Bosoms, badges censored

Press, 16 August 1988, Page 10

Bosoms, badges censored

NZPA-ReuterNew Orleans

Civic officials trying to maintain propriety during the Republican National Convention in New Orleans have ordered exotic dancers in the city’s sometimes bawdy bars to cover up. An order went out at the week-end that barebreasted woman dancers were to affix adhesive bandages to their nipples until the convention was over.

© Badges have also been censored. Convention officials told vendors to stop selling a political button that attacks Senator Edward Kennedy, of Massachusetts, by recalling the 1969 Chappaquiddick scandal in which a young woman riding in Mr Kennedy’s

car drowned. The button features a life-ring, the phrase “U.S.S. Chappaquiddick” and the question “Where Was Teddy?” The question is a play on the query Mr Kennedy posed during his speech to last month’s Democratic National Convention when he attacked Vice-Presi-dent George Bush by asking “Where was George?” when important Reagan Administration decisions were being made. ® Badge sales are also being studied like tea leaves for clues to who is in as a running mate for Mr Bush. So far the button-badges are opting overwhelmingly for Oliver North, the former Marine colonel and Presidential security aide who figured in the

Iran arms-Contra aid scandal.

Badges depicting a Bush-North ticket had about 72 per cent of the sales in one survey. Senator Bob Dole, of Kansas, was running a poor second.

© Speakers at the convention have been told to keep their speeches short — or else.

The Republican National Committee chairman, Frank Fahrenkopf, said the podium at the Louisiana Superdome has been fitted with an elevator at the back to allow speakers of all heights to appear level for television cameras.

“The elevator is programmed to go the other way too,” Mr Fahrenkopf told reporters tongue-in-cheek. “Speakers who

break the rules (on speech length) will disappear into oblivion.” © Convention-goers arriving in New Orleans are greeted by a warehousesized portrait of George Bush, compliments of a group of convicts. The portrait, painted over a background of red and white stripes with a Presidential Seal over six metres high on the side, is the latest work by inmates whose jailer believes painting keeps them out of trouble.

The programme was started several years ago when inmates asked to make their own Vietnam veterans memorial. Since then, the scenes on the corrugated metal warehouse have changed with the seasons and political climate.