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SPIN CYCLE: Party crashers mke rough week for GOP

DAN JANISON | dan.janison@newsday.com

September 8, 2008

The third audible disruption came about 10 minutes into John McCain's big speech in St. Paul on Thursday. Delegates chanted "USA" to drown it out.

The time before, as shouting female activists against the Iraq occupation were escorted out, a smiling McCain recovered with well-cheered comebacks about "ground noise and static" and "Americans want us to stop yelling at each other." But this time, you could see an instant change in McCain's face. The smile was gone and you saw something angry or hurt or annoyed, and he talked on. Some GOP loyalists in the Xcel Center wondered aloud how the demonstrators got in - despite aggressive police measures, controversial pre-emptive raids, and electronic credential verification.

The prospect of stolen credentials had been a concern for days. The night before, after Sarah Palin was heckled, Long Island delegates said they were warned to safeguard their coded cards.

In all, more than 800 people were arrested over the week, including uncounted bystanders, in massive police operations.

On the opening day, delegates were assaulted, windows were smashed, car tires punctured, and bottles thrown, as counterpoints to an otherwise peaceful anti-war march.

In one twist reported by the local press, demonstrators photographed the assigned cops in uniform - then later used them to identify and eject undercover officers from their midst.

For the incumbent party, strife and anxiety arrived as uninvited guests and stayed the whole week.

NASSAU-STAN?: Gary Berntsen, a Smithtown native and 20-year veteran of the CIA's clandestine service who served as field commander against al-Qaida in Afghanistan, drew accolades at a New York Republican delegation breakfast in Minneapolis. Rep. Peter King, former House homeland security committee chairman, in greeting his familiar guest, drew smiles when he joked that he was the true mastermind behind Berntsen in Afghanistan - seasoned by his own 30 years in Nassau's "far tougher" politics.

FLASHBACK: Sarah Palin's starring role in St. Paul as the VP candidate led Jack Irwin of East Rockaway, representing "Irish for McCain," to remember 1952, when he was expecting to be sent to Korea, but then drew the cryptic assignment, "USARAL." He said it took him hours to find out he was going to "U.S. Army, Alaska." "Never got below 14 degrees while I was there," recalls Irwin, former aide to Gov. George Pataki.

TEASINGS: Rudy Giuliani got a jet ride into Minneapolis from billionaire John Catsimatidis and, as a cosseted VIP, chuckled from the podium as he asked what a "community organizer" does. Cute punchline, got a big rise. But if Giuliani is looking for new gigs, he may wish to stick to "motivational speaker" and "corporate consultant." Whatever these jobs do, they pay lots better than "community organizer," and require no awkward appearances in housing projects - and Catsimatidis wants the Republican line for NYC mayor. But we hear longtime Nassau Republican Bruce Blakeman, now of Manhattan, is still seriously mulling a bid of his own.