From: Colleen Parro

GOP activist Schlafly a regular convention winner

DAVID A. LIEB — Associated Press

NEW YORK - In a city brimming with Broadway actors, athletes and music stars, some conservative Republicans are rallying behind their own less ostentatious celebrity at the Republican National Convention.

She's 80-year-old Phyllis Schlafly, a Missouri delegate better known for her role as an author and activist against such things as the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion and gay marriage.

Schlafly has been to every Republican convention since 1952, including 11 times as a delegate or alternate. Her mission is to defend the Republicans' socially conservative platform.

She typically prevails.

"We had a total victory," Schlafly, of suburban St. Louis, declared after Republicans adopted a 2004 platform again opposed to abortion.

On Wednesday, Schlafly intends to celebrate - and honor eight "pro-life" legislators - during her "The Life of the Party" party. The $125-a-ticket event at an upscale dining spot near Central Park is expected to draw 550 people - a sign that GOP conservatives are as strong as ever, Schlafly said.

A rival "Big Tent Celebration," hosted Tuesday night by the Republican Majority for Choice, also was expected to draw 550 people while honoring 40 "pro-choice" lawmakers, said Jennifer Blei Stockman, co-chair of the GOP abortion rights group.

Stockman dismisses Schlafly's platform victories as "purely symbolic." And, like a rival politician, she accused Schlafly of backing out of a scheduled radio debate Tuesday.

"Our party is far more pragmatic than what Phyllis Schlafly and her like-minded people would like to believe," Stockman said, "and I think that's threatening to them."

But Schlafly is used to rhetorical battles.

After failing as a congressional candidate at age 28, she skyrocketed to Republican prominence in 1964 with her self-published book, "A Choice Not an Echo ," in support of GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

Goldwater lost badly to Democrat Lyndon Johnson. But Schlafly still counts the 1964 Republican Convention as a victory - the moment conservatives took control of the party.

In the 1970s, Schlafly founded the conservative Eagle Forum and led the fight against the ERA. As an Illinois delegate to the 1984 GOP convention, she helped write the anti-abortion language that remains in the Republican platform. And when abortion-rights supporters mounted a challenge in 1992, Schlafly formed the Republican National Coalition for Life and turned them back.

All that helps explain why some delegates at the 2004 convention have been posing for photos with Schlafly and soliciting her autograph. On Monday, a group of Iowa delegates got a snapshot with Schlafly right on the convention floor.

After Rep. Roy Blunt, the third-ranking GOP House member, finished speaking to the Missouri delegation Tuesday, Schlafly was the first person he sought out. Blunt had read her latest book - "The Supremacists, The Tyranny of Judges and how to Stop it " - and liked it.

Schlafly frequently wears Republican red. On Tuesday she also displayed the party's symbol - and elephant - on a pin. Herself a newspaper columnist and radio commentator, Schlafly looks forward to each political convention as "the most exciting thing that happens in this country."

"The most enjoyable part is walking around on the (convention) floor and seeing all my friends from other states," Schlafly said, then briefly paused. "No, I take that back. The most enjoyable part is winning."