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 Michael Klein 
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Wrapping up
Back home, I'll try to answer the question I posed last week: "Why go to Boston?" I got out of it what so many others did: Access. As a reporter, I came away with invaluable contacts in political and entertainment circles -- just as, I'm sure, lobbyists got their access to politicians and grass-roots delegates got access to politicians and protesters got their access to the media. Balloon-drop malfunction aside, I suppose the Democratic Party came away satisfied, too.
My take is that the only real loser in this were the people of Boston. No one can convince me that a political convention is a financial boom for a second-tier city, especially in this post-9/11 era. Fears of terrorism and traffic kept away the locals. Most merchants, even cabbies, insisted that the city was a ghost town. Restaurateurs were beside themselves with anger; conventioneers tend not to be restaurant patrons, since many meals are catered. Hotels were full for a week, true, but managers spent a jittery week in their so-called soft targets. (My company gave me a kit containing a gas mask, flashlight and whistle to keep at my bedside.) And so I'll wrap this blog. I may go to part of the Republican convention in New York at the end of August, but it coincides with the first week at Temple University, where I teach. Thanks for your comments. And don't forget to vote. Thursday, July 29, 2004
Going a round (actually, two) with Janeane Garofalo
One hallway at the FleetCenter is lined with tables, each with a radio control board, a couple of chairs and two microphones. Seems like every radio talk host in America is set up on "Radio Row" for the convention. At any given moment, several dozen wonks, members of Congress, celebs and such are being interviewed. Moments ago, I caught Air America's Al Franken and Fox News' Sean Hannity actually being cordial at Hannity's table during a commercial break. The other day, conservative Hannity appeared on liberal Franken's show. Fingers, as you'd expect, were pointing. Franken brought up the point that Hannity had said that Howard Dean had said that President Bush knew about 9/11 ahead of time. Hannity denied saying this. Franken played a clip from Hannity's show: "...and Howard Dean saying the president knew about 9/11 ahead of time." Hannity replied that he "misspoke."
Then there's Air America's Janeane Garofalo, who not only appeared on Hannity's radio show (carried in Philly on WPHT/1210) on Wednesday but did Hannity's Fox News TV show today. How was it? "Actually, fine," Garofalo told me. "As would be expected. It was a welcome opportunity to refute what he says." (That's Garofalo above, mugging for my camera phone.) Garofalo says she's frequently introduced as an "unapologetic liberal." "What do I have to apologize for?" she asked.
I feel the earth move
There's certainly a diversity of entertainment in this town. Take Wednesday night. At the posh Louis Boston, the Red Hot Chili Peppers headlined an event. (I'd mention the sponsor, but the heinous, umbrella-wielding press-list gatekeeper turned me away, even though I'd cleared an invitation.) The rope line offered glimpses of Alyssa Milano, Richard Schiff, Richard Kind (a Bucks County boy), Wendie Malick, Bianca Jagger, Alan Cumming, Tony Goldwyn, William "Don't Call Me Billy" Baldwin and Jerry Stiller.
Now for the diversity department. Lifetime, the cable channel, partnered with Rock the Vote on a really sweet, incredibly well-run late-night party in the Park Plaza Hotel featuring a short concert by Carole King and Vanessa Carlton introduced by John Edwards' wife, Elizabeth. Theme: "Every Woman Counts." Carlton, 24, and King, 62, met last year during an InStyle mag shoot of women and their idols, and the ever-activist King enlisted Carlton to do benefit shows. Early this morning, they played both solo and together on the piano on each other's hits, including King's "I Feel the Earth Move" and "You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman)" and Carlton's "A Thousand Miles." Backstage after the show, Carlton let on that she came from a nonpolitical family. "We didn't sit around talking politics," she said. "But in the last [three] years, there've been so many eye-openers -- and that's an understatement, eye-openers -- it sparked my interest" in voting. She said she wasn't moved to vote in the 2000 Gore-Bush race. But she plans to vote for the first time Nov. 2. She then told me that her new album, Harmonium, comes out Oct. 19 and asked if I'd mention it. I said I'd think about it. Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Time out for a party primer
What is going on in Boston? From 8 a.m., when state delegations start their days over muffins in their hotel meeting rooms, till 2 a.m, when the bars close, there's something going on. The most diligent delegates spend all day in meetings, ostensibly to work out party issues, before they wend their way through security in midafternoon to go to the FleetCenter. Most delegates balance meetings with shopping, sightseeing and such. (Philly political operative Eleanor Dezzi, spotted in Filene's Basement, said: "Here's the real women's caucus.")
Events seem to fall into these categories: 1. The ultra-private event that no one outside a few dozen people even know about. Example: A dinner for 60 Sunday night in honor of Al and Tipper Gore. Flew under the radar. 2. The private, ticketed event that everyone wants to get into. Sponsored by a business or two or eight. People actually swap these invitations. I believe they are legal tender. Example: batting practice at Fenway Park (three swings!), a Black Eyed Peas concert. 3. The sponsored nonprofit event. It's open to those savvy enough to call beforehand. Example: two events Tuesday by the Creative Coalition (a forum on arts and entertainment, as well as awards ceremony). 4. The good, old-fashioned open party in which hoi polloi pay to get in. Example: Monday's welcome party thrown by DNC chair Terry McAuliffe at a nightclub. Sponsors -- those big corporations and trade groups -- know they'll have no trouble finding guests for Examples #1 and #2. But for Examples #3 and #4, they need celebrities to drum up potential donors and media attention. Sometimes, you get the same, tired* celebs. I ran into Wendie Malick, Alan Cumming, Richard Schiff and Alfre Woodard at the Creative Coalition's tribute to Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana around dinnertime Tuesday. Just after 1 a.m., I popped into Planned Parenthood's "Sex, Politics and Cocktails" reception -- a pay-as-you-wish shindig -- and spotted Woodard and Malick eating dinner while Schiff and Cumming worked the room. (* By tired, I mean REALLY tired, as in wiped out.) "I got here Monday at 11," Woodard said between bites. "And I was on point till 3 a.m. I was on point again all day [Tuesday] and I start [Wednesday] at 10," says Woodard, who has worked with Planned Parenthood for years. Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Patti speaks
I spoke with Philly's Patti LaBelle before she went on stage Monday night to wrap the evening's convention speeches by singing the Sam Cooke number "A Change Is Gonna Come." What brought her to Boston? "America is going to the dogs," she said flatly. "I'm hoping we can have honest people around, The climate is pretty scary." Contacted only recently by the DNC, she says she cut short an island vacation to "do my duty as an American." She said she was headed back to Philly after the performance.
Jer-ry! Jer-ry!
Ran into Jerry Springer a half-hour ago at a big bash thrown by the Democratic Governors Association, which took over Rowes Wharf on Boston Harbor. The Chicago-based Springer is a delegate from his home state of Ohio, and he acknowledged that he's been getting more face time than the average Ohio delegate because of his celebrity. I've ran into a dozen or so delegates over the last two days, and none seems as fired up as Springer. I have to transcribe my tape for a news story, but I recall that he considers Ohio the "poster child" for what he calls the ills of the Bush administration.
Also in the house were Govs. Tom Vilsack (Iowa), Ed Rendell (Pa.), Janet Napolitano (Ariz.), Kathleen Sebelius (Kan.), Jim Doyle (Wis.), Ruth Ann Minner(Del.) and Sen. Joe Biden (Del.) . I was looking for Vilsack's wife, Christie, who's been in the news for making fun of people's accents. "How YOUSE doin'?" I wanted to "ax" her. I'll borrow Springer's "final thought": Until next time, take care of yourself, and each other. Monday, July 26, 2004
"Vacation"
Saw WCAU-TV (Channel 10) anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah shlepping kids Cameron and Chandler (in a stroller) through her hotel. They and her mother are in town with her husband, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah. Chenault-Fattah is not working, unless you count diapering.
Coming to the aid of their potty
Had to mention a New Jersey connection we found at the Urban Outfitters stores in Cambridge and Boston. They just started stocking toilet-paper rolls -- bearing either the face of John Kerry or George W. Bush and carrying the campaign slogan "This message has been approved." You won't take the price sitting down. Urban Outfitters marked 'em at $12 a roll. The TP is the creation of Ventnor entrepreneur Marc Polish.
Fireworks and Ed Rendell
Had this choice Sunday night: Join a gazillion revelers at "The Jumpoff," a party sponsored by Rock the Vote that was to feature a drive-by from the Clintons, as well as entertainment by the X-Ecutioners and a DJ set by Biz Markie. Plus perhaps an appearance by Ohio delegate Jerry Springer.
Or... Be the lone newspaper reporter at a fairly private soiree thrown by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell at a wharf along the Charles in Charlestown. So exclusive, everyone's cabbie got lost. The Gov, honorary vice chairman of the Democratic convention, threw this one for his homies. Over shrimp bigger than your thumb, I spotted congressional aspirant Allyson Schwartz, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Ted Kirsch, former State Sen. Bob Rovner, City Councilman Michael Nutter, former U.S. Rep. Bob Borski and his wife Karen (of the Fairmount Park Commission), and Rendell's longtime fundraisers and buddies Ken Jarin and Alan Kessler. (Kessler and his wife Gail actually made it to three parties, including one big dinner in honor of the Clintons and a small fete for Al and Tipper Gore. ) Everyone went outside at 10 and watched a fireworks display over the river. (That is, real fireworks. Not some political dust-up.) A bunch of young operatives got a kick out of asking Rendell to take their picture, which led to a hilarious few minutes in which the state's highest elected official attempted, with typical self-deprecation, to operate a digital camera. (In his first try, he nearly took a photo of himself.) I asked His Ed-ness about his planned speech Wednesday before the convention. With a wicked grin, he said he had to submit a draft to the Kerry people for editing. "Now. Will I be a good boy and read it, or will I extemporize?" Sunday, July 25, 2004
The power of Ben
Spent a couple of hours this afternoon at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge at a Comcast-sponsored youth-vote program called The Power of 1.
Ben Affleck and Danny Glover headlined a panel to highlight the importance of voting. D.L. Hughley emceed. (Line that killed: "You're young and you're talented -- that's why you have a way to grow up to marry Britney Spears.") In the hallway beforehand, Affleck -- who grew up down the block -- hugged two Cambridge cops, greeting them with the quip, "Overtime for you, [very nasty word that begins with "m" and ends with "ers"]?" Obviously old buddies. I hear Glover is producing a TV special on the panel.
And ... we're off
Even grizzled, hard-to-impress, convention-savvy media types were amazed by last night's welcome party for the thousands of journos at the new Convention & Exhibition Center in South Boston, which I hear set back the Boston Globe and Boston 2004 committee $700,000. Booze flowed at many open bars. (One drink: a 'Razz the Vote," consisting of Stoli Razberi and Ocean Spray cranberry juice. Ocean Spray was a party sponsor.) Buffet tables groaned with just about anything you've ever seen on a buffet. (Chocolate fondue fountain? Been there. Vidalia onion grits, though, were a first.) Rolling carts bore appetizers and desserts from various Hub restaurants. Cabanas lit by candles were set up for semi-private conversation. Folks lined up for a ride on a full-size Ferris wheel. (I'm sure there's some sort of political metaphor here about going 'round in circles and not getting off.) The Rev. Jesse Jackson, with an entourage of a dozen, stopped every few feet for interviews. Little Richard performed, good golly.
Funniest moment A writer for the New York Times dutifully in search of boldface names was heard to ask two men for their names. So Times editor Bill Keller and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. dutifully gave them to her. Best quote "The Democrats are managing to do what the British couldn't in 1775 -- shutting the city down" -- Dana Bisbee, an editor at the Boston Herald Friday, July 23, 2004
Hey there
Why? Why go to Boston for the Democratic convention? The town will be packed with 15,000 some odd (and some really odd) journalists, 5,000 delegates, thousands of fat cats, lobbyists, pols, aides, campaign financiers and combinations thereof. (Oh, and one presumptive candidate.) And traffic. And a major security detail.
Why go? I'm not as interested in the raw politics as I am in what and who surround it. Celebs and politics do mix, and they will do just that in Boston from Saturday through Thursday. I intend to exploit the technology literally at my fingertips by getting news into my blog right away. If you check in at, say, 3 a.m. Eastern, you'll read about extremely recent hoopla. I'll also file daily reports for the printed/online paper, which will include not quite as extremely recent hoopla. I'm carrying my new Treo 600, a combination cell phone/Palm PDA/camera/web browser/email device that's slightly larger than a deck of cards or a 4-ounce serving of beef. "Dork!" my friends jeer. But I wasn't done. No no no. I needed to ramp up the geeky-ness. So I picked up a miniature foldable keyboard that connects to the Treo wirelessly and fits in a jacket pocket. I'll be able to blog while my limo sits in traffic. Limo? I meant the shuttle bus. I never answered that "why?" question. I hope to do that sometime next Friday.
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