Grand Old Party Parties

NEW ORLEANS--The Democrats may still win the White House, but the Republicans were the big winners when they selected New Orleans as their convention site.

The city has rolled out the red carpet--literally--for the 5000 Republican delegates and alternates who will choose Vice President George Bush as their party's standard bearer tomorrow night.

Proclaiming itself as the Host to the Future, the Big Easy is awash in red, white, and blue--from the business district to Bourbon Street. For a city that has suffered since oil prices collapsed, Republicans, and the money they'll spend this week, are a welcome sight.

The Democrats held their convention in the Omni in Atlanta, and had to turn VIPs and members of the press away when they ran out of room. The Republicans, however, have plenty of room in the Superdome, which is large enough to hold George Bush and 35,000 of his friends.

The city is also doing all it can to keep those thousands of conventiongoers happy. For the faithful, they're holding an ecumenical prayer breakfast this morning. And on Bourbon Street, the strip joints and taverns are draped in patriotic bunting. The Hyatt Hotel, host to thousands of convention journalists, is graced with an inflated elephant four stories high.

Businesses in New Orleans are beckoning to the GOP tourists. At the Chicken Man House of Voodoo, they've put up a sign even Nancy Reagan would love--"Dope Be Death Say Chicken Man," it says.

The French Quarter, filled with thousands of convention goers, hosts eager businessmen who stand on city sidewalks, luring Republicans inside. Outside a bar boasting "the only female impersonators in the Quarter," a bouncer wears a "Make Vice President Bush President Bush" button.

But Bourbon isn't strictly the devil's domain. On the street corners, folks in "Jesus Saves" T-shirts battle to save souls. One man carries a sign past the pubs, proclaiming, "Jesus Saves From Sin, Death, and Hell," but his message is largely ignored.

One Royal Street businessman, shrugs when asked if his five "Bush for President" signs will stay up after the convention. "What do you think?" he asks. He calls the signs a "way to welcome people to a town. Put everybody in a good atmosphere so they'll buy."

But for some in this city of the Deep South, receiving is far more important than purchasing. In Atlanta, civic leaders cleaned up the downtown, evicting the homeless. Not New Orleans.

One man sits on the sidewalk as hundreds of Republicans pass, his can of change held high. "I'm homeless and hungry--anything would help God bless us," his sign says. He's got a Bible with him, but it hasn't helped increase donations. One passerby asks him if he's considered working instead of begging. "It's kind of hard. First of all I'm crippled and I have only one eye," he explains as the questioner tosses him a quarter.

Last month, the Democrats spent a week ridiculing George Bush. Now its the Republicans turn to mock Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and the Democrats. For $5.95 Republicans can bring home "an authentic Democratic voodoo doll." Or a "Du-ka-ka Happens" T-shirt.

Richard Nixon isn't in town, but a dozen Nixon loyalists, college kids too young to vote in 1972, march down Bourbon St. carrying "America Needs Dick Now" signs, and vendors here hawk "Nixon in '88" shirts, which sell briskly.