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

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.marinelink.com/MembersNew/ViewStory.asp?StoryID=13445
note: this link requires membership

excerpts

"Mr. DeLay, of Texas, has proposed chartering 2,240-passenger luxury cruise liner for the convention, docking it in the Hudson River, so that Republican members of Congress and their guests can all stay at one place."

The ship was the Norwegian Dawn, which by coincidence we had photographed not long before, as it made an unexpected maneuver in the Narrows. Naturally we were interested in this front-page discussion, to see if it shed any light on the ship's unconventional behavior.

"New York would lose money if Mr. DeLay decides to charter the ship," The Times continued, "because it would draw visitors - and dollars - away from city hotels, restaurants and shops." And those business interests have great expectations for Republican wallets. "Labor leaders said yesterday that to help bring the convention to New York, they had agreed to guarantee they would not strike during the convention," The Times reported. Concerned labor leaders included Peter Ward, president of the New York Hotel Trades Council, representing hotel workers.

"'Everything that every union leader did, every civic leader did, every government leader did to bring the convention here was done for one reason: to bring business into the city to stimulate jobs and raise the tax base,' Mr. Ward said. 'And for these guys to rent a boat to stay out in the river, and not pay hotel occupancy tax, is just an outrage.'" It's a high-minded union leader that The Times gives us, so protective as this toward the tax base.

The idea of using the cruise ship," The Times recounts, "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."

(One week later, The Times would list the owners of the Norwegian Dawn as "Norwegian Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Star Cruises, which has its headquarters in Hong Kong and is run out of its offices in Malaysia; Star Cruises is in turn a unit of Genting Berhad, a holding company in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia," whose American headquarters are in Miami. The Times would also describe them as "growing {in} sophistication in the ways of Washington.")

"Having some of the G.O.P.'s best and richest walk a gangplank to and from the city each day has just the hint of xenophobia that already finds Democrats dancing in the streets," declared a Times editorial on December 2, taking exception to Mr. DeLay's comment about "good security" aboard the ship. "What is the normally bold Texan afraid of? The ghosts of squeegee beggars? Pedestrian Democrats?"

Other politicians waxed similarly. "'What is it? They don't want to be contaminated by us?'"said Representative Charles B. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem," The Times reported the next day. And of course, Mr. Rangel's "us" is a much more sensitive "us" than even easily-offended Manhattan liberals.

The Times tells us elsewhere that Mr. DeLay has, indeed, made points by treating colleagues to premium perks. "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." Mr. DeLay seems to be quite the transportation buff. Indeed, at that same convention he also provided a ship, so what could seem more natural this time around? It was no cruise ship then, however, and none of the conventioneers lived aboard. The USS New Jersey (BB 62) served simply as a prop. We can only speculate on that backdrop's influence upon the course of the nominations.

Those 22,000 rooms in those assorted hotels, at double-occupancy, support 44,000 of 65,000 expected delegates and media. That is, another 10,500 rooms are required, and that's just for visitors the Republicans admit to. As one writer put it in a letter to The Times, "Tom DeLay's idea of using a luxury cruise ship ...has a residual benefit: more hotel rooms will be available for anti-Bush demonstrators."

By Don Sutherland

[lovedems]

1. Tom DeLay is such a prick. They want their convention in NYC

to politicize 9-11, but apparently the people of NYC shouldn't be privvy to the business that would come along with the convention. This is one further peice of evidence that republicans are elitist snobs who are out of touch with the average american.

I hope those hotel rooms are jam packed with anti-bu$h demonstrators...i.e. democrats.

[Occulus]

2. Wow, that's kinda neat

how'd ya make the text go red when I mouse over it?

And now, to the article: Please snip it down to four paragraphs for copyright.

And now, to the content:

This makes me SICK. They know if they have their convention on shore they'll be protested to NO end, sooo.... just go somewhere that can't be protested.

[The Sushi Bandit]

5. Red text? I dont know!

as for editing it down... my "edit" time has expired.
anyway you need to be in the shipbuilding industry to have memebership to the site where this article is.

I just posted 1/4 of the full article.

[Hoosier Democrat]

3. The new RNC theme song...

Oh, just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a bunch of pricks.
That started here in New York Port
Aboard a foreign ship.

Delay was a Crooked Congressman
Speaker Hastert was a boor.
A bunch of rich white folks crammed on the ship
For a four-day tour. A four-day tour.

The political climate then got rough,
GOP credibility was tossed.
If not for money from corporate crooks,
the election might be lost!
The Election might be lost!

The ship ran aground on the shore of this
Uncharted Desert isle (I wish);

With Dumbya Bush
Dick Cheney, too

Several billionaires and their wives

A bad movie Star (Ahnuld)

The professor (Condi Rice)
And Scary Anne (Coulter)

here on Dumbya's Island!!

[The Sushi Bandit]

4. VERY GOOD!!!!

is this an original?? your very talented!

[Hoosier Democrat]

6. Yes, it is an original! Thank You!

Maybe you'll see more of these soon!

[maggrwaggr]

7. Remember the U.S.S. Cole?

Sure guys, go ahead! Have your convention on a ship!