Republicans boo the film-maker they love to hate

YOU can run but you can’t hide from Michael Moore. The polemical film-maker is making his hefty presence felt in New York just as much as he did when the Democrats met in Boston. There he was lionised, here he is despised.

Senator John McCain’s dignified, statesmanlike speech on the war on terrorism on Monday night was being received with more respect than enthusiasm before he mentioned a certain "disingenuous film maker who would have us believe that Saddam’s Iraq was an oasis of peace". Cue bedlam. Cue wild applause followed by even louder booing as delegates realised Moore was sitting in the press gallery.

"Four more years! Four more years!" they chanted interrupting Mr McCain’s speech for more than a minute.

Mr McCain said the United States was engaged in "a fight between right and wrong, good and evil." He was talking about the threat posed by Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, but for many delegates those words could have been applied just as easily to Moore.

Moore’s award-winning documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has enraged Republicans since it suggests that president George Bush’s administration is a war-mongering, kleptocratic regime in hock to oil interests and the Saudi Arabian government. The film has taken more than $115 million at the US box office.

Moore, who is writing a daily column from the convention for USA Today, enjoyed the attention. He responded by raising his arms and shouting "two more months, two more months" to the frenzied delegates and later told reporters, "I can't believe they’re dumb enough to bring up the film and help its box office."

All evening long Moore was shadowed by a scrum of reporters, delegates and assorted hangers-on who wanted to see how he might respond to finding himself under fire in hostile territory.

"I think that guy’s the most disgusting human being I’ve ever seen," said one North Carolina delegate who spoke for many conservatives. Others asked reporters to log on to www.moorewatch.com and www.moorelies.com, a brace of conservative websites that claim to catalogue inaccuracies in Moore’s films.

The film-maker, however, was not about to be knocked off his stride. "I’m here to celebrate the end of the Republicans. They’ve had four years, it’s not been a very good marriage between them and the American people and now it’s coming to an end."

Although Moore drew the loudest boos he was not the sole target of Republican ire on a night when the party wrapped itself in the flag.

Rudy Giuliani earned loud applause and laughter when he criticised John Kerry’s record on opposing and at other times supporting the use of American force in Iraq.

He quipped: "Maybe this explains John Edwards’s need for two Americas - one where John Kerry can vote for something and another where he can vote against the very same thing."