BUSH-FRIENDLY MCCAIN BOOED

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."