OTHER PRO-LIFE DEMOCRATS GOT COLD SHOULDER AT DNC

After-action report from delegates to the Democratic convention in New York City: Anyone "openly pro-life" - as the uncowed are now known in Democratic politics - was snubbed or roughed up. Women had it no better than men.

Kansas Gov. Joan Finney says she was never asked to the podium in this Yearof the Woman. "They had women up there who had thought about running for office, or who had run, or who were in office. They had everybody up," she says.

She offered to second Tennessee Sen. Al Gore's nomination. "I never heard anything more."

Over with the Minnesota folk, Ann Maloney, a college professor of philosophywho teaches women's studies - and was one of the 10 Minnesota delegates who voted "Casey" for president - says fellow delegates told her to shut up unless she wanted to "get hurt."

She ended the convention, she says, with a wrenched shoulder and 21 black-and-blue marks on her legs, a result of being shoved so TV cameras could not see her anti-abortion sign.

"The Democratic Party," she says, "used to be a party where everyone had a voice. No more."

Rep. Nicholas Mavroules of Massachusetts was insulted politically in a way that mimicked the treatment of Pennsylvania's Gov. Robert Casey. Counter to the rule that parties do not undercut their incumbents, the convention gave a podium showcase to Massachusetts state Rep. Barbara A. Hildt, running pro-choice to upset Mr. Mavroules in a primary race for the U.S.House.

Mr. Mavroules, who did not attend the convention, was perhaps coincidentally a co-signer - along with 29 other members of Congress - of a letter Mr. Casey dispatched to the platform committee on June 27, in a last-ditch appeal for moderation on abortion.

The Washington Times