance of Convention
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD


More than a year before Republicans descend on New York for the 2004 presidential convention, they will get a taste of what is to come when they hold their regular summer meeting here in July.

Republican Party officials said Friday that for the first time since 1998, they would hold one of their twice-yearly gatherings in New York City. Both city and party officials say the summer meeting provides a chance to kick the tires before the 2004 national convention at Madison Square Garden, where President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are expected to be re-nominated.

A year before each national convention, the Republicans usually hold their summer meeting in the host city.

The dates and location of the summer meeting have not been set. Party members gather in the winter and summer every year to conduct routine business and strategize for elections. Typically, a guest from the White House speaks. Mr. Cheney spoke at the winter meeting this year in Washington, but Kevin Sheridan, a spokesman for the party, said no decision had been made on who would speak in the summer.

The 300 or so party officials who will attend this summer's meeting are expected to check out the various locations, including Madison Square Garden, that have been or will be used for convention-related events. Establishments like Radio City Music Hall, Tavern on the Green and the Channel Gardens at Rockefeller Center have set aside Aug. 30 through Sept. 2, 2004, for convention events.

"We're really excited they are coming and see this as an excellent chance to showcase the city a year before the convention," said Jennifer Falk, a spokeswoman for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who had aggressively courted the convention as a sign of the city's post-9/11 revival.

Cristyne L. Nicholas, president of NYC & Company, the city's promotional arm, said such meetings hold incalculable word-of-mouth value.

About 50,000 people are expected at the 2004 convention, generating $150 million for the city economy.

[dbhstockton]

Judging from the shameless pandering of their last convention in Philly, "cringe" is the right word. *I'll say one thing, though: *If you're black, hispanic, or asian and you want to be on TV, just show up at MSG in Sept. 2004.

[Kris]

November 12, 2003

G.O.P. Convention Has Police Alert and Protesters Planning

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

Police in New York City have been at work since June preparing for the Republican National Convention next summer, an event that could draw hundreds of thousands of protesters to the congested streets of Midtown while President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are in town.

At the same time, groups are busy planning protests, using the Internet and holding meetings to reach out to antiwar, anti-Bush and anti-Republican forces for the convention, scheduled Aug. 30 to Sept. 2. One group has even formed a committee to discuss details as specific as providing day care for protesters' children and pets.

The Republicans' decision to hold their nominating convention at Madison Square Garden presents the city with such a volatile mix of elements — an incumbent president, troops in Iraq, fear of terrorism, the existence of well-organized and active global protest groups — that the Police Department began preparations further in advance than it has for any event in a quarter-century, officials said.

Against this backdrop, the police are searching for a balance between the public's constitutional right to demonstrate and the need to keep the streets open, the trains running and the convention operating without interruption.

"We have the sense that there will be a lot of people coming in, not only from just in the United States but from outside the country, to voice their opinion," the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said in an interview. "So we want to be prepared."

An Internet search reveals that demonstrators are making plans for the convention, some with the goal of delivering a peaceful political statement, others hoping to have their say by disrupting events. Web sites have been formed (with names like R.N.C. Not Welcome and Counter Convention) and e-mail lists are being circulated so that people can exchange ideas about such strategies as how to tie up city traffic.

One group, United for Peace and Justice, has already filed two permit requests, one for 250,000 protesters to march past the Garden the weekend before the convention begins. United for Peace and Justice organized the antiwar rally in February that attracted hundreds of thousands of protesters, erupting at points into clashes between protesters and the police. The group is planning a peaceful march, but says that the convention could attract others intent on disrupting events.

"The resistance that the Bush administration attracts takes many forms, from people who might call or write an elected official to those who might sit down in the street and those who might want to resist" in more aggressive ways, said the group's spokesman, Bill Dobbs.

Mr. Kelly, like others preparing for the event, said he could not provide a hard estimate of how many protesters are expected. But the police are monitoring the Internet and the organizing groups, the commissioner said. They want to know what groups are coming to New York, who their leaders are and what their plans are, long before anyone ever raises a billboard or turns on a bullhorn. The police have created 30 committees within the department to address the myriad security concerns, including transportation around the city, safeguarding the 49 hotels that will house officials, delegates and news media, safeguarding the restaurants, theaters and other entertainment sites and making sure that officers are adequately trained to handle it all.

Mr. Kelly attends a weekly convention preparation meeting and is already talking about details as minute as whether law enforcement officials will have enough cameras and vans to process individuals who are arrested. In addition, the police meet regularly with the Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Coast Guard and the Fire Department. There are also planned meetings with the mayor's office, the governor's office and the convention's committee on arrangements.

But the core of the work now involves research and intelligence gathering. "We're gathering information about plans that people may have to come here," Mr. Kelly said. "And we understand, this is what America's all about, people to demonstrate peacefully, make their feelings known. And we want to facilitate that and keep it peaceful."

The nexus of free speech and what the law deems to be criminal activity is a sensitive area, police officials concede. The New York Civil Liberties Union has already contacted police officials to try to meet and find the balance between the department's desire for absolute calm and the protesters' desire to be within the vicinity of the convention so that delegates can hear the protesters' concerns.

In 1992, when the Democrats held their national convention at the Garden, police set up an area on Eighth Avenue, on the sidewalk outside the nearby general post office building. When the crowds swelled, police expanded the protest area into the street, yet managed to keep one lane of traffic open.

But there were never more than about 5,000 protesters, a fraction of what is expected this summer, according to former police officials who were involved in security for the 1992 convention.

"If you have to deal with more than that, and people are violent, at that location, you will have a problem," said a former police official involved in the 1992 event.

In 1992, authorities also permitted a small group of protesters to set up on Seventh Avenue, so they could be seen by delegates entering the arena, former police officials said. This time the post office will be the main base for thousands of news media personnel, so the police suggested it is unlikely they will allow thousands of protesters to congregate right outside the building.

"Our concern is that the New York Police Department and the Secret Service will try to push demonstrators away from the convention site," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "We will mount an aggressive campaign to make sure this doesn't happen. It's critical that New York City be as welcoming to the protesters as it is to those who come to participate in the convention."

The easiest way to keep the peace, some officials said, is to seal off large areas of Manhattan from protesters. City officials have said that they want to accommodate peaceful protesters but are not sure how or where. Coming almost three years after the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, there is also the fear that terrorists will try to strike during the event.

The federal government has designated the Republican convention, and the Democratic National Convention that will be held earlier in the summer in Boston, as national special security events. That puts the Secret Service in charge of coordinating security between agencies, gives the F.B.I. responsibility for collecting intelligence and providing crisis management, and gives the Federal Emergency Management Administration the job of dealing with the effects of any possible crisis.

But the New York Police Department, with its 37,000 officers, while working in conjunction with the federal agencies, will ultimately be responsible for controlling the streets.

As soon as it was clear the convention was coming to New York, police officials visited Los Angeles, which hosted the Democrats, and Philadelphia, which hosted the Republicans, in 2000. Philadelphia police had taken a very aggressive, what some have called pre-emptive, approach, and in some cases arrested people before they ever protested. In virtually all the cases, prosecutions were either dropped or the defendant was acquitted, said Stefan Presser, legal director for the A.C.L.U. of Pennsylvania.

"From the way the criminal justice process played out, it was transparently clear the city was far less interested in securing convictions than in clearing the streets," Mr. Presser said.

Last February, the city saw perhaps a preview of what the convention scene could become. The group United for Peace and Justice had applied for a permit to conduct an antiwar march in Manhattan. The permit was denied, though one was granted for a rally. Hundreds of thousands of people tried to get into the designated area on First Avenue near the United Nations. While the police tried to funnel the crowd through designated access points, tensions rose and flare-ups broke out. For a city known for its control of crowds during presidential visits, sporting events, parades and celebrations, it was a public relations setback. Mr. Kelly said his department will be prepared to make sure that does not happen again, though he did not say exactly how.

"I'm not going to go into the specifics now and put all our safeguards on the table here because some of this is a tactical game that we're engaged in," he said. "You know, the vast majority of demonstrators here will be peaceful. They'll want to make a statement. And we want to help them do that. We want to facilitate that. There will be some, we believe, that will be here to cause problems."


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

The political landscape has changed somewhat since the GOP decided to hold their convention in New York City. I wonder if they now regret that decision.

[Kris]

December 1, 2003

G.O.P. Option at Convention: Luxury Liner

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/12/01/nyregion/01ship.xl.jpg
Representative Tom DeLay wants the Norwegian Dawn to be Republicans' home away from home in New York during the party's convention.

It is being billed as the perfect place for celebrations during the Republican National Convention next summer, with shows, fine works of art, health clubs, bars, cafes, amazing views, luxury staterooms and restaurants serving cuisine from around the world. And it is just a short walk to Midtown.

But before its visitors can cross a New York City street, they will have to pass over a gangplank. The Norwegian Dawn, a 2,240-passenger luxury cruise liner, has 15 decks, 14 bars and lounges and babbling brooks. But even docked at a pier on the Hudson River, it is not New York City. And, to many critics, that is the point.

The House majority leader, Tom DeLay, would like the ship to serve as a floating entertainment center for Republican members of Congress, and their guests, when the convention comes to New York City next Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.

"Our floating hotel will provide members an opportunity to stay in one place, in a secure fashion," said a spokesman for Mr. DeLay, Jonathan Grella. He did not elaborate.

Perhaps Mr. Grella is reluctant to talk because Mr. DeLay's idea has infuriated a cross section of New Yorkers, much to the delight of Democrats and the embarrassment of some Republicans.

New York would lose money if Mr. DeLay decides to charter the ship because it would draw visitors — and dollars — away from city hotels, restaurants and shops.

As for the more ephemeral issue of perception, the proposal to remove visitors from the hubbub of city life has been broadly received as a slight — a suggestion that the city's hotels and restaurants, not to mention its people, are not quite good enough for Republicans from out of state.

Republicans are not necessarily happy, either. Many say the cruise ship could undermine one reason New York was chosen for the first time in the party's history as the site of its convention: to help advance the idea that Republicans are the new big-tent party, trying to embrace all voters.

Instead, Republican strategists say, being docked on the Hudson River would send out the message that they are a bunch of elitists who will not mingle with city residents — and just might be ducking New York's laws, including the one that prohibits smoking in public places (a cruise ship might be exempt, or at least unwelcome territory for a city health inspector).

"In an era of nonstop news and visuals, do you want the visual of the convention to be a group of people sequestered on a cruise ship?" said one Republican strategist, who added that there is a lot of hand-wringing among Republicans in New York and Washington over the plan.

Still, few Republicans are willing to publicly challenge Mr. DeLay, whose nickname in Congress is the Hammer.

Representative Vito J. Fossella of Staten Island, the only Republican in the New York City Congressional delegation, initially worked with Mr. DeLay to present the cruise ship idea to the other members. Now, all his spokesman will say is that the idea of the ship is not Mr. Fossella's, he is merely passing on the information to his fellow party members.

Gov. George E. Pataki, the three-term Republican who said in a statement that he would prefer to see conventiongoers use New York's hotels, has not publicly called for Mr. DeLay to abandon the idea.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a fellow Republican whose relations with Mr. DeLay have nonetheless been strained, has also been cautious with his remarks.

One Republican strategist said he imagined that New York tabloids would run headlines like "Ship of Fools" or "Titanic."

Representative Peter T. King, a Republican from Nassau County, said: "I won't be on the ship. If they want to have it, fine." But, he added, "I think it could send the wrong signal, that Republicans are isolated from the city, just wining and dining and drinking and not being part of city life."

That is exactly what has New York's Democrats chortling. "What is it? They don't want to be contaminated by us?" said Representative Charles B. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem. He vowed to wage a campaign against the cruise ship and criticized Mr. Bloomberg for not speaking out more vociferously. "It is a very, very unfriendly thing to do," Mr. Rangel said.

But Mr. DeLay has indicated that he has no plan to back off.

Mr. DeLay has won power — and loyalty — from Republican members of Congress by making sure they were treated luxuriously. He saw to it that House ethics rules were changed so that members could accept free trips and lodging to attend charity events.

At the Republican convention in Philadelphia in 2000, he provided representatives with cars and drivers, and he set up a hospitality suite inside a luxury railroad car. This time, he would not be footing the bill for the ship, but is the driving force behind making it available during the convention, according to Republicans.

The idea of using the cruise ship, which operates out of New York City year-round for Norwegian Cruise Line, first came up when the company approached Republican leaders several weeks ago, a company spokeswoman said. The cruise line has also approached Democrats about their convention, which will be held in Boston in July, but those talks have not progressed as far as they have with the Republicans, said a spokeswoman, Susan Robison.

Ms. Robison and a DeLay aide also confirmed that Susan Hirschman, Mr. DeLay's former chief of staff, is a member of the lobbying firm hired by the ship's owners to pursue this kind of business.

Ms. Hirschman did not return a call for comment, and Ms. Robison said she did not know if Ms. Hirschman made the original pitch to the Republican leadership. But once the pitch was delivered, Mr. DeLay and Mr. Fossella presented the plan to Congressional Republicans.

Immediately, the proposal was viewed by many political insiders as another episode in the increasingly hostile relationship between Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. DeLay. In October, Mr. Bloomberg called on wealthy New Yorkers to avoid giving donations to any member of Congress who does not help New York. He singled out Mr. DeLay, saying, for example, that he had made a proposal to change federal financing formulas that would cost the city $300 million in federal transportation aid.

Mr. Bloomberg has reacted cautiously to the ship episode, making statements that are carefully worded to avoid antagonizing the majority leader. Nonetheless, he has made his feelings about the cruise ship proposal known.

"We have plenty of hotel rooms, it's a safe city, it's the safest place you can be almost with a lot of people around you, is right here in the streets of New York City, and why you'd want to be away from that, I don't know," the mayor said last week when reporters asked about the proposal.

People close to Mr. DeLay said that he was not too happy with the mayor's remarks to potential donors in New York, but that they did not think that Mr. DeLay proposed the cruise ship to spite Mr. Bloomberg.

"I think DeLay felt there was a benefit of being on a cruise ship," said one Congressional Republican who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. "He felt it was classy and upscale."

It is upscale. In fact, people who stay there will, on average, pay higher room prices than they would for the negotiated rates in New York hotels. The Republican National Committee has booked 22,000 hotel rooms for the convention at an average rate of about $196 per night; in comparison, the rate on the ship is about $240 to $430 a night, according to recent news reports. Ship guests would have to pay state and city sales taxes, but it is not clear if they would also have to pay the city's hotel taxes, according to the city and the cruise line.

The mayor's office said it was also unclear whether the city's law banning smoking in all restaurants and bars would apply to the cruise ship. That would have to be studied further, a spokesman said.

The Norwegian Dawn has 10 restaurants. It also has grand Garden Villa suites with a garden and babbling brooks. The ship has a children's park with a dinosaur theme, and it has a 1,000-seat theater. It is registered in the Bahamas, and its staff is multinational, Ms. Robison said.

Mr. DeLay's aides, as well as representatives for the cruise line, have tried to argue that Norwegian Cruise Line brings business to the city because the ship operates out of New York year round, and that this, too, would bring in revenue. Local people would be hired for jobs like baggage handling and passenger check-in, Ms. Robison said.

But those arguments did little to dampen the criticism, including charges that the Republicans misled New York businesses when they negotiated to bring the convention to the city.

"It is certainly not within the spirit of the convention, and the committee's pledge to help drive the economic engine of New York City," said Joseph E. Spinnato, president of the Hotel Association of New York City, in a statement. "It also does not conform to the negotiations conducted in good faith between the Republican National Committee and the hotels."

Cristyne L. Nicholas, the president of NYC & Company, the city's tourism bureau, also criticized the cruise ship plan. Ms. Nicholas, whose ex-boss, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, is an official host of the convention, said the ship sent the wrong message about New York and would deprive its passengers of enjoying what New York has to offer.

But, she said: "I'm an optimist. If Tom DeLay goes to the West Side, maybe he will see the need for the transportation money. Maybe he'll see how much help New York needs from the federal government."


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

December 3, 2003

They'll Take Manhattan: Republicans Drop Ship Idea

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/12/03/nyregion/03BOAT.xl.jpg
The Norwegian Dawn was to be a G.O.P. hotel and recreation site.

Representative Tom DeLay of Texas will not go ahead with his plan to use a luxury cruise liner as a floating entertainment center for members of Congress, lobbyists and contributors during the Republican National Convention next summer, an aide said yesterday.

Mr. DeLay, the House majority leader, had insisted earlier this week that he was still planning to use the 2,224-passenger Norwegian Dawn in the Hudson to accommodate Republicans who will be in the city for the event, from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.

As criticism mounted, particularly from Republicans concerned that they would appear elitist if they stayed on a ship away from the heart of the city and its people, he backed off, saying it was not worth the fight.

A spokesman said, "Tom DeLay fights for what he believes in, but where we have an event at the convention is not something that he particularly cares about." The aide, Mr. DeLay's communications director, Stuart Roy, added: "He will stand and fight on principle for things he believes in, like Medicare, things that matter. Whether you have an event on a boat is irrelevant."

The decision may put to rest a conflict that had threatened to overshadow the very purpose of the convention, the renomination of President Bush. However, Democrats as well as Republicans also suggested that more troubles could lie ahead, since so many people said the dispute left them angry and distrustful.

A Republican strategist close to Mr. DeLay who spoke on the condition he not be identified said, "A lot of disingenuous people made a mountain out of a molehill, and DeLay just decided to let the moles win."

In New York, there was a sense of bewilderment among Democrats and Republicans that Mr. DeLay let the dispute go on as long as he did, and that he seemed not to understand how it would appear if the Republican delegation and their guests slept, dined and relaxed on a cruise ship instead of in a hotel.

There was such a gap in perception that late yesterday, some Republicans in Washington who supported the cruise liner idea were still saying that it would not have taken much money away from the city and that perhaps there are some Republican members of Congress who want to take their families to the convention but do not want them to stay in Manhattan, a point that offended many New Yorkers.

The cruise liner has 10 restaurants, 14 bars and lounges, and a 1,000-seat theater. Docked here, it would draw millions of dollars in business away from city shops, restaurants, hotels and theaters, critics said. Representatives of the hotel industry estimated that it would take $40 million in revenue away from hotels alone.

The economic arguments did not seem to persuade Mr. DeLay. The majority leader at first thought the criticism of the cruise ship plan was just the result of bad blood between him and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who had singled him out in October as a lawmaker who has been bad for New York and therefore not worthy of campaign contributors' checks, according to people familiar with the events that led to his decision to back down.

He was persuaded to change his mind, they said, as William D. Harris, the convention chairman, and other Republican strategists worked on Mr. DeLay's staff to press him to abandon the idea.

Gov. George E. Pataki, the three-term Republican who recently organized a fund-raiser for Mr. DeLay in Manhattan, did not ask him to drop the plan but instead asked Republicans in the state delegation to ask him to back off, according to the governor's office.

Mr. Bloomberg, too, had been careful in wording his responses to the DeLay plan. But on Monday, the mayor, who also was under increasing pressure from local labor unions and political leaders in New York, telephoned Mr. DeLay. He and Mr. DeLay then spoke by telephone about 4 p.m. yesterday, and shortly thereafter Mr. DeLay said through a spokesman that he would not go through with his plan.

Mr. Bloomberg then called Colin Veitch, the president and chief executive of Norwegian Cruise Lines, which owns the ship, to try to avoid hard feelings with a company that docks a cruise liner here year-round and brings a lot of business to the city.

The company issued a statement late yesterday saying that it was not going ahead with the convetion plan with the proposal because it no longer made economic sense, although the statement was prepared after Mr. DeLay had said he was ending the fight.

Mr. Harris, the convention chairman, did not return a call to his Washington office, and the Republican National Committee press office also did not return a call for comment.

Mr. DeLay, along with Representative Vito Fossella, Republican of Staten Island, first presented this idea to the Republican delegation in early November. Mr. DeLay would not pay for the ship but was the driving force behind making it available for Republican members of Congress and their guests, all of whom would pay their own bills.

As critics began to attack the proposal, Mr. Fossella began to move away from the plan, saying that he was merely passing along information. Mr. DeLay stuck with it, even as union leaders in New York were saying that they felt the Republicans negotiated terms of the convention in bad faith. Some of the union leaders said they would abandon an agreement not to strike during the convention, a deal they signed because they were eager to bring the business of the convention to the city.

With the decision last night, New York City businesses should receive the full benefit of the conventioneers, while the cruise ship will lose out on a high profile week docked in New York harbor. That, however, is not likely to mean a loss of business for the cruise ship, which remains popular.

In fact, there remains at least one well-known New Yorker planning to take a room on the ship: Rosie O'Donnell. A travel company run by her partner, Kelli Carpenter, has chartered the ship for a gay and lesbian family holiday cruise in July, and Ms. O'Donnell plans to be on board with her children, the company said.


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

A spokesman said, "Tom DeLay fights for what he believes in, but where we have an event at the convention is not something that he particularly cares about." The aide, Mr. DeLay's communications director, Stuart Roy, added: "He will stand and fight on principle for things he believes in, like Medicare, things that matter. Whether you have an event on a boat is irrelevant."

Give me a break. I'm not surprised that Tom DeLay would be uncomfortable on NYC streets. What hypocracy in light of the RNC opening an office in Washington Heights, when their policies are in conflict with the people of the community.

[TonyO]

The GOP can't see how ridiculous this is? Tom DeLay doesn't want to step out of his comfortable suburban bubble.

The silver lining here is that we won't have to walk around the inevitable 90% of these conventioners that are probably obese. Its great urban planning when you think about it.

[Clarknt67]

It's obnoxious that they even considered a boat at a time when NYC's tourism, hotel & restaurant industry is struggling so badly. To essentially rip all those dollars out of suppliers hands and give them to Norwegian Cruise line is an insult to every New Yorker that has struggled so badly in the last 2 years. (And now who wants to place bets someone connected to Norwegian is a big Republican donar?).

[NYatKNIGHT]

I thought that's why New York got the Republican convention in the first place. The decision was made soon after 9/11 in order to help the city regain lost business. Clearly all they really wanted was to use Ground Zero as a backdrop for patriotic ferver.

[TLOZ Link5]

Maybe DeLay and company were afraid that some of the native rats of Manhattan would recognize them.

Wouldn't it have been great if they all got Legionnaire's disease, or something of that nature?

[Kris]

I hope this little incident is getting a minimum of national coverage and the GOP the bad publicity it deserves.

[Kris]

December 17, 2003

Republicans Plan Convention Full of Sights and Symbols

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

Center stage at the Republican National Convention in New York next summer may be round, rotating and built on a platform high above the floor of Madison Square Garden, event organizers said yesterday.

While rock bands or performance artists have been known to use center-floor rotating stages, no presidential candidate has received his party's nomination from one at a national convention, organizers said.

Republicans, though, have signaled all along that they want their convention, which will run from Aug. 30 through Sept. 2, to help redefine political conventions, which have become predictable, scripted affairs with little drama or surprise. Theirs will certainly be scripted, but convention officials are hinting that there could be a few more surprises.

At a presentation yesterday by event organizers to about 800 news media representatives, the Republicans said their plans were preliminary and suggested that nothing was a given — from the position of the stage to the location of President Bush when he gives his acceptance speech.

When asked if they can guarantee that Mr. Bush will give his speech in Madison Square Garden, Chuck Fuqua, director of media operations, said he could not.

William Harris, chief executive officer of the convention, said, "Since the president is a different kind of Republican, it makes sense that he be nominated by a different kind of convention."

The convention is expected to draw up to 50,000 people to the Garden, and the Republicans said they planned to hold events in public parks (Bryant Park and Central Park), the other boroughs and perhaps on Ellis Island or Liberty Island.

"We are aggressively pursuing all of our options," Mr. Harris said when asked about use of the highly symbolic locations.

Republicans clearly mean for the location itself to be a message. They selected New York City as their convention site for the first time in the party's history, despite the city's leanings toward Democrats — it voted for Al Gore in 2000 — and its 5-to-1 registration advantage for Democrats.

But Republicans have tried to co-opt what was once the Democrats' claim to be a big-tent party open to all people. New York gives them a multiethnic community. It gives them national symbols. And it gives them the backdrop of Sept. 11 — even if they follow their intention of not holding events at ground zero.

The match, so far, has not been perfect. Hard feelings spread across New York City when Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader, suggested using a luxury cruise ship as a floating hotel and entertainment center for Republican members of Congress and their guests. Last week, under pressure from fellow Republicans, Mr. DeLay abandoned the idea, and yesterday Mr. Harris appeared to be trying to smooth some of the ruffled feathers.

He particularly thanked Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who had irritated Mr. DeLay when he suggested in October that political donors not give to the Texas congressman because he had supported measures that would hurt the city. Mr. Harris also praised local labor unions, many of which were furious with the cruise ship proposal, saying it would take money and jobs away from the city.

"I am absolutely convinced we made the right decision to come here," Mr. Harris said in his opening remarks.

The Republicans staged their briefing in the Theater at Madison Square Garden, providing a slick virtual tour of the site and their convention plans for journalists. The organizers handed out a glossy handbook, showed off models of the three convention floor plans under consideration and gave tours of the Garden and the Post Office building across Eighth Avenue, which will serve as a center for some of the 15,000 journalists and technicians who will cover the event.

But Mr. Harris and others also pointedly avoided talking about some of the more difficult realities of holding a convention in a city with a lot of people who did not vote for their candidate.

The security perimeter, and where protesters will be allowed to set up, remain two of the biggest unknowns.

Protesters are already organizing for the event and some groups have made it clear they want to be near the convention hall.

In 1992, when Democrats held their convention in New York City, protesters were allowed to set up on Eighth Avenue, just outside the Post Office. But officials said yesterday that they could not even guarantee that the Post Office building would be within the security perimeter.

Event organizers, however, had plenty of details about the round stage. Although they said that the idea had not yet been accepted at the highest levels, it was their favorite of three choices; the others called for more conventional stages set against one side of the arena.

The round stage would require raising the floor of the garden by nine and a half feet, the organizers said. That would allow people who were going to appear on stage to avoid walking down the aisles between delegates, which would be a security problem. They could come up a staircase near the stage, from the space below the raised floor.

The stage would be raised six feet off the floor, and would rotate so that every seat has a full view of the speaker — another symbol of the kinder, gentler, Grand Old Party.

"It makes sense if you want to give all parts of the house equal opportunity to have the speaker face them," said Mike Miller, director of operations for the convention.


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[Jasonik]

The Republicans; redefining political spin tactics once again. :wink:

[billyblancoNYC]

Indeed, something the Democrats never do. :wink:

[krulltime]

:roll:

[ZippyTheChimp]

New York Newsday

Kelly Promises Access for Protesters During GOP Convention

By Glenn Thrush
Staff Writer

January 18, 2004, 5:11 PM EST

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says that his department will closely monitor protesters at this summer's Republican National Convention while allowing them "within sight and sound" of Madison Square Garden. Without saying what specific security measures will be taken, Kelly said he would give protesters as much access as he can "without compromising" security.

"We're going to do everything that we can do lawfully, legally, reasonably to protect this city and to make certain that this is a peaceful and safe convention," Kelly said in an interview broadcast yesterday on WNBC's "News Forum." Asked if members of the police department's intelligence unit planned to infiltrate protest groups, Kelly said, "I'm not going to get into the specific tactics."

At the convention, which will run from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, protesters will be allowed "within sight and sound of their objective" -- Madison Square Garden, Kelly added.

The commissioner described himself as "facilitator of those who are practicing free speech."

That's not an opinion shared by demonstrators at last February's anti-war protests, which resulted in about 300 arrests.

In November, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed three federal lawsuits against the police department for blocking access to protest sites, using horses to disperse protesters and confining demonstrators in metal pens. "Commissioner Kelly's statement does not reflect the reality of his tenure," said civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel, who plans to represent some of the demonstrators. "I am not confident that the NYPD will allow demonstrators at the Republican convention to meaningfully protest without judicial intervention."

Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

[TLOZ Link5]

I'm pretty sure that the delegates would not want to stay in a hotel in Clinton :roll:

Or at the very least, insist it be referred to as Hell's Kitchen.

[Kris]

Who Are NYC's Republicans? (http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/demographics/20040126/5/853)

[ZippyTheChimp]

New York Newsday

GOP Conventioneers Adjust To The Big City

By SARA KUGLER

Associated Press Writer

January 24, 2004, 9:35 AM EST

NEW YORK -- It's "The Real World" meets "The West Wing."

In a city where Democrats enjoy a 5-1 advantage, a passel of young Bush-backers from the Deep South and the Great Plains has relocated to Manhattan to help prepare for an event no one has ever seen in these parts: this summer's Republican National Convention.

But this is not a reality show; it's reality.

"New York is a total 180," says Keith Hensley, a convention staffer who arrived here in September from Georgetown, Texas. Back home, there's a lot more open space and "the buildings aren't like this," he says, holding his hands an inch apart, as if he's about to clap.

There's a lot to absorb in a short period of time, from navigating a tangle of subway lines and strange neighborhoods, to Thai food and transvestites.

And then there's the local lingo: It's easy to stumble over the pronunciation of Houston Street, which divides the upscale SoHo neighborhood from the laid-back Village. The name is pronounced "HOW-stun," not like the city in the president's home state.

The staff of about 50 will triple by this summer, when thousands of volunteers will join it for the four-day convention that begins Aug. 30.

Some commute back to spouses and homes in Washington. Others are single and thrilled with the chance to soak up all that Gotham has to offer. In true city style, these transplants live stacked on top of one another, in two high-rise apartment buildings within walking distance of convention headquarters at Madison Square Garden.

"When I came here, I was like, 'If I'm going to do New York, I'm going to do New York," says Hensley, 23, who works as an assistant to the convention's chief operating officer.

That means hitting the art museums, getting lost in Central Park, browsing rare book stores in Greenwich Village, Broadway shows on a Wednesday night and Thai food three times a week _ delivered, of course.

Staffers are also encountering new experiences like miso soup and the occasional catcall from a man dressed as a woman on colorful Bleecker Street.

"Nothing shocks me as much as it did when I first got here," Hensley says. "Now it's just like, well, that's New York."

Living here also means entertaining out-of-town guests, finding a church to attend on Sundays and calming nervous relatives about the city's negative reputation.

"I definitely haven't been afraid walking around by myself or anything, and it seems like it's a lot cleaner than most people probably would initially think of New York," said Elizabeth Hogan, 27, of Shreveport, La.

Hensley says his father was stunned when he told him of his plans.

"The first thing he said to me? I don't think you can print that," Hensley said. Dad came around, though, when he learned that his middle child would be working for the Republicans.

Staffers usually work 12-hour days, sometimes longer. The staff, which also includes some New Yorkers, handles everything from hotel assignments to the event's program. Essentially their task is to put on a four-day meeting for 50,000 people, which also means planning a series of events and parties throughout the city, outside the official convention.

Denise Dick, 32, who commutes from her home in Washington, says she and her husband try to spend some weekends in New York.

"It's just such a unique opportunity to really get to know New York and to feel like you're a part of the lifestyle of New York, versus just coming here for a vacation," said Dick, who is from Hillsboro, Ohio.

Hensley has also found that New Yorkers' stereotypical gruff exterior can be chipped away, with prodding.

"People in New York love to talk _ as long as you instigate the talking," he says.

The city comes with its own cultural conundrums. One staffer was told that New Yorkers tip their apartment doormen, but missed the essential explanation that once a year at the holidays is sufficient. For weeks he slipped them a tip each time he entered or left the building, and couldn't figure out how city-dwellers afforded this custom.

The staffers' rent at two luxury executive buildings, with fitness centers and rooftop decks, is paid by the New York City Host Committee, the fund-raising arm for the event.

And what do New Yorkers say when staffers describe what they do for a living?

"So you must be rich," one woman growled at Hensley.

"And I said, 'No, no, you are sadly mistaken,"' he said, laughing. "And she gave me this look, like she didn't like me, and I was like, you know, I'm still the same guy, I just believe in something."

The convention workers say they get a wide range of reactions. A familiar one: "What a bold move to do it in the city," Hogan said. "But I haven't had any major snarls or glares."

One unmarried staffer described how a woman chatted him up at a bar, only to flounce away in a huff after he revealed that he was working for the president.

This is the first Republican Convention ever in New York, a state that has not backed a GOP presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984. But the city has elected two successive Republican mayors, Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg.

Convention CEO and Alabama native Bill Harris, a self-described "country boy in the big city," acknowledges that most of the convention plans and business deals are being made with Democrats.

"Maybe it hadn't happened in the past and maybe it won't happen in the future, but I do think that right now, the city and the party agendas coincide, for different reasons maybe," he said recently. "New York in my mind is desirous of a spectacular national event, on a grand scale, and obviously our party is desirous of a spectacular convention on a grand scale."

The Republican staffers are adapting well to their new habitat, and in some cases, have begun doing very "New York" things like dressing in black, grumbling at tourists and getting asked for directions.

"It feels like home," Hensley said.

Some are even threatening to stay.

Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press

[TLOZ Link5]

Maybe, just maybe, this could be good for the city's image...

Nah.

[BrooklynRider]

I am sensing an anti-Republican or perhaps anti-Bush sentiment on our forum. If so, see the two links below. I hope you'll get seek out the activist in youreselves and join...

www.counterconvention.org

www.rncnotwelcome.org

[Kris]

January 29, 2004

Mayor Says Role at Convention Is Not to Be a Bush Cheerleader

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has entertained President Bush at his home, and once made the optimistic claim that Mr. Bush could carry New York City in the next election. But that does not mean that Mr. Bloomberg plans to spend his time at the Republican National Convention this summer screaming his support for the president.

Yesterday, during a radio interview on WNYC, a listener who described himself as a Democratic supporter of the mayor who dislikes the president, asked if Mr. Bloomberg planned to endorse President Bush from the podium at the convention. Mr. Bloomberg did not back away from his support for the president. But he also did not choose the public radio program as a venue for praising Mr. Bush.

"I'm told the mayors traditionally give a welcome speech, and I would be thrilled to do that," he said. "After that, I'm not a particularly political guy. I'll be spending the convention outside with the police to make sure the protesters have the ability to protest but that they don't disrupt the lives of others. I'm going to do what I can to make this city the showcase for the world."

This was quite different from how Mr. Bloomberg, a Democrat turned Republican who supports nonpartisan elections, characterized his viewpoint of Mr. Bush when speaking to Republicans on Staten Island last April. "We're going to have in a year and a half the best convention anybody's ever had right here in New York City," he said then. "And we are going to get George W. Bush re-elected as president of the United States! We are going to carry New York City and New York State. Everybody thinks I'm crazy, but I think we can do it."

Edward Skyler, the mayor's press secretary, said Mr. Bloomberg fully supports the president but was simply emphasizing that his will be the more minor role among speakers.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

January 31, 2004

Republicans Designate Hotels for Convention Delegations

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

The Texas state Republican delegation will not have a luxury cruise ship to sleep on when it comes to New York this summer - the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, abandoned that idea - but it will have the Hilton New York.

After working with the urgency of a bride trying to come up with a seating chart that does not offend, the Republican National Convention announced yesterday where state delegations will be staying when they visit New York from Aug. 30 through Sept. 2 for the convention. The results of the hotel sweepstakes, which was a closely guarded secret, were released by the convention's Committee on Arrangements..

Mr. DeLay, a Texas Republican, had raised a few eyebrows when he planned to compete with New York's hotels by docking a cruise ship on the Hudson River and offering conventiongoers an alternative place to eat, sleep and relax.

He later dropped that plan, under pressure from many people, including fellow Republicans who said it made party members look like they wanted to avoid mingling with real-life New Yorkers.

But mingle they will in at least 25 hotels concentrated around the Midtown and Battery Park areas. Texas will share the Hilton New York, on the Avenue of the Americas between 53rd and 54th Streets, with Pennsylvania and Florida, two other states important to President Bush's chances for re-election.

"I think it's great," said Sara Gear Boyd, national committeewoman for the Vermont Republican Party, about her delegation's assignment to the Hilton Times Square, on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. "It's clean, it's vivacious again. It's the New York experience."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

February 2, 2004

Republican Conventioneers Get Their Hotel List

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

Once every four years, Betsy Werronen is reminded what an afterthought she is. It's not personal, but as Republican Party chairwoman for the District of Columbia, where just about 8 percent of registered voters are Republican, she does not carry the clout of, say, a party leader from Texas.

So when it comes time for the party's national nominating convention, she and her fellow D.C. delegates are lucky if they get a clean room somewhere near the hall. Four years ago, in Philadelphia, the district's delegation got a decidedly middlebrow Best Western.

But when national party officials handed out hotel assignments on Friday, Ms. Werronen was given the Algonquin, a hotel that may not be among New York's most luxurious, but is certainly among its most historic.

"I think they are trying to make up for past sins," Ms. Werronen said of the convention planners, with a laugh. "D.C. has not in the past fared too well. Let me tell you, compared to the Best Western, it will really be a treat."

The Republican National Committee's annual winter meeting in Washington is a chance to rally the troops for the coming political year, update them on the party's plans for the convention and give out hotel assignments. The convention, scheduled for Aug. 30 through Sept. 2 at Madison Square Garden, is technically about nominating George W. Bush to seek a second term as president. Practically, though, it's about partying, and central to that are hotel assignments.

"It's always the most anticipated moment of the winter meeting,'' said Alan Novak, state chairman from Pennsylvania. "Every state wants to know where they are staying."

Mr. Novak and his delegation landed in the Hilton New York along with Florida and Texas. Convention organizers said accommodations were assigned based on criteria like the size of the delegation. But as Ms. Werronen's experiences suggest, the decision may well be based on even more practical matters, like which states are crucial come the general election.

Or maybe it's just about putting parties with similar culinary tastes together.

"It is going to be the best hotel to have a good time," Mr. Novak said of the Hilton near Rockefeller Center. "We'll find some way to get some good barbecue into the hotel."

It was actually the Committee on Arrangements that decided who got to stay where. And like other aspects of the convention planning, the list of hotels was treated as a closely guarded secret right until about 4:30 p.m. Friday, when everyone found out at once.

So who gets the prime locations?

California, and presumably its new governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, will be staying at the New York Marriott Marquis, one of the largest hotels in the city, with nearly 2,000 rooms. It also has its lobby on the eighth floor, a throwback to a time when the hotel was doing whatever it could to keep its guests far away from the tawdriness of Times Square, according to a spokeswoman for the hotel. Mr. Schwarzenegger may like to know that the hotel recently spent $3.5 million to build a new physical fitness center (which is free to hotel guests).

Rhode Island, Puerto Rico, Utah and Delaware have been put in the Millenium Hilton, which may be a bit of a hike from the convention center at Madison Square Garden, but will offer its guests an unrivaled view of ground zero. The Republicans have gone to great lengths to insist they are not coming to New York for the first time in the party's history to exploit the tragedy of Sept. 11. And a party spokeswoman became nervous when it was pointed out that 90 percent of the rooms in the hotel offer a view of the site.

Then, of course, there is Washington, D.C., in the Algonquin. At 59 West 44th Street, "The Gonk," as it was once fondly called, was where writers and critics, or, as a plaque in the hotel says, "the century's literary luminaries," met for lunch from 1919 to 1929 in a group that became known as the Round Table. If ever there were the possibility of a culture clash between the host city and its guests, this quirky hotel once might have been the front line.

But the hotel, which has been long on business travelers and a bit short on luminaries in recent days, is as excited about the D.C. delegates as they are about the hotel. And there are aspects of the Algonquin that might actually make some of the visitors feel right at home. "A liberal is a man who leaves the room when a fight starts," said Dorothy Parker, the writer and poet, in a quotation that has been immortalized on a hotel room door.

But then on a second door, there is another snarky quotation from Mrs. Parker that Republicans might, perhaps, not feel too warmly about: "How can you tell?" she asked, on hearing that former President Calvin Coolidge, a Republican, was dead.

Jess Wisloski contributed reporting for this article.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[TLOZ Link5]

And of course, Bush will get the Waldorf.

[Kris]

February 23, 2004

To Greet G.O.P., Protests of Varying Volume

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/02/23/nyregion/23protest-lg.jpg
Billionaires for Bush, using satire in their name and mission, which is anything but support for the president.

When the Republican National Convention comes to town, the Rev. Peter Laarman hopes to greet it with a quiet, reserved defiance. He wants religious leaders to hold discussion groups on concerns about politicizing Sept. 11. He wants to have seminars to discuss lost jobs. And he wants to bring experts to New York to discuss national security.

What he does not want to do is take to the streets with huge protests. Instead, through a campaign he calls the Accountability Project, he hopes to offer a thoughtful counterpoint when the Republicans stage their nominating convention in New York, scheduled for Aug. 30 through Sept. 2.

But Mr. Laarman may find his tempered voice drowned out in what may well be a tense and angry time on the streets of Manhattan.

Though the Police Department and many protest organizers have been reluctant to predict how many people will ultimately turn out for protests, estimates have ranged from 500,000 people to a million.

Six months before any delegate is to take a seat at Madison Square Garden, it is clear that many groups are already planning strategy and activities. Labor unions, environmentalists, self-declared anarchists and others who merely label themselves as anti-Bush or anti-Republican are making plans to turn out. Barely a week passes without several planning sessions in New York, focusing on everything from housing and tactics to legal strategy and what to expect in interactions with the police.

Organizers have gathered in a private loft in SoHo, in offices owned by the United Federation of Teachers near Wall Street, in a church in the East Village, and in offices around the city. The groups have names like United for Peace and Justice and Not in Our Name, and their intentions run the gamut from wanting to shut the convention down to holding the Labor Day parade on Thursday, Sept. 2, the day President Bush is scheduled to accept his party's nomination.

There are people planning tent cities to accommodate protesters from across the country, lawyers' committees to assist those who are arrested, legal observers to monitor the police, and baby sitters, dog walkers, translators, medics, even clergy members. All are working to help protesters overwhelm the positive message Republicans are hoping their convention generates.

At the same time, some organizers, like Mr. Laarman, do not want to risk clashing with the police and are looking at alternative means to make their point. The group Billionaires for Bush, for example, plans to use humor and satire, holding up signs like "Corporations are people, too" and "More Bush, Less Taxes."

"You see that people understand the stakes, and so there is much more of a judicious view about making sure we do something that is effective, and is heard, and that gets attention, and that doesn't backfire," said Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, which, with other labor organizations, has begun to discuss counter-convention plans.

The problem of backfiring protests is much on the minds of many protest organizers, who say that any violence would serve only to marginalize their message and strengthen Mr. Bush's appeal.

"We all can see that it works very much to the advantage of the administration if the president strikes a heroic pose in New York, identifying with the tragedy of Sept. 11 yet again, and if the people who are registering displeasure are doing so in a violent and disruptive way," said Mr. Laarman, who left his post as senior minister at Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square in Greenwich Village to help plan anti-convention activities for the Accountability Project.

He added: "I am not in the business of predictions, but it is my guess a very significant number of people from New York and from around the world are going to take the position that the convention should be shut down or disrupted. There is a good likelihood of that."

Complicating things for protest organizers, the police, the Secret Service and convention planners have revealed little of their plans. The police have not said where they will allow protesters to demonstrate, though they have said that protest areas would be within "sight and sound" of the convention, a legal threshold. "We're working with protest organizers already,'' said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul J. Browne, "and we will work with them throughout. We want to give them sight and sound proximity, while allowing R.N.C. participants uninterrupted access to and from the convention.''

He added later, "We're looking to save lives, not stifle dissent.''

Nonetheless, many people planning to protest are girding themselves for encounters with the police. Ann Shirazi, 59, a social worker who lives in Manhattan, said she thought the police - in New York and across the nation - were using their powers to silence critics of the government.

"It does frighten me this can happen in my country," Ms. Shirazi said. "It will not stop me from standing on a street corner. But it is terrifying."

Ms. Shirazi, who plans to protest against the convention, was so concerned she accepted the invitation of a group calling itself the Organization to attend a "Know Your Rights" seminar. At the seminar, in a loft at Broadway and Houston Street, about 25 people whose ages ranged from 17 to 59 sat and listened recently as three lawyers gave advice and social commentary on what one lawyer called "these dark times."

"Even if you are aware of your rights, it doesn't mean they will be respected," said Debbie Hrbek, a criminal lawyer who volunteered to address the gathering. "You need to go into every situation with a police officer anticipating they won't do the right thing."

The audience accepted that as a given and then asked questions.

"Is it legal during a protest when the cops swoop in and arrest people?''

"Can the police demand to look in your bag for no reason?"

"Once arrested, how long can they hold you?"

Audience members sat quietly, many taking notes as the lawyers encouraged them not to confront the police.

"The police can do anything they want," said Bruce Bentley, co-chairman of the Mass Defense Committee of the National Lawyers Guild in New York. "Is it lawful or not? That will be decided later. That's why we are saying it is better not to mix it up with the cops."

Others, however, like Mr. Laarman, of the Accountability Project, were focusing on staying off the streets. His goal, he said, is to provide a "third narrative" to the convention - the first being the convention itself and the second direct confrontation. He said he is aiming his approach at people like his mother, whom he described as an independent voter living in Wisconsin.

Mr. Laarman and Carl Lipscombe, operating out of an office on the 24th floor at 50 Broadway, are trying to raise money and enlist help. Their goal, Mr. Laarman said, is to try to counter the convention's message without staging protests.

They plan to start later next month, when his group is the co-host of a town hall forum called "Shock and Awe in New York" - playing off the name the military gave for its opening offensive against Iraq - at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

A university brochure says, in part, that notable New Yorkers will examine the question of "what communities can do when political leaders appropriate emotionally charged icons for their own purposes."

Groups like Anarchists World Fair, Radical Teachers, Time's Up, World War III Arts-in-Action, Campaign to Demilitarize the Police and Still We Rise, to name a few, have also been meeting together and sharing information for months, operating under an umbrella called the No RNC Clearinghouse. Their meetings are drawing more than 100 people, with an abundance of body piercing, tattoos, dreadlocks and army fatigues, and are organized with the precision and language of a business meeting, including flow charts and agendas.

Bill Dobbs, a spokesman for United for Peace and Justice, a coalition that organized an antiwar rally in Manhattan last February that attracted crowds estimated at 100,000 to 500,000 people, said that the size and intensity of the planning were not surprising.

"All signs point to the convention becoming a magnet for protest as so many New Yorkers and others want to speak their mind about Bush policies, foreign and domestic," Mr. Dobbs said after attending the most recent Clearinghouse meeting.

Many people are talking about coming in from around the country and other parts of the world. Using the Internet as an organizing tool, they are trying to set up housing, transportation and other logistical issues.

Jays Janney, 35, a doctoral student in sociology at Indiana University, said she and about seven other graduate students were preparing to come to protest and to document the interaction between the police and protesters. The students have organized reading groups to discuss works about social movements. Next will be direct action training, or the practical aspects of participating in a large and potentially volatile protest, she said.

"One of the students asked her mom for some cash, and the mom said, 'Only if I get to go, too,' " Ms. Janney said.

For all this, the Republicans said they were not much concerned.

"We are confident that the N.Y.P.D. and U.S. Secret Service will create a security plan that will allow the Republican National Convention to conduct its business in a safe and orderly manner, while ensuring that other individuals are allowed to voice their opinions at that time in New York City," said Leslie Beyer, deputy spokeswoman for the campaign.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

February 24, 2004

PUBLIC LIVES

How Do You Plan a Party for 50,000? Don't Ask

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

WILLIAM HARRIS isn't talking.

Don't be mistaken, he is not silent. He's running through his litany of talking points and prepared answers, but he's not giving anything away.

Mr. Harris likes a surprise.

For months now, Mr. Harris has been quietly developing plans to stage one of the biggest parties New York has seen in a long time. He is the chief executive of the Republican National Convention, which is coming to Madison Square Garden this summer, and as such is a sort of super concierge to the national Republican Party.

He must find a way to entertain 50,000 delegates, dignitaries and guests, as well as hold the attention of a national television audience. All while giving President Bush a running start in his re-election bid.

And he isn't talking. "I'm trying to figure out how not to tell you," Mr. Harris said as he sank into a black leather sofa in his office.

Here's some of what he's not telling: Where will President Bush give his acceptance speech? There has been speculation that he might do it outside the Garden, and while that is unlikely, Mr. Harris won't give so much as a wink or a nod. He isn't discussing the kind of events he plans to stage, the neighborhoods he'd like to visit, or really much of anything about what to expect.

It's always back to his talking points.

"A convention is a national event,'' he said. "And so what you want in terms of a national event is to create an infrastructure - a forum, if you will - that's the most stable forum possible so you can present a vision and an image to the American people."

Wherever did he learn to talk like that?

Mr. Harris is a veteran party operative, a Southern Republican who started rising through the ranks when Democrats still reigned supreme in the South. He grew up in Birmingham, Ala., and fell into politics when a roommate's sister married the executive director of the Alabama Republican Party. He did volunteer work for the party, helped run campaigns and eventually became chairman of the state party.

"I just sort of kept doing it," he said.

He's helped out in every convention since 1972, arranging transportation, aiding state delegations, serving as sergeant-at-arms. Now he is leading his party into enemy territory. The Republicans have never before held their nominating convention in New York City, where there are five registered Democrats for every registered Republican. There is talk of large protests and unprecedented security.

But Mr. Harris said he wasn't worried.

The Republicans insist that they are not coming to New York to capitalize on Sept. 11 and have said that they won't hold any convention-related events at ground zero. Not everyone believes them. When Mr. Harris was asked if they are still committed to staying away, he paused for a split second, then seemed to answer very carefully.

"I am committed to that, yes," he said.

So if not ground zero, then why New York? Mr. Harris says he would like to hold events in the neighborhoods, where his candidate could benefit by seeming to embrace the ethnic diversity that is New York. But he's not saying where or when. He says he'd like to employ some of the national icons here, but he won't say which ones. "How about the Brooklyn Bridge?" he was asked.

"That's a good suggestion," he said.

And so it's back to the talking points. "In my mind, this commitment that I made to myself and to all the people I've talked to about getting this job was: let's really see if we can redefine this convention," he said.

But how?

SELECTING New York was a start. Mr. Harris has an office high above Madison Square Garden. His aides asked that the exact floor not be published, for security reasons, which would suggest more concern than Mr. Harris is ready to concede. Before coming to New York, Mr. Harris said, he was concerned about the traffic, the strong labor unions and the high prices. The traffic is still a problem, he said, and the prices are high, but the labor unions are very cooperative. He said he understood that they wanted the work the convention would generate and weren't in this to promote the president.

But for Mr. Harris, motivation doesn't matter. "Some people who want it to be a successful experience aren't doing it because they want to help George Bush," he said. "They want to do it because they see it as a good thing for New York."

Considering all the time he is spending in New York, when he is not home in Virginia, Mr. Harris doesn't seem to be getting out much. He can't recall the restaurants he has dined in, and he hasn't been to a Broadway show this year.

Perhaps he has been way too busy with all those things he won't talk about. He became a tad playful when asked if California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, would play a prominent role at the convention. "Oh, I think people will be very excited to see the governor," he said.

Does that mean Mr. Schwarzenegger will be giving a prime-time speech?

"I mean he gets access to the floor of the convention as governor," Mr. Harris said.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[dbhstockton]

I rarely speak on the topic, but I'm concerned about terrorism here. MSG sits atop Penn Station, which would be basically indefensible to a ruthlessly creative and well-funded terrorist group. It's always concerned me. You can't control who or what's going to be on every train coming in and out of Penn Station. I imagine the people doing the security for this thing are really stressed out, if not they're really stupid.

[DougGold]

Can anybody suggest any websites for groups that are organizing protests during the convention?

[Kris]

February 28, 2004

Penn Station Is to Stay Open During G.O.P. Convention

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

Federal officials helping to coordinate security for the Republican National Convention this summer are planning to keep Pennsylvania Station open during the four-day event, though there will be much more security in the station and perhaps on the trains as well.

Penn Station is the busiest commuter rail station in the country, serving about 600,000 passengers on any given work day, and the possibility of its closing during the four-day convention is a source of anxiety not only for commuters, but for political leaders not eager to disrupt the lives of so many people.

The United States Secret Service, the lead federal agency coordinating security for the convention, has been working on plans that it says seek to balance security at Madison Square Garden for President Bush and the 50,000 others at the convention with the need to keep Midtown running when the convention is held from Aug. 30 through Sept. 2.

Steven G. Hughes, Secret Service coordinator for the convention, said it is inevitable that New Yorkers will be inconvenienced. Stores within the area will have to arrange their pickups and deliveries at specified times. No truck will get into the area without first being screened. Garbage cans and mailboxes will be removed. Garbage pickups will have to be rearranged so that bags do not sit on the street.

But he said that the Secret Service wanted life to go on. So while plans can change if there is suddenly a perceived threat, plans call for the rail station to remain open, he said. There may, however, be security agents on every train that comes in and out of the station, which services Amtrak, the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit. In addition, the National Guard, which already patrols the station, may be asked to beef up its presence there.

It is a sensitive assignment for the Secret Service, which is working closely with the New York City Police Department and 39 other state, city and federal agencies to address the prospect of record numbers of protesters, the potential threat of terrorism and the promise of frayed nerves among residents and business people from the area.

"There will be ultimate security for this event,'' Mr. Hughes said in an interview in his office in Brooklyn. "We are leaving no stone unturned."

The Republican National Convention has been declared a national security event, which gives the Secret Service status as lead federal agency helping coordinate the activities of other agencies. Together the Secret Service, the city police and the other agencies have assembled 18 subcommittees to address everything from training to motorcade route safety to public information. The agencies plan to stage mock drills in June, for example.

This will be the first Republican National Convention in New York, a city with a history of liberal activism and with five enrolled Democrats for every enrolled Republican. Though it is impossible to say how many people will turn out, demonstrators are predicting large numbers of protesters. Mr. Hughes said that law enforcement began planning last year and would be "prepared for any number."

While a lot of the nuts and bolts of the security operation will be carried out by the Police Department, a lot of what the city police decides will depend on where the Secret Service sets up its so-called frozen zone, which has not yet been determined. The Police Department - which will decide where protesters will be permitted and how they will be allowed to assemble, whether behind barricades or in penned areas - must first wait for the Secret Service to makes its decision, law enforcement officials said.

Security for a convention is a mammoth task. Law enforcement officials, for example, will conduct an assessment of each of the 43 hotels that will house officials, delegates and guests. It takes one month to scrutinize a hotel, Mr. Hughes said, with investigators looking at all personnel as well as the accessibility of fire escapes, the reliability of backup generators and other details.

The Secret Service must also provide security inside the Garden. In 1992, when the Democrats held their convention in New York, no one but New York City police officers and Secret Service agents were allowed to carry guns in the arena, which angered state police security details working with governors from other states. This time, however, the Secret Service is trying to come up with some type of negotiated agreement in advance, so that there are no conflicts on conventions days.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[dbhstockton]

I doubt the RNC really knew what they were getting into, holding their convention above the busiest train station in the country. Their fat suburban minds have no conception of the realities of urban density. I hope this convention is an absolute debacle, making them sorry they ever thought of using NYC as a backdrop to their sickening propaganda.

[Kris]

March 5, 2004

For Bloomberg and the G.O.P., Pre-Party Jitters

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

On paper, the Republican National Convention should be the four most fabulous days in Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's political career. He will be presiding over the largest gathering of fellow Republicans ever in New York, with the nation's eyes turned on his city and, presumably, the mayor himself.

But Mr. Bloomberg — a lifelong Democrat who became a Republican to run for office — finds himself in an uncomfortable political position, one that promises to get tougher as the convention nears. New York Democrats, who outnumber Republicans by a ratio of five to one, are complaining that their mayor is doing the bidding of the White House. At the same time, Republicans close to the White House say they view Mr. Bloomberg's Democratic background with suspicion and have clashed with his aides over logistical and financial details of the convention.

It is as if Mr. Bloomberg will be host of a dinner party where half the guests cannot stand the other half, and it is only the salad course.

At times, the White House and City Hall have gone head to head over who is ultimately in control of the event. The host committee (city officials in charge of raising the money) and the committee on arrangements (national Republicans in charge of spending it) have disagreed over everything from how much money should be spent on vendors to how security should be handled.

These disputes have been colored in part, several officials said, by lingering resentments from a nasty confrontation between the Bloomberg administration and Bush officials about ground zero security at the first anniversary of Sept. 11. But in choosing New York, national Republicans overcame any qualms, thanks to the irresistible ground zero backdrop and the more than $60 million Mr. Bloomberg pledged to raise for the convention, scheduled for Aug. 30 through Sept. 2.

"Like anything else in the commercial world, most of the disagreements are over money," said David A. Norcross, who represents the national party as chairman of the committee on arrangements. "When you've raised the money, it is hard to let go." A few weeks ago, Mr. Norcross was called in from Washington to the convention's Midtown headquarters to mediate the disputes.

The White House also dismisses any talk of conflicts. "This administration has an excellent working relationship with Mr. Bloomberg," said Ken Lisaius, a White House spokesman. "Mr. Bloomberg and the president have a good relationship as well."

Edward Skyler, the mayor's press secretary, said, "There is nothing more than the usual tensions that exist when any two organizations work together," adding: "No matter what any New Yorker's political persuasion or beliefs are — and we have people from all over in the spectrum on this — there is little dispute that this is a great thing for the city."

There are many examples of mayors being involved with conventions for opposing political parties. For example, Mayor Edward G. Rendell of Philadelphia signed up the Republicans for 2000 and had gone on to become the general chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Mr. Bloomberg's situation is far more complex. He is a member of the party here to re-elect the president, but he needs the votes of a majority in the opposing party.

To wit, a recent caller to the mayor's radio program, a Democrat who said he had voted for Mr. Bloomberg in 2001, warned that if he made an enthusiastic speech for President Bush at the convention, he could expect this voter's wrath in the polling place next year.

"The mayor is starting to get the reality of how much people hate Bush in this city," said Sarah S. Kovner, a Manhattan Democrat who served in the Clinton administration. "People who have been strong supporters of him are not going to take too kindly to his support of the president. I think they will be sorry they asked for this convention."

Further, Mr. Bloomberg finds himself on the other side of the president or the national party on several divisive issues, like gay marriage, abortion rights and gun control. And the mayor's aides make it clear that their goal for the convention begins and ends with the economic benefit for the city and that they are not interested in the event's political objectives. "The mayor and his staff are not doing this for partisan reasons," said a Republican consultant involved in the convention. "If they were, there would be zero conflict."

And while Mr. Bloomberg has raised and donated millions of dollars for the party and its candidates, the consultant said, "The fact is that everyone who works with him and around him are Democrats. That makes us a little uneasy."

Six Republicans involved with the convention all drew a contrast with Gov. George E. Pataki, whom they cited for his open embrace of the president, his willingness to raise money and his desire to "literally do anything we want," one White House official said.

Still, at the end of the day, the national Republican Party, the White House and the Bloomberg administration all share the same goal, said William D. Harris, chief executive officer of the convention, in an e-mail message: "to create the best possible convention for the Republican Party and the city of New York."

But some of the bad feeling goes back to the first anniversary of Sept. 11 at ground zero. Among the issues were that invitations were sent out well in advance to the families of those killed, and the Secret Service announced less than a week before the event that each family member would have to come much earlier than planned to pass through a metal detector, according to three officials in the administration.

"Under ordinary circumstances," said one of the officials, "you do whatever the Secret Service wants. But in this case, this would have ruined the ceremony because family members would have waited on long lines to get in and many would have missed hearing their loved one's name being read." Bloomberg officials recalled how the president's visit to the World Series a year before had caused fans to miss half the game because of long security procedures.

City Hall balked again last September at a Secret Service request for metal detectors at ground zero before Vice President Dick Cheney's planned visit. Mr. Cheney canceled the visit and spent the day elsewhere in the city.

White House officials raised these incidents when the city bid on the convention, said three people involved on both sides, and it was an issue that had to be mitigated, largely through the city's tasty package.

The Bloomberg administration, citing its own antiterrorism task force, feels confident that it can secure the convention without outside help. The committee on arrangements wants an outside security firm. "There has always been a need for security," Mr. Norcross said. "And is it heightened now without a doubt."

But the host committee — Bloomberg appointees — did not want to have to pay for it, and insists that any outside security contracts be paid for with general fund money. The administration has pledged to raise more than $60 million for the event and say they have already surpassed their goal. Other contracts, relating to things like transportation and other infrastructure needed for the event to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, are also in dispute, although Mr. Norcross said these disagreements were not serious.

Yet Mr. Bloomberg must also keep an eye on the voters of New York. Democrats who plan to run against the mayor next year will almost certainly use any perceived coziness with the national Republican Party to woo swing voters who dislike the president.

The mayor has tried to find a balance. For example, he said yesterday that he thought it was fine for the president to use images from Sept. 11 in his campaign ads. But he has also opposed Mr. Bush on the proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. And while he has expressed support for Mr. Bush's re-election, he has said he has no plans to speak at the convention.

"The mayor's role here is not to capture the center stage during the convention," said Mr. Skyler, his spokesman. "His job is to make sure the city is a good host. You're talking about filling hotels and Broadway shows at a traditionally slow time of the year. It's not about helping the mayor, it's about what is good for this city."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[MidnightRambler]

well, just to play the devil's advocate for a moment, how bad would a massive terrorist attack during the RNC really be? just look at all the positives:

- it would destroy the ugliest sports arena in america
- it would destroy the ugliest train station in america
- it would eliminate the entire fascist... er, republican party leadership

assuming no innocent people get killed, it doesn't sound like such a bad proposition.

[TonyO]

While I want Bush sent home as much as anyone, that kind of talk only makes progressives look radical. A terrorist attack should not be wished on anyone, including the GOP, and especially not in NYC.

[Kris]

April 2, 2004

Penn Station May Close Temporarily for Convention

By DIANE CARDWELL

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg raised the possibility yesterday that Pennsylvania Station might be shut down temporarily during the Republican National Convention.

Earlier this week, officials in Boston, where the Democratic National Convention is to be held in July, announced that a rail and subway hub, North Station, would be closed for an entire week, beginning three days before the convention. The station is in the same building as the FleetCenter, where the convention will take place, and security officials said they deemed the closing necessary, especially after the recent train bombings in Madrid.

But in New York, where the Republican convention will be held at Madison Square Garden from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, police and Secret Service officials had dismissed suggestions of a similar closing for Penn Station, although they cautioned that those plans could change. Earlier this week, the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, issued a statement saying that the city would remain "open for business'' during the convention, including the station and "all major thoroughfares."

But yesterday, after saying that the Secret Service had not asked the city to close the station, Mr. Bloomberg allowed for the possibility of shutting it down, if only for a few hours.

"If the Secret Service feels that it's necessary we'll certainly talk to them," Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference when asked if he thought the station should be shut. "If they came and said that, you know, for two hours or something they felt that there was a heightened security during the presidential speech above, that wouldn't be the world's worst thing."

Still, he said, any disruptions would be minor and would probably be limited to the areas immediately surrounding the garden. "Most people will go about their business and not even know that there is another event taking place," he said.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[dbhstockton]

Still, he said, any disruptions would be minor and would probably be limited to the areas immediately surrounding the garden. "Most people will go about their business and not even know that there is another event taking place," he said.

Does anyone here actually believe that? Aren't there 100,000+ commuters a day passing through Penn station?

[Freedom Tower]

well, just to play the devil's advocate for a moment, how bad would a massive terrorist attack during the RNC really be? just look at all the positives:

- it would destroy the ugliest sports arena in america
- it would destroy the ugliest train station in america
- it would eliminate the entire fascist... er, republican party leadership

assuming no innocent people get killed, it doesn't sound like such a bad proposition.

And all this time I thought bleeding heart liberals didn't want to fight terrorism because they supported it. Now I've realized it! Communists, er i mean liberals don't want to fight terrorism because they are hoping it will destroy the Republican party! Thanks for clearing that up midnight rambler. Because I guess terrorist attacks are good when they kill the right people, huh?

This confirms everything I have ever thought about the liberal/terrorist connection. - this isnt a joke either. many liberals like to take the threat of terrorism as a joke. if family membors of 911 victims read the "pros" to a terrorist attack, I'm sure they'd be apalled.-

And I don't want to hear the "it was just a joke, don't take it seriously" responses. Republicans are scrutinized for everything they say, IE ME!!. Midnight rambler thinks he can get away with supporting the murder of groups of people that disagree with him. Hmmm, I guess we should all support the kiling of anyone that disagrees with us politically, that is facism the way the nazis used it! Congratulations on becoming a nazi/terrorist rambler!

[krulltime]

I pass through Penn station when I get off from the 2 or the 3 and then I walk on 33st or underground to get to work on 33st between 9th and 10th avenue...

:x I will called it a disruption.

[MidnightRambler]

well, just to play the devil's advocate for a moment, how bad would a massive terrorist attack during the RNC really be? just look at all the positives:

- it would destroy the ugliest sports arena in america
- it would destroy the ugliest train station in america
- it would eliminate the entire fascist... er, republican party leadership

assuming no innocent people get killed, it doesn't sound like such a bad proposition.

And all this time I thought bleeding heart liberals didn't want to fight terrorism because they supported it. Now I've realized it! Communists, er i mean liberals don't want to fight terrorism because they are hoping it will destroy the Republican party! Thanks for clearing that up midnight rambler. Because I guess terrorist attacks are good when they kill the right people, huh?

This confirms everything I have ever thought about the liberal/terrorist connection. - this isnt a joke either. many liberals like to take the threat of terrorism as a joke. if family membors of 911 victims read the "pros" to a terrorist attack, I'm sure they'd be apalled.-

And I don't want to hear the "it was just a joke, don't take it seriously" responses. Republicans are scrutinized for everything they say, IE ME!!. Midnight rambler thinks he can get away with supporting the murder of groups of people that disagree with him. Hmmm, I guess we should all support the kiling of anyone that disagrees with us politically, that is facism the way the nazis used it! Congratulations on becoming a nazi/terrorist rambler!

You know, I could offer a rebuttal to just about everything you said, but I have neither the time nor the energy to do so, and I suspect that you probably wouldn't read it if I did. Therefore, since don't I want to dignify your post with a real response, I'll just stoop to your level of name-calling (nazi terrorist?) and say that you're a complete idiot.

And now back to the topic at hand...

[Agglomeration]

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/02/23/nyregion/23protest-lg.jpg

The young women in that picture- they look pretty cute if you ask me. The one on the far right with the elegant black gown and dress shoes is the hottest...yum. :wink:

Back to the RNC Convention, I predict Bush will be the least henious part of the big meeting. We all know what Pataki wants to do in Lower Manhattan during that convention. The city and state governments are proving every bit as out-of-touch with the voters as the federal government is. I despise Bloomberg and Pataki more than I despise Bush; at least he doesn't pretend to be politically correct. But since Bush has incurred the open hatred of virtually every staunch liberal in the country, I'll leave it to them to condemn everything about him and his policies.

[Freedom Tower]

well, just to play the devil's advocate for a moment, how bad would a massive terrorist attack during the RNC really be? just look at all the positives:

- it would destroy the ugliest sports arena in america
- it would destroy the ugliest train station in america
- it would eliminate the entire fascist... er, republican party leadership

assuming no innocent people get killed, it doesn't sound like such a bad proposition.

And all this time I thought bleeding heart liberals didn't want to fight terrorism because they supported it. Now I've realized it! Communists, er i mean liberals don't want to fight terrorism because they are hoping it will destroy the Republican party! Thanks for clearing that up midnight rambler. Because I guess terrorist attacks are good when they kill the right people, huh?

This confirms everything I have ever thought about the liberal/terrorist connection. - this isnt a joke either. many liberals like to take the threat of terrorism as a joke. if family membors of 911 victims read the "pros" to a terrorist attack, I'm sure they'd be apalled.-

And I don't want to hear the "it was just a joke, don't take it seriously" responses. Republicans are scrutinized for everything they say, IE ME!!. Midnight rambler thinks he can get away with supporting the murder of groups of people that disagree with him. Hmmm, I guess we should all support the kiling of anyone that disagrees with us politically, that is facism the way the nazis used it! Congratulations on becoming a nazi/terrorist rambler!

You know, I could offer a rebuttal to just about everything you said, but I have neither the time nor the energy to do so, and I suspect that you probably wouldn't read it if I did. Therefore, since don't I want to dignify your post with a real response, I'll just stoop to your level of name-calling (nazi terrorist?) and say that you're a complete idiot.

And now back to the topic at hand...

My level of name calling? Did you not just call the republican party a group of fascists? I was simply following your level of name calling.

My name calling is no worse than yours, and more truthful because YOU, like terrorists, wish the death and murder of a large group of people because they disagree with your opinions!!!

[Freedom Tower]

A terrorist attack should not be wished on anyone, including the GOP, and especially not in NYC.

Although I nearly always disagree with you politically, tonyo, I cannot agree more with your above statement. Despite my anti-liberal stance I would never wish something like that to occur to the DNC. I wish they'd be mocked but not attacked!! Free speech and the first amendment also have much to do with not killing people who express opinions contrary to yours!!

Midnight Rambler - even your fellow "progressives" disagree with your "Murder all republicans" idea. [/b]

[MidnightRambler]

You must be the most irratatingly dense person that has ever lived.

[BigMac]

New York Post
April 9, 2004

'Rad' Alert at Convention

By STEFAN C. FRIEDMAN

The NYPD will use specially trained arrest units at this summer's Republican National Convention to track radical groups and arrest protesters set on making mayhem in the streets, officials said yesterday.

The nine-member units will be on the lookout for small bands of anarchists who don masks and attempt to incite large groups of peaceful protesters to commit acts of vandalism.

"They're relatively small groups that try to turn a peaceful crowd toward violence," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.

When the World Economic Forum was held in New York City in early 2002, a similar NYPD unit broke up a group of demonstrators that Browne said was preparing to wreak havoc on The Plaza hotel with pipes, ball bearings and bottles of urine.

"We sent an arrest team in and took them out before anything could happen," Browne said.

A spokesman for United for Peace and Justice - an umbrella organization that's planning a massive convention-time march - said cops went overboard at the World Economic Forum.

"We're very concerned about the First Amendment and are outraged to hear that the NYPD would want to surveil and potentially infiltrate political groups, given the ugly history of police crackdowns on protests in this town," said Bill Dobbs.

While anti-convention Web sites are careful not to explicitly promote violence, many contain so-called "direct action" manuals.

Rncnotwelcome.org, for instance, contains a section titled "Fight the Man and Get Away Safely."

Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc.

[TLOZ Link5]

I'm all for the protests, but no one wants to see a peaceful demonstration used as an excuse to damage property or attack people. You cross that line and you ought to be disciplined. The last thing that anyone wants is what's happened in Seattle, Geneva and Miami, among others, in recent years.

[Kris]

April 10, 2004

Second-Guessing of Bush Now Extends to Convention Site

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

When the Republican Party chose New York City as the site of its 2004 nominating convention, the symbolism was apparent: the G.O.P. would be rallying around its nominee in the city that had come to embody the nation's resolve in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, a place where President Bush once stood on a pile of debris at ground zero, rallying the nation to unite in the war on terror.

But then came Richard A. Clarke, the 9/11 commission and a rising insurgency in Iraq. Now, as the administration faces increasing scrutiny of its handling of pre-9/11 terror threats and the wisdom of extending the war on terrorism into Iraq, the question has emerged whether New York is the best place for the Republicans to be gathering this summer.

"I would assume that it has turned from a win-win to a maybe not," said a Republican political strategist who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. Like many others, the strategist was reluctant to contradict the party line. "I don't think that it is all negative at this point, but it has the potential to turn. It's eroding slowly, and that's a real problem for them."

For President Bush,