GOP Clears Deck for Convention

PHILADELPHIA —  Vice presidential hopeful Dick Cheney backed away from parts of his staunchly conservative record Sunday as Republicans strived to open their national convention today free of dissent and projecting a reassuring message of moderation.

As George W. Bush continued to wind his way to Philadelphia, stumping at a picnic in Ohio, former rival John McCain released the convention delegates committed to him, ensuring the Texas governor’s nomination would go smoothly.

In the streets of Philadelphia, between 3,000 and 5,000 demonstrators marched peacefully though downtown in an effort to raise awareness for myriad causes. Nearby, at the University of Pennsylvania, an array of satirists and social activists opened their alternative shadow convention, where Sen. McCain of Arizona was booed at the mention of Bush.

Much of the pre-convention activity, however, was taking place outside this convention city--in the TV studios of Washington, where Cheney made the round of morning news programs; in Chicago, where President Clinton took verbal potshots from afar and at a rain-drenched baseball diamond outside Cincinnati, where Bush rallied 2,000 of the party faithful.

“We’re working our way to the convention and we’re going through states that the Republican candidate hasn’t done so well in lately,” Bush told the soggy, cheering crowd in Blue Ash, in the heart of Republican Hamilton County. “Now we’re here in Ohio, and the last two elections we haven’t done so well. But that’s going to change come November.”

The next four days, however, will be critical to Bush’s chances, and Republicans were determined to give their standard-bearer a better send-off than their nominees enjoyed from the last two GOP conventions, which were marked by fiery rhetoric and ideological conflicts. “I need every one of you to give this campaign the same amount of enthusiasm and participation you did for our primary campaign,” McCain told supporters as he freed his delegates and urged them to back his former rival.

One last worry for the Bush camp evaporated Sunday night when abortion rights advocates conceded they lacked the support to force a floor fight over the platform’s call for a blanket ban on the procedure.

With Bush making only a single campaign stop, Sunday’s convention spotlight swung full force on his running mate--and also landed on the personal life of Cheney’s daughter Mary.

As Democrats prepared to launch a new ad attacking Cheney’s record in Congress, the former Wyoming lawmaker alternately defended, explained and retreated from some of his more controversial votes. Today, Cheney said, he might vote differently on guns, education, the Equal Rights Amendment and other issues. “I don’t want to say that I’m absolutely for cop-killer bullets,” Cheney said on NBC. “I’m clearly not.”

One thing Cheney said he would not change was his vote against a House resolution seeking freedom for former South African President Nelson Mandela, who was then imprisoned. The resolution also called for recognition of Mandela’s political organization, which “was then viewed as a terrorist organization,” Cheney said, explaining his opposition.

But Clinton seized on the vote, singling it out during an assault on the GOP ticket at a Democratic fund-raising luncheon in Chicago. “That takes your breath away,” the president said.

Cheney wasn’t the only family member on Sunday’s talk-show circuit. Appearing separately on ABC, Cheney’s wife, Lynne, grew indignant when interviewer Cokie Roberts started to ask, “You have a daughter who has now declared that she is openly gay--are you worried . . . ?”

“Mary has never declared such a thing,” Lynne Cheney interrupted. “I would like to say that I’m appalled at the media interest in one of my daughters. I have two wonderful daughters. I love them very much.

“They are bright. They are hard-working. They are decent. And I simply am not going to talk about their personal lives. And I’m surprised, Cokie, that even you would want to bring it up on this program.”

But gays and lesbians were something of an issue during two days of convention platform hearings. Social conservatives inserted in the platform language endorsing the Boy Scouts’ exclusion of gays, emphasizing the party’s opposition to so-called gay marriage and its condemnation of “the gay lifestyle.”

Until recently, 31-year-old Mary Cheney worked as a liaison to the gay and lesbian community for Coors Brewing Co. in Denver. A story last year in a lesbian magazine quoted Cheney as saying she chose to work for Coors because it was “a very open environment.”

“The reason I came to work here is because I knew several other lesbians who were very happy here,” Cheney said, according to the magazine. Cheney left her job to return to graduate school.

A spokesman for the Bush campaign was tight-lipped when asked about Mary Cheney’s sexual orientation. “Secretary and Mrs. Cheney love their daughters both very much,” Deputy Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, “and their daughters are entitled to their private lives.”

Hours after his morning appearances, a low-key Cheney flew to Philadelphia, where he was greeted in the glass-atrium lobby of his downtown hotel by more than 100 cheering Republicans.

In his pitch to return the White House to Republican control, the former Defense secretary invoked the Monica S. Lewinsky sex scandal as a key rationale. “Most of all, we want to make Americans proud again by giving them a president they can respect,” he told the crowd.

The same sentiments were expressed at Bush’s rally in Ohio.

While the candidate excoriates Democrats for engaging in “the politics of personal destruction,” his surrogates continued to level vitriolic attacks.

In fact, the warm-up act in suburban Cincinnati featured some of the most biting broadsides against Clinton to date. “Ronald Reagan scoured out those damned Democrats out of the White House!” shouted local talk radio personality Bill Cunningham. “Let’s elect another governor from the West to scour out the White House of the filth and degradation.”

Blue Ash Mayor Jim Sumner also alluded to the Lewinsky scandal as supporters waited for the Texas governor to speak. “Are you ready for a change in Washington, D.C.?” Sumner asked. “Are you ready to have your daughter serve as an intern? . . . Are you ready to welcome George and Laura Bush to Blue Ash?”

Bush himself steered clear of such personal invective. He talked about tax cuts, a stronger military and overhauling Social Security--the sort of positive and policy-oriented script his campaign has planned for the convention.

Along with a relentlessly upbeat tone, convention planners will try assorted ways to liven proceedings, mindful of declining public interest and, worse, shrinking TV coverage of the four-day spectacle.

The traditional roll call of states--usually a droning, hours-long production--will be spread over three nights, culminating in Bush’s formal nomination Wednesday night.

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Times staff writers Tina Daunt, Michael Finnegan, Megan Garvey, Maria L. La Ganga, Jeff Leeds, T. Christian Miller, Anne-Marie O’Connor and Alissa J. Rubin contributed to this story.

Continuing coverage of the Republican convention is available throughout the day on The Times’ Web site, including a daily round-table discussion with Times political writers Web-cast live at 11 a.m. PDT, regular updates from Times reporters, a delegate’s video journal, photo galleries and more. Go to:

http://161.35.110.226/gopconvention

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