RNC Miscellany

Security is one thing, intimidation another.On the C train on my way downtown to the Air America appearance this morning, the subway doors opened up at 34th Street-Pennsylvania Station to an unusual sight: large cops in riot gear, smacking their billy clubs into their open palms at each door of every car. Hmm. Maybe it’s better to get off at 23rd Street.

The gruesome parade of 9/11 widows at last night’s RNC deserves comment. Americans should “do something,” one of them said. Though she harkened to the United 93 passengers who supposedly rebelled against the hijackers–still zero proof to that tale, of course–she meant we should all “do something”–vote Republican this fall. The politization of 9/11 continued with Rudy Giuliani’s bizarre assertion that we owe it to the victims to vote for Bush.

Ed Koch’s endorsement of the Bush-Cheney ticket retroactively belied his pleas, supposedly as a Democrat, to New Yorkers of liberal stripe to “make nice” to the Republican delegates. One is as one votes, and Ed Koch is as much of a Democrat as Michael Bloomberg is a Republican. Thanks, Ed, for finally outting yourself.

As the cameras scanned the sea of Caucasian faces across the convention hall, I was struck by something I’d never noticed before. Republicans, or at least Republican delegates, have no sparkle in their eyes. Like sharks, sheep and other braindead species, GOP adherents have a blank stare. Odd, and a little scary.