cannabisnews.com: Hart To Address Shadow Convention





Hart To Address Shadow Convention
Posted by FoM on August 12, 2000 at 09:02:42 PT
By Mike Soraghan, Denver Post Washington Bureau
Source: Denver Post
Former Colorado senator Gary Hart will step back into the public arena in Los Angeles on Sunday to take a few jabs at the party he once sought to lead.Hart will give the kickoff address to the "shadow convention," a counterculture alternative to the glitzy love-fest being put on by the Democratic Party and corporate sponsors.
Hart has said for some time that both parties are too corrupt to fix society's problems, a complaint that fits neatly with the philosophy of the guerrilla gatherings."We had been looking for a keynote speaker who would be able to put what's happening in our democracy today in some sort of historical perspective," said syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington, who invited Hart. "He seemed uniquely able to do that."A similar gathering was held in Philadelphia during the GOP's national convention. The alter-conventions are being put on by Huffington, campaign finance watchdog Common Cause and other groups.The Los Angeles shadow convention is sticking to the same themes - the corrupting influence of money on politics, the failures of the war on drugs and the growing gap in America between rich and poor. Hart's 15-minute address is supposed to tie the three together.The roots of Hart's appearance are in an interview he did with Huffington for the January edition of Talk magazine about his book, "I, Che Guevara." He told Huffington that "both parties are caught in the politics of the past, intellectually bankrupt, and in some ways - because of the influence of money - morally bankrupt as well." In Huffington's mind, that's just what the shadow conventions are about, "and so it seemed very appropriate to have him as the opening speaker." Hart's speech is in the same slot that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., occupied at the shadow convention's Republican incarnation. McCain called for reform, but was booed when he endorsed Republican nominee George W. Bush as the one to deliver that reform.The sex scandal that drove Hart from his 1988 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Huffington said, is not only offlimits, but irrelevant. "The American people have made it clear that politicians' private lives have become a huge distraction. I think that was made clear during the Clinton scandals."Hart now lives in the mountains near Evergreen and practices law in the Denver offices of Coudert Brothers, representing clients looking to do business around the globe. He is also a co-chairman of the U.S. Commission on National Security.He's not the only Westerner on the shadow convention's schedule. New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson will make his second convention appearance next week, touting his increasingly well-known support for legalizing marijuana.Published: August 12, 2000 Author: Mike Soraghan, Denver Post Washington Bureau Contact: letters denverpost.comAddress: 1560 Broadway, Denver, CO 80202Fax: (303) 820.1502Forum: http://www.denverpost.com/voice/voice.htmCopyright 2000 The Denver Post. Related Articles & Web Sites:The Shadow Conventionshttp://www.shadowconventions.com/Shadow Conventionshttp://www.lindesmith.org/shadowconventions/Shadow Convention 2000 News Boardhttp://homepages.go.com/~marthag1/Shadcon.htmMapInc. 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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