Boston Globe: 'Fahrenheit 9/11' fans welcome hero to hotbed

''There's been anti-Bush momentum since 2000, when he didn't win the election," Moore told a reporter from ''Access Hollywood," as the veterans looked on. ''We're saving [Bush] a front row seat. He's got the funniest lines in the movie. There's talk of running him for best actor, and Dick Cheney would be best supporting actor. Of course, I think it should be the other way 'round."
That is just the kind of combative talk that party officials are trying to avoid during this week's Democratic National Convention. Be positive, they are telling delegates. On the other hand, it is exactly the kind of talk that rank-and-file Democrats -- more fired up against an incumbent president than they have been in decades -- adore.

He had come to town during the convention, Moore said, ''to encourage Democrats to have a backbone." He was not endorsing politicians, he said, though he did defend presumptive nominee John F. Kerry's vote in favor of war in Iraq. (Moore argued that Kerry was betrayed by what Moore calls the Bush administration's false case for war.)

Moore's schedule is jammed while he is in Boston. Between media appearances, he was honored by the Congressional Black Caucus yesterday afternoon, and was to give a private screening of his film for AFSCME union members today. This afternoon, he is to speak at a Take Back America rally of progressive activists, along with former Vermont governor and Kerry primary rival Howard Dean. He plans to leave Boston tomorrow. 

By Yvonne Abraham
Globe Staff