EMERSON'S DEMOCRAT ATTENDS GOP CONVENTION... WATCHES LOTS OF TV

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- Not everyone at the Republican Convention is thrilled with George W. Bush.

Ron Gladney isn't. But then he's a St. Louis lawyer and staunch Democrat whose clients include labor unions.

Gladney's attending the convention because of his wife, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson. The political opposites married last January.

"He has been a great sport," Emerson said Thursday.

Gladney said he isn't the only Democrat to visit the convention. "Surprisingly, there have been a lot of Democrats here," he said.

Gladney has attended the convention, along with Emerson's chief of staff, Lloyd Smith. "Lloyd and I sit in the upper deck with the grassroots Republicans," he said.

"I am not participating in any protests. Lloyd is watching me very closely," he quipped.

Gladney said he hasn't been heckled by his Democratic friends. "Democrats don't have raised eyebrows about my situation," said Gladney. "We are a party of inclusion."

But Gladney figures he has had enough of the Republican convention. As of Thursday afternoon, he was planning to watch the Phillies game on television rather than attend the convention with his wife.

"I would rather sit back with a Coke and watch the Phillies game and wait for David Letterman to discuss Campaign 2000," he said.

Gladney said he also planned to spend the time reading presidential candidate Thomas Dewey's acceptance speech at the 1948 Republican convention, the last time the GOP gathering was held in Philadelphia.

Dewey lost to Democrat Harry Truman in the November election that year.

Emerson said Gladney gave her "some beautiful" yellow roses. "He said, `You win. These are yellow roses of Texas.'"

Emerson and Gladney are staying with about 100 other members of Congress and their families at a closed-down naval base in Philadelphia, not far from the convention center.

Emerson said she and her husband have attended few of the convention parties. "I am not one of those people who likes to go to all those parties," she said.

This is Emerson's ninth convention. She grew up with conventions. Her father was executive director of the Republican National Committee for years.

Emerson attended all the GOP conventions from 1960 through 1988. This his her first convention in a dozen years.

Convention notes

State Sen. Peter Kinder is trying to get Bush's running mate, Dick Cheney, to make a campaign stop in Cape Girardeau this fall. "We could very likely get Cheney," Kinder said.

Kinder, who lives in Cape Girardeau, and Jackson resident Donna Lichtenegger are delegates to the convention. They said protesters have made it difficult at times to get around Philadelphia.

On one occasion, Kinder was on a convention bus with other delegates en route to a downtown event. Protesters marched right by the bus. "We were halted for 20 minutes about four blocks from our destination," he said. "I just got out of the bus and walked."

Missouri delegates are having a tough time getting a good view of the convention.

"We are being trampled," Lichtenegger said. The convention is crowded with reporters and photographers.

"We literally had to stand on our chairs," she said of Wednesday night's convention. "We could not get the press to move out of the way."