Our friend Tien wanted to know our take on the possibility of the G.O.P. being housed on a cruise ship during next year's Republican convention. House Majority leader Tom DeLay has been pushing to have the Norwegian Dawn act as a Republican satellite city, nestled on the Hudson.
This, of course, takes away from the possible revenue of hotel rooms, meals, and entertainment in our fine city; Mayor Bloomberg told the Times, "We have plenty of hotel rooms, it's a safe city, it's the safest place you can be almost with a lot of people around you, is right here in the streets of New York City, and why you'd want to be away from that, I don't know." But let's face it, this is like the cheap relative whose suitcase is filled with canned soup to avoid eating in restaurants, even though DeLay thinks the cruise will be "classy and upscale" for GOP-ers (Tien, for the record, thinks that it's an insult to NYC streetwalkers).
Honestly, we're of two minds: We want some revenue for the city, of course, and reap the benefits of NYC hosting the convention, but it might be easier to sleep at night knowing the G.O.P. is contained; plus, if they we'll be waiting for the tabloid headlines (like "Ship of Fools") predicted by a Republican strategist and Norwalk virus references, and plus we'll rent kayaks from the pier, try to get close to photograph the ship's passengers until the police chase us down.
