RNC seating gives Maine unique view

NEW YORK – Maine GOP delegates decided to go along with dominant party platform viewpoints Monday, but their seating assignments at Madison Square Garden could have offered a better point of view.

In fact, some observers speculated that even the United States territory of Guam had better seats than the 21 delegates and 18 alternates from Maine.

Organizers at the Republican National Convention put the Maine delegation directly to the right of the podium providing the spectators with only a profile glimpse of the speakers. Publicly, the delegates wouldn’t gripe about their seats, but one Maine GOP official had hoped for better.

Democrats were quick to pounce on Maine’s place at the party’s table and provide their own spin and conspiracy theories from the sidelines. Suggesting that portions of a staunchly conservative Republican Party platform passed without debate Monday were out of step with the opinions of many Maine Republicans, Maine Democratic Party spokesman Chris Harris said it looked as if Mainers were getting payback in more ways than one.

Harris said it was more than curious that veteran Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins had not been invited to speak at the convention.

“They were marginalized by leadership,” Harris said. “Neither had speaking roles, and these are two prominent members of the Senate. They’re just too moderate for leadership. It’s almost a slap in the face. When you add in the development with the seating, it really makes you wonder.”

But Republican convention officials made it clear from the beginning of the political ritual that they had no intention of staging a nearly endless procession of speakers before C-SPAN cameras as Democrats did during their convention last month. Instead, the party bosses chose to showcase high-profile moderates such as Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who both addressed the convention Monday night.

Former 1st District congressman and gubernatorial candidate James B. Longley Jr. of Yarmouth said he couldn’t disagree more with Harris’ take on the seating arrangements.

Instead, he referred to the delegation’s far-right placement as “one of the most key locations on the floor.”

“It’s adjacent to things that are going on,” Longley said. “I don’t know what [Harris] is looking for, but I can’t imagine a better place to be.”

Delegates at the convention, which will wrap up Thursday with President Bush’s formal acceptance of the party’s nomination, quickly adopted a platform Monday that was heavily laced with praise for Bush’s response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The GOP delegates also endorsed the extension of the president’s tax-cutting policies and proposed revisions to the Social Security program.

Privately, some of Maine’s delegates were not in favor of planks in the platform demanding constitutional amendments banning gay marriages and abortions and supporting the administration’s policy to limit funding for embryonic stem cell research. Without specifying which provisions, Longley said there were “probably” elements of the platform with which he too disagreed. Still, like the other 2,508 delegates, he decided to follow the party line for the sake of the president and party unity.

“I think it’s pretty much a consensus that that’s the national message we want to send,” Longley said. “I’m sure I could find areas that I disagree with, but it’s not something I spend a whole lot of time worrying about.”

Many GOP delegates from across the country took in a national party-paid showing of the Broadway musical “Bombay Dreams” Sunday evening and emerged from the theater to the jeers of hundreds of ornery protesters. Angry about the Iraq war, restrictions on personal freedoms, tax policy and the administration’s opposition to abortion, among a wide range of other issues, demonstrators filled the streets in numbers unofficially placed at about 500,000.

Supported by various other New York state law enforcement agencies, the New York Police Department positioned more than 10,000 officers on the streets and peppered Madison Square Garden with an overwhelming show of force. About 300 arrests were made Sunday, but none involved violent confrontations.

“I saw them arrest a few cats and dogs,” said Longley. “I’m amazed at how well-organized the city is and the professionalism of the Police Department. The people of New York have just been phenomenal.”