A DEMOCRAT PLAYS TOUR GUIDE, WHILE A REPUBLICAN STAGES HER OWN CONVENTION

Ed Rendell is trying to wear two hats. Two party hats, that is.

The former Democratic mayor of Philadelphia is the man who successfully
lobbied the Republicans to hold their convention in his city. He even
promised Jim Nicholson, the Republican National Committee chairman, that he
would wear an elephant tie every day of the convention.

But that was before he was named Democratic National Committee general
chairman after leaving office in January. So, when Mr. Rendell appeared
with Mr. Nicholson at a panel discussion on convention media coverage at
City Hall yesterday, he was not wearing the tie. But Mr. Rendell said he
would put it on for the official beginning of the convention today.

Meanwhile, he was the ebullient tour guide, plying his guest with (what
else?) Philly cheesesteaks. "This is great," he said. "We want the
delegates to have a great time in Philadelphia."

But, that does not mean he wants their ticket to win.

Mr. Rendell is thrilled to show off his city and his own record as mayor,
since he helped coax Philadelphia back from near-bankruptcy, guided its
Center City building boom, and conceived of snagging a political convention
as a coming-out party for his reinvigorated city.

And it is a bit awkward for him to join in the festivities.

"I'm like a guy standing out in the rain, looking through the window at the
party inside," Mr. Rendell said, after walking into the lobby of the grand,
new Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Saturday night to find it thick with happy
Republicans. He worked the room, backslapping bipartisanly.

"The Republicans are more of an affirmation of how far we've come as a
city," he said. "If the Democrats had chosen us people would have said its
political."

An impresario and frustrated caterer, he worked hard to make it a grand
party for the Republicans. He even dreamed up Political Fest, the
expansive, hands-on political exhibit with everything from a mock Oval
Office to a cruise missile that is drawing raves. "It's an A minus," he
said. It would have been better if the Republicans had not vetoed a couple
of his ideas, the former mayor said, such as a stage for political comics.
"Too left-wing," he sniffed.

Then he caught himself. "I don't want to bash the R's," he said. He wants
those Republicans to see and spend and spread the word about the new
Philadelphia. Then he wants them to go home and lose.

First Ends Up Last

Is New Hampshire the Rodney Dangerfield of the Republican convention?

You might think the state that is host to the first primary would get a
little respect on the convention-floor seating plan. But New Hampshire's 24
seats are way at the back and way to the side of the floor, behind Utah and
Arkansas, next to North Dakota, Guam and the Virgin Islands -- not exactly
powerhouses in presidential politics.

Could New Hampshire's faraway seats -- apparently, one security guard said,
not even near the good bathrooms, but the ones with low pressure flushing
mechanisms -- be all because George W. Bush lost the critical New Hampshire
primary to Senator John McCain?

Tim Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the convention, said it was not politics,
but real estate.

"Is New Hampshire being punished for voting for McCain?" he asked. "No."
Can you hear that in the back of the room?

Shadow Convention Opens

Yesterday morning, Arianna Huffington, all pancake makeup and dove-gray
silk pantsuit, had the air of the high school pep-squad leader who, with
stars in her eyes and a Broadway ditty in her heart, has decided to string
up some lights in the gym and put on a show starring all of her new best
friends.

It was the first day of Ms. Huffington's five-day pep rally billed as the
Shadow Convention, which opened its doors yesterday at the University of
Pennsylvania's Annenberg Center. First on the agenda was Mr. McCain, Ms.
Huffington's buddy with the biggest marquee draw -- that is, if you do not
include Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy, who is scheduled to speak
later in the week. (Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut and
Jack Kemp both bowed out over a week ago.) But the senator did not stay to
make small talk with the talk-show guest; he rushed grumpily through the
stage door after the audience booed him for endorsing George W. Bush.

Ethan A. Nadelmann, the director of The Lindesmith Center, a New York drug
policy center financed by the billionaire George Soros, hobnobbed backstage
with Ms. Huffington's daughters, ages 9 and 13. Ms. Huffington is
passionate about the drug issue; her convention even placed a two-page ad
in last week's edition of The Philadelphia Weekly, an alternative
newspaper, that implied that Mr. Bush used drugs in his younger days.

"It's about Bush getting away with doing drugs all those years, if he did,"
she said. "The message is that if you're white and do drugs you can become
president, and if you're black and do drugs you go to prison."

But that's not all that bothers Ms. Huffington about Mr. Bush. She said,
for example, he has appropriated her theory of "compassionate conservatism"
- -- it's a theme he has pounded on the campaign trail -- and that positively
rankles her.

"I wrote speeches going back to '90, '92 about that very topic," she said.
"In 1993 I gave a speech titled, 'Can Conservatism Have a Social
Conscience?' I mean, I laid out the concept."

But enough of weighty matters. It was time for Ms. Huffington and Al
Franken, the political comedian, to run lines for their upcoming speech on
political satire. Mr. Kozol listened to a few and did not laugh. Mr.
Franken tried out a joke about attending a Democratic fund-raising event in
1996. "Fifty-thousand dollars got you a slow waltz with Hillary Clinton,"
he said. "Twenty-five thousand got you a tango with Tipper Gore." Then he
reached the punch line, which was about Janet Reno. Ms. Huffington groaned.

"I hope there are no feminists in the audience," she said.

But for all the press attention, Ms. Huffington wants more, said her
spokeswoman, Megan Colligan. Ms. Colligan gestured to the green room of
Comedy Central's program, the "Daily Show," which happens to abut the stage
door of Ms. Huffington's convention.

"We can't even get the 'Daily Show' to book us, and they're right here,"
Ms. Colligan said. "It's so ironic."