Moore relishes role as skunk at Garden party

NEW YORK — Filmmaker Michael Moore said he will return to the Republican National Convention, where delegates roundly booed his presence on opening night. Mr. Moore is covering the convention this week as an opinion columnist for USA Today and arrived at Madison Square Garden in time for Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s prime-time speech on Monday night.

When Mr. McCain alluded to Mr. Moore’s anti-Bush documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11,” delegates began chanting and booing in the direction of the filmmaker, who was in the media section of the convention hall.

“I now know what the Christians probably felt like walking into the Coliseum,” he said. Mr. Moore, who seemed to relish the tumult, said he would return despite the chilly reception “because I’m here to cover the convention and I’m here to write about what I see.”

Mr. Moore’s presence attracted attention from the start.

“I knew he’d be a celebrity, but I was surprised by the extent of both the media coverage and the security reaction,” said Owen Ullmann, USA Today editor. “It created more of a disruption than was intended.”

Mr. Ullmann initially said that the director would not be returning to Madison Square Garden. But he later said, in the end, the columnist has “to speak for himself.”

Minister denounces convention crosses

NEW YORK — Conventions are as much about symbolism as speeches, but a minister at a liberal Manhattan church charged yesterday that the Republicans have gone too far by placing crosses on the convention stage.

Republican officials say his eyes are playing tricks on him, but the Rev. James Forbes Jr. said images of Christian crosses are clear on the convention lectern and on a structure right next to it.

“I believe it is an image of two crosses. This is an unusual and inappropriate use of religious symbols in a political campaign,” Mr. Forbes said.

Former President Bill Clinton spoke at Mr. Forbes’ Riverside Church a day before the convention began, charging that Republicans are trying to demonize Democrats as a party without faith-based moral values.

Convention spokesman Mark Pfeifle discounted the idea. “This sounds like a Rorschach test. … Interesting, we’ll check it out,” Mr. Pfeifle said.

Democratic mayorstumps for Bush

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