Pictures from the frontlines of the Republican National Convention

Wednesday August 2, 2000

Bob Dole in the lobby of the Marriott

Larry King in Starbucks. True to the title of the book lying on the table, he was friendly and garrulous. About the GOP's new image, he said: "It's blacks on stage and whites in the audience! All the blacks are onstage! If there's a bellman around, they invite him onstage!"

Cartoonist Mike Lukovich poses with an unsuspecting PETA protester.

A very lonely demonstrator indeed.

On display in the Presidential Library exhibit at Political Fest.

Police arresting demonstrators.

Police stand ready ...

...as demonstrators take over a park.

Everybody wants to be a part of the big convention fun. Even mannequins.

Hanging out ina hotel bar with Dave Barry, Al Franken, cartoonists Lukovich, Rob Rodgers, Chip Bok, Walt Handlesman and -- since he was sitting at the hotel bar--movie industry bigwig Jack Valenti. We were rather pleased with ourselves, figuring that this was the only time that a photo would probably ever be taken with this particular configuration of people . Little did we know the evening was only beginning.

Valenti invited us to an exclusive Republican bash he was putting on, at a club called Shampoo. Because we had a little trouble getting in, and because everything at these stupid conventions is about access to things that ultimately aren't very interesting once you do get in, we commandeered a small, unused DJ platform in a room between two main party rooms and declared it our own "VIP lounge" -- and literally spent much of the party standing up there declaring to somewhat confused Republican partygoers, "Sorry! VIP lounge! No admittance!" (A handy orange traffic cone helped keep out the riffraff.) Our little humorous performance art piece took a truly surreal turn when Lukovich started going out into the crowd and bringing back VIPs to join us in the lounge ... such as our close personal friend Dick Armey ...

Another shot of the exclusive action in the very restricted access VIP Satirist Lounge.

Asa Hutchison is seperated from the unworthy masses and allowed to hang out in the lounge, but only for a few minutes.

Since Jack Valenti was throwing the party, we let him up for a few minutes. I'll have to double check on this, but I believe the handsome young man on the left is Trent Lott's son.

At the end of a simply fabulous evening, Dave shows his appreciation for the sponsors which made our elite gathering-within-a-gathering possible.

Back