“Welcome, D.C. Democrats!” Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said about an hour ago, at D.C. Vote’s protest in front of the Denver Mint.

About friggin’ time, was the sotto voce attitude of many DCites present.

Fenty arrived at 10:45 a.m., about 15 minutes into the gathering—after Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray and Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans had spoken, and congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton was well into her characteristically lengthy remarks. Fenty gave a one-minute speech, then initially joined elected officials behind a “No Taxation Without Representation” banner. As the speeches dragged on, Fenty peeled off and spoke to reporters gathered down the block. He rejoined a march back to the Crowne Plaza, the official D.C. delegation hotel, to cap off the rally.

Fenty’s tardiness is just another item on a growing list of perceived slights.

Last night, Fenty did not join the D.C. delegation on the floor of the convention. At first, Fenty said, “I just got in late, just a lot of things to get done.” Later, he said he he arrived at about 3:30 p.m. yesterday, well ahead of the night’s biggest speeches, from Virginia’s Mark Warner and Hillary Clinton. He says he did not enter the Pepsi Center last night, but stayed at his hotel, the Westin, where he says, “I really didn’t do much.” The fact that he’s staying there, of course, is an additional bone of contention.

About the hotel drama, Fenty said “what’s important to the residents of the District of Columbia” was supporting voting rights and getting Barack Obama elected.

But, LL asked, can’t you do that from the Crowne Plaza?

“You can do it from any hotel,” he said.

DENVER—At today’s voting-rights protest outside the Denver Mint—more on that later—Shadow Sen. Michael D. Brown brought up Sen. Hillary Clinton’s speech to the convention last night. About halfway through, the junior senator from New York said: “I will always be grateful to everyone from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the territories who joined our campaign on behalf of all those people left out and left behind by the Bush administration.”

That gratitude, of course, omits the District, which is neither a state, a territory, nor Puerto Rico.

“She forgot us, and our job is to make sure that people don’t forget,” Brown told the crowd, though he called Clinton one of the legislators he admired most. “She’s always done her job for us; she’s always supported state rights, but our job is to remind people that we’re here.”

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty agreed this afternoon that it was a snub. “I don’t know if it was a conscious slight…I wouldn’t say that without hearing the senator’s response.”

Peter Rosenstein, the head of the Clinton contingent in the D.C. delegation, says the line was a “clearly unintended omission,” calling the speech a “home run.”

“I didn’t even notice it,” Rosenstein says. (LL missed it too, but a friend immediately pointed it out.) But he does point out a crucial fact: “The reality is, D.C. voted 78 percent for Barack Obama…The speech was focused on the nation and not on D.C.”

“I’m more concerned about [Obama],” Rosenstein says, wondering whether the Democratic nominee will broach the subject in his acceptance speech Thursday. “He’s gonna be the next president.”

Rosenstein is scheduled to meet with Clinton this afternoon along with other top supporters of the erstwhile front-runner. He says he will mention the controversy to her.

DENVER—Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s strained ties with the labor community erupted into an all-out feud at the Democratic National Convention today, with D.C.’s main labor organizing group threatening to picket the mayor at future national appearances.

A flier provided to the D.C. delegation at breakfast here today decries Fenty as a “budget-shattering, union-busting, promise-breaking political boss,” calling Hizzoner out for his administration’s bungling of the summer jobs program, for schools opening “in turmoil,” and for routinely snubbing the D.C. Council and, yes, unions.

The campaign seems to be in no small part prompted by anti-union comments made by Fenty at a school reform event here in Denver on Sunday. “The American Federation of Teachers, which I don’t think does anything for the people of the District of Columbia, is weighing in against it,” Fenty said, as reported in the American Prospect. “And the only thing I can think of is that the heads of the union, they want to keep their jobs.”

Fenty, the flier reads, “has become the national poster child for reforming urban schools and streamlining city government. But the image-conscious Fenty is not the reform whiz kid. Far from it.”

Joslyn Williams—head of the Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO, which issued the flier—was here at the breakfast this morning. Fenty was not, and has yet to appear at any official delegation events.

Nathan Saunders, general vice president of the Washington Teachers’ Union, is also here in Denver, and he says the comments Sunday were not the proximate reason for the tussle, but was prompted by his “constant behavior toward public employees.”

“This is not just the WTU,” he says. “This is every public employee union in the District of Columbia.”

Saunders says there will be no picketing of Fenty here in Denver, saying the focus will remain on Barack Obama, but, “He’s going to be unwelcome in every city he goes to this day going forward.”

UPDATE, 11:35 P.M.:: Williams confirms there’s no immediate plans to picket Fenty here in Denver—“what we’re doing is informing folks,” he says.

“The plan is to find out where he’s going to be” while campaigning for Barack Obama across the country, Williams says, and send “truth squads” of picketers to follow him.

The Fenty administration’s moves, Williams says, are “not consistent with what Barack Obama and the Democratic platform has stated.”

At-Large Councilmember Kwame R. Brown says he is surprised by the union tactics. “I’ve never seen an anti-mayor campaign during a Democratic convention,” he says. “And I’ve been to three!”

He continued, “I’m a little concerned that we’re here supporting Democratic ideals and Barack Obama, and we have anti-Fenty literature….I’m disappointed it’s come to this.”

Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. echoed Brown: “It’s unfortunate that to get attention, in some ways, it had to come to this.”

LL is told Fenty will be attending the voting-rights protest at the Denver Mint, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Eastern. More to come.

UPDATE, 1:40 P.M.: Williams estimates he’ll be distributing some 30,000 fliers here in Denver, at the Pepsi Center and elsewhere—take that figure for what it’s worth. Fenty says of the unions’ move: “I think that’s 100 percent consistent with the 1st Amendment.”

DENVER—The big question of the evening: Would Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, due in to Denver tonight, appear with the District delegation for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s featured speech.

He did not, though one local big shot did show in time—Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans.

That means that, ahead of Barack Obama’s acceptance spectacular on Thursday night at Mile High Stadium, Fenty will appear only Wednesday with the rank-and-file to offer the District’s delegate tally toward Obama’s nomination.

Sooo…: LL spent a little too much time at the open bar in Media Pavilion 2 (thanks, Diageo!). Which means he is taking in lines like “no way, no how, no McCain” and “sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits” from the cheapest of seats. Oh, to be a State Blogger Corpsman right now!

DENVER—The D.C. delegation to the Democratic National Convention came out in force this afternoon to support Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. Among the elected VIPs on the scene were council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, Ward 4’s Muriel Bowser, Ward 5’s Harry Thomas Jr., and Ward 7’s Yvette Alexander (Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has yet to arrive). Together, they chanted, “We demand the vote.”

The impact of those demands was, well, debatable.

Norton was placed at the very head of the daily lineup, just after an overlong invocation, the colors presentation, the Pledge of Allegiance, and a local children’s choir singing the national anthem. Perhaps a few hundred press, delegates, and staff were milling about the floor during the speech, very few paying particularly close attention.

Norton had but three minutes, but she did a fine job presenting some of the greatest hits of D.C. voting rights rhetoric (a feat helped, no doubt, by the fact she had only three minutes). The founders, she said, “did not create a new nation to get the vote, only to turn around and deny the vote to the citizens of their own capital.” She also hit on the voting-rights’ crowd’s new favorite feint: focusing on D.C.’s veterans, for instance namechecking Spec. Darryl T. Dent, who in 2003 became the first D.C. resident to die in Iraq.

As Norton spoke, one delegate unfurled a No Taxation Without Representation flag, mildly flouting rules about signs on the convention floor. Earlier today, D.C. Vote outreach director Eugene Dewitt Kinlow had talked about smuggling in some of his organization’s advocacy signs, but few of those appeared.

Before taking a strangely Burkean turn—”Change is best achieved when wrapped in unchanging principles”—Norton called on Democrats to “finish [Martin Luther] King’s unfinished business” and extend full civil-rights to the District.

Of course, that doesn’t include statehood. Not surprisingly, Norton’s advocacy extended only to passing the D.C. Voting Rights Act, the bill that passed the House last year but failed to gain sufficient Senate support. “Tonight, we challenge the Senate, especially the Republicans, to match the House”—never mind that if all Senate Dems had voted for the bill it would have passed—and she said to “have no doubt [that] if George Bush wouldn’t sign the D.C. Voting Rights Act, its most prominent co-sponsor, our next president Barack Obama, will.”

What was the impact of Norton and D.C.’s few minutes in the spotlight? Back at the D.C. bureau, LL’s boss reports that none of the 24-hour news networks emerged from their reverie of wonkitude to cover Norton’s remarks. Inside the hall, a few joined in the Washingtonians’ chant of “we demand the vote.” Rather than drown out decrepit former Kennedy aide Ted Sorenson, speaking after Norton, the chant faded fast.

After Sorenson came DNC vice chair Rep. Mike Honda, David Gupp of North Dakota, who spoke on Native American issues, and Rep. Linda Sanchez of California. Make no mistake: D.C.’s franchise, like Native American affairs or Latino affairs, is just another issue or VIP to be given a token speaking slot. But no big surprise there—better to have three token minutes than no minutes at all.

Among the delegation the reaction was upbeat. D.C. Dems chair Anita Bonds called the remarks “stellar.” Gray said Norton “struck exactly the right themes—that this cannot be consistent with what the founders intended.” He rejected LL’s assertion that the District seemed to be an afterthought to convention organizers—”If it were an afterthought, it wouldn’t be here at all….That alone represents progress.”

But does it? Norton took the podium in 1996, 2000, and 2004 to press voting rights; in 1992, she spoke about the issue along with then-mayor Sharon Pratt and Shadow Sen. Jesse Jackson. Attitudes toward voting-rights have improved during that time, as the District’s political and economic reputation improved, but D.C. still has no vote.

On his way off the floor, LL checked out D.C.’s neighbors. The Maryland section was deserted; the Virginia section held about a dozen folks, few of them actual delegates. In search of some reaction, LL headed over to his home state, Indiana.

There he found delegate Bonnie Reese of Winfield, Ind., which is about 10 miles from LL’s ancestral home in the northwest corner of the state. Reese said she had listened to Norton’s speech and asked LL to tell her more. He explained that D.C. has three electoral votes for president and a delegate to Congress, but no senators, and that Congress regularly tries to exert power over the locally elected leaders of the city.

Said Reese, “Well, that sucks!”

LL asked Reese if she planned to mention it to her colleagues. “I sure will,” she promised.

UPDATE, 7:03 P.M.: Pop Cesspool points out I forgot the video. Here it is:

DENVER—At a get-together of delegates before leaving for Denver last week, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton remarked that it’s not all fun and games for the D.C. folks, who have to maintain a focus on lobbying for voting rights. “We’re there to work,” she said.

Well, there’s time for a little golf, too.

The picture above is of Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., denizen of Langston Golf Course, arriving at the Crowne Plaza late yesterday after playing in the 6th annual Ronald H. Brown Memorial Golf Tournament, a benefit memorializing the late Democratic bigwig and commerce secretary.

The tournament, held at the Green Valley Ranch Golf Club, about 15 miles east of downtown, attracted VIPs such as National Urban League head Mark H. Morial, Colorado senate President Peter C. Groff, and—drumroll please—former Ward 5 Councilmember Vincent B. Orange.

Thomas said he played at the invitation of Michael A. Brown, Ron Brown’s son who is now a lobbyist running for an at-large council seat in D.C. The format was a modified best-ball, with each foursome sharing the best drive, then proceeding to the pin separately.

How often did legendary linksman Thomas snag the best drive? “About half the time,” he says with no small hint of pride. But it was Orange, he says, who was the big hitter of the outing, smacking a 295-yard drive at one point.

“My best was about 280,” he says. “But I was consistent.”

DENVER—This morning, LL grabbed Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry outside the elevators here at the Crowne Plaza. He saw an opportunity for détente on his longstanding ban from the mayor-for-life.

Things started out auspiciously with Barry extending his hand to LL, but turns out Barry didn’t recognize him: “Who you with?” he asked. LL pressed Barry, arguing that perhaps outside of the District of Columbia, the ban might be relaxed.

“Nope,” he said. “Same rules.”

DENVER—Today is Hillary Day at the Democratic National Convention, with New York senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton set to take the podium tonight.

LL sat down this morning with Peter Rosenstein, one of the few delegates pledged to Clinton and the D.C. delegation’s Clinton whip, to talk about the candidate he preferred to get the Democratic nomination.

Rosenstein acknowledged that some Clintonians are still lukewarm in their support of the presumptive nominee, and he says the Obamans realize that. “They still see it as a little bit of a process,” he says. “They realize not all of Hillary’s supporters are there yet.”

“My comment to the Obama people is the phrase they have to stop using is, ‘Get over it.’ That just gets a lot of the Hillary people madder,” Rosenstein says. “The way the need to put it is, ‘You did really well, but we did better.’”

As for the local delegation, Rosenstein says he expects that “the vast majority” of the unpledged “superdelegates” who had once supported Clinton, many of whom are leaders of national organizations, will cast their votes for Obama. But some, he says, have pledged to him privately that they will stick with Hillary; he declined to give a number or name any names.

Rosenstein himself, pledged to Clinton, will stick by his woman with his vote, though he has already publicly expressed his support for Obama, writing an op-ed in the Washington Blade telling Hillary supporters it’s “Time to heal.”

Regarding his support for Obama, Rosenstein is somewhat circumspect. “I am excited about the potential for us to win,” he says. “I’m also realistic: This is going to be a very close election.” The unspoken subtext: Perhaps if Clinton were the candidate, with all of her supposed white blue-collar support, it wouldn’t be so close.

But Rosenstein doesn’t see John McCain’s efforts to target Clinton supporters as a winning strategy. “It’s a great campaign tactic,” he says. “If I were a Republican, of course I would want those voters.” But in the end, he says, Democrats will end up voting for Democrats.

As for Clinton’s speech, Rosenstein said he had gotten details of a draft circulated among New York’s Hillary supporters. “I think it will generally be, it’s time for the party to unite and she will give a ringing endorsement of Barack Obama,” he says. “And I think she will ask all of her supporters to join her.”

By Thursday, Rosenstein says, “We’re going to walk out of here united.”

DENVER—The D.C. delegation here has a lovely hotel, the Crowne Plaza, in downtown Denver, and a lovely, if cramped, office located inside that hotel. What they don’t have is a key to that office.

Rather than give the delegation a key to their own office, says D.C. Dems chair Anita Bonds, hotel management has a single master key, which means a hotel staffer has to fetch it every time someone accidentally locks themselves out. That happens a lot, in part because of a faulty doorstop.

LL has been sitting by the door, typing his Thursday column and watching the drama unfold. “Write a nasty story about this hotel!” says Bonds. “Ask ‘em, what’s up with that?”

In return for complying, LL procured a free ride down to the Pepsi Center.

Seen at the Crowne Plaza hotel, home of the D.C. delegation, with delegate delegation member Kemry Hughes:

DENVER—LL caught up with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin outside the DenverColorado Convention Center last night, on his way into a party honoring Hurricane Katrina relief organizations.

Nagin had kind words for D.C.’s congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton. As head of the House subcommittee that oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Norton has been a big advocate of Katrina relief. “She’s wonderful,” Nagin said. “I visit her every time I come to Washington.”

LL asked Nagin if Norton had his ear on D.C. voting rights. “Absolutely,” he said. “I and the City of New Orleans will do whatever we can to advance the cause of D.C. voting rights.” He did not offer any specifics.

DENVER—Sen. Edward Kennedy will definitely be speaking tonight. His son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, told David Meadows, spokesperson for the D.C. Democratic State Committee, that the Democratic elder statesman will appear tonight—weeks after learning of a malignant brain tumor and undergoing surgery.

DENVER—This morning, members of the District’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention gathered for breakfast at their hotel the Crowne Plaza—which is not the hotel which Mayor Adrian M. Fenty will be staying when he arrives after staying in D.C. for the first day of school today.

Anita Bonds, chair of the local Democratic party, took the opportunity to tell the gathered delegates, media, and others that there’s no hard feelings between local Dems and the mayor. “There’s no truth to that,” she told the crowd, as they chowed on french toast and eggs Benedict paid for by the D.C. Hospital Association. “I thought we had a pretty good working relationship.”

To that end, she invited up to the podium John Falcicchio, Fenty’s top in-house political adviser, and gave him a kiss.

In other comments, Bonds asked members of the delegation to put their workaday political differences behind them during the convention. “If we could just lay down our swords while we’re on national travel, and pick up the shield to elect Barack Obama,” she said. “We can pick that other stuff up when we get back.”

Falcicchio explains the hotel situation thusly: “We wanted to make sure there was enough hotel rooms to go around.” Fenty will be staying at the Westin, which is the Obama campaign’s official hotel. Rooms reserved for Fenty at the Crowne Plaza, Falcicchio says, will be released to “different folks.” He offered no names.

DENVER—Mayor Adrian M. Fenty will be bedding down at the Westin Hotel here, rather than the Crowne Plaza with the rest of the D.C. delegation, mayoral spokesperson Dena Iverson tells LL.

Earlier, the Washington Post’s David Nakamura had reported that Fenty had been seeking separate accommodations, citing an anonymous source saying the mayor “needs a place to escape lest he get bogged down with gladhanding.”

Turns out the reportage did not deter the mayor’s plan, despite former Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ comments that his similar decision to snub the local delegates was “completely stupid.”

The Westin is located eight blocks from the Crowne Plaza in downtown Denver, on the opposite end of the 16th Street pedestrian mall, and is much closer to the Pepsi Center, where the convention is being held. Tune in tomorrow for a compare-and-contrast on the accomodations.