cannabisnews.com: Bush-Friendly McCain Booed 





Bush-Friendly McCain Booed 
Posted by FoM on July 31, 2000 at 08:23:05 PT
By Dena Bunis, The Orange County Register 
Source: Orange County Register
Politics: 'Shadow' Convention provides an alternative forum for those interested in campaign finance reform, poverty and what is being called the failed drug war. John McCain was a hero to the disaffected and disillusioned delegates at this first ever "Shadow" national political convention.But the Arizona senator was interrupted with hisses and boos Sunday when he said that he supports Gov. George W. Bush for president, despite their clashes on campaign finance reform. 
"The Republican Party is my home," McCain told about 800 activists from across the nation. "I am obliged not by party loyalty but sincere conviction to urge all Americans to support my party's nominee, Gov. George Bush of Texas."The Shadow Convention is going on parallel to the Republican National Convention. It's being shepherded by Arianna Huffington, who once was behind her husband's unsuccessful multimillion-dollar 1994 campaign to unseat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.Huffington is now a born-again campaign finance reformer, and her alternative event this week will draw the likes of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Warren Beatty and Rep. Tom Campbell, R-San Jose, who is Feinstein's current opponent. Once the Shadow Convention ends Friday, the operation will move to Los Angeles and be staged again during the Democrats' extravaganza.The three issues the Shadow convention will highlight are campaign finance reform, poverty and what they say is the failed drug war.McCain, who kept the crowd patiently waiting for close to an hour, was barely into his speech when some heckling began. They weren't aiming at McCain per se. A smattering in the crowd were shouting often unintelligible chants about issues that had nothing to do with national politics. But they were loud and disruptive."If you like, I don't need to continue," an unusually flustered and uncomfortable McCain said. Huffington immediately came to his rescue."This is a convention where we can hear everything with respect," she said. The group from the University of Pennsylvania leapt to its feet and cheered.Jonathan Bonesteel and David Reese came from southern California to attend the Republican National Convention. They spent Sunday at the Shadow event.Bonesteel, a student at Cal State Northridge, will be an usher at the Republican National Convention. Reese, of Oceanside, is a Democrat who's going to the convention as part of his courses at Texas Christian University."A lot of students on my campus say they aren't going to vote," Bonesteel said. He hopes to bring back some inspiration and turn around some of those apathetic minds.Campbell, like virtually all the members of Congress at the GOP convention, will have no speaking role this week. So to get some attention for his campaign and his causes, he has turned to such events as the Shadow convention. "I said every chance I got to speak this week I was at least going to mention the importance of including the message that we hear out of the Republican convention -- that there are Republicans of good conscience who are pro-choice," Campbell said.He came to the Shadow convention mainly to speak on the war on drugs, which he says is an abject failure.Campbell told the crowd Congress should take the $1.3 billion it approved to send military advisors and 63 helicopters to Colombia and spend it on drug treatment."I challenge America's leaders to listen to the people. I challenge America's leaders to address the question of treatment," he said.Campbell said almost half of the nation's 2.8 million addicts could be helped if that money went to treatment."It's time we started helping people by giving them treatment instead of sweeping the problem under the rug by putting people in prison," Campbell said. He said he was aware that kind of talk could get him labeled as soft on drugs."Pushers are punks and cowards. Pushers should be punished with the full force of law," Campbell said. "It's failure I won't tolerate. The war on drugs has failed. I cannot remain silent." Please send comments to: ocregister link.freedom.comPublished: July 31, 2000 Copyright 2000 The Orange County RegisterRelated Articles & Web Sites:The Shadow Conventionshttp://www.shadowconventions.com/Shadow Conventionshttp://www.lindesmith.org/shadowconventions/Common Causehttp://www.commoncause.org/Public Campaignhttp://www.publiccampaign.org/ Shadow Convention 2000 News Boardhttp://homepages.go.com/~marthag1/Shadcon.htmMcCain In The Shadows http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6426.shtmlMapInc. Articles On The Shadow Conventions:http://mapinc.org/shadow.htm CannabisNews Articles On The Shadow Conventions:http://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=shadow 
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