Minnesota Moments

by Mary F. Patel

Minneapolis was the destination for politicos this week as Republican delegates descended here for five days' worth of conventioneering. Although there was talk early Sunday about Hurricane Gustav, which was headed for New Orleans, few realized that Monday night's events at the Excel Center would be canceled because of it.

At the Pennsylvania delegate breakfast early Monday morning, state officials announced that the speakers planned for that night — U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger , Vice President Dick Cheney , President George Bush and first lady Laura Bush — would not, in fact, be speaking. Politically, it could have been a disaster for the Republicans to take the stage while another storm wrecked New Orleans, especially after Bush and FEMA were raked over the coals for their response to Hurricane Katrina.

Chad Jenkins (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

The Pennsylvania delegates had arrived early Sunday morning. The good news, for them, was that their trip was extremely well-organized (the delegation was efficiently bused to the Marriott Hotel); the bad news was that the hotel was way out in Minnetonka, 25 miles from both the Xcel Center and downtown Minneapolis, where many of the events were taking place. The delegates and the media hanging with them paid $250 a piece to defray costs for transportation and receptions at the hotel (unlike at the Denver convention last week, where receptions were paid for by various corporations).

In addition to the official delegates, some Pennsylvania Republicans came along just for the parties and networking. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum , now a big deal at conservative think tanks, made the scene (the man who took Santorum's seat, Sen. Bob Casey , spoke at the Democratic Convention).

During the day, the delegates and their compatriots headed to the Minneapolis Convention Center for a special screening of a new film, An American Carol, a spoof on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with a liberal Michael Moore -like character as Scrooge. Directed by David Zucker , and starring Kelsey Grammer and Jon Voight , who made an appearance at the screening, the film was aimed to slam liberals and Hollywood. The movie itself was over-the