Michael Moore Joins the Press -- And Gets Some (washingtonpost.com) (Video Clip)

Michael Moore Joins the Press -- And Gets Some (washingtonpost.com)NEW YORK, Aug. 30 -- Michael Moore -- filmmaker, rabble-rouser, citizen -- wandered into a dangerous neighborhood on Monday. As a guest columnist for USA Today at the Republican National Convention, he only wanted to take some notes, he said, to observe.

But from the moment he entered Madison Square Garden, Moore was the one being observed.

For more than two hours, he created a comet's tail of commotion. Holding a rolling news conference as he dragged a clot of some 70 reporters past a growing wave of security officials and hostile conventioneers, Moore came close to disrupting the entire convention.

"Moore, you loser! Get out!" shouted Dan Willard, an alternate Maryland delegate from Rockville.

Others merely scowled if not at Moore then at the traffic jam he created.

Moore, whose anti-Bush film "Fahrenheit 9/11" is a $100 million-plus polemical blockbuster, seemed delighted by the ruckus. It gave him another platform to sound off on a variety of themes: the war in Iraq, the economy, the national debt.

When Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called him "a disingenuous filmmaker" during his speech, Moore said, "Thank you, John McCain."

No offense taken. Only dollar signs.

"Hey, the film's doing $120 million right now," Moore said. "When McCain mentions it, I have a chance to do $150 million. It just creates more interest, more excitement.

A delegate from Missouri called Moore a "disgrace," a few seconds after asking for his autograph."

McCain's Speech - Video Clip of Michael Moore reference (Click Title)


By Mark Leibovich and Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writers