Lofty goals

Dateline: ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A black face in a mostly white crowd: Antoine Members, an African-American Republican running against cancer survivor Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), had this to say on his uphill campaign.

•  •  The buckshot: "Think about it! We've demonized the Republican Party, yet our prison system is filled with a majority of African Americans put there by Democrats who run the courts and dominate the state," said Members, who is a Cook County correctional officer.

•  •  The upshot: "We've got to bring balance back to the government," added Members. "The Democratic Party has gotten lazy. They don't have to work hard because they already control the black vote."

•  •  The bottom line: Members wants to go back "to our Republican roots; the party of Martin Luther King, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington and Harriet Tubman."

Click. Click. Cameras and pencils were on the alert once word got out Levi Johnston, the fiance of Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter, Bristol, 17, had arrived here via a flight from Alaska. Palin reportedly spent time huddling with first lady Laura Bush and first lady in waiting Cindy McCain.

. . . A few little-known facts about GOP veepmate Palin, a mother of five whose vetting is being questioned.

•  •  She dismissed the governor's mansion chef after she took office; put on the apron and cooked for her family; placed a crib in her office for her new baby, Trig, who has Down syndrome; has a husband, Todd, who works the Alaskan oil fields but has spent time as a stay-at-home dad.

Putin and Palin: Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, a major John McCain supporter, had this to say about McCain's veep choice Sarah Palin: "She's been a hunter since birth. I just saw a picture of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin shooting a tiger [with a tranquilizer gun]. It would be hardy competition between Putin and our next vice president [Palin]." Bang. Bang.

Yah! In this land of lutefisk and Norwegian descendants, it should come as no surprise that Robert Stuart, former U.S. ambassador to Norway -- an Illinoisan appointed by President George H. W. Bush, led a contingent of light-haired Norwegians to the Illinois delegation breakfast Tuesday. Lutefisk was not served, but the breakfast fare was even more foul.

•  •  Shoe 'em: Singer Pat Boone, 74, who was once famous for his white buck shoes, is here pitching the cause of senior rights -- and still wearing those white bucks! He donates his autographed shoes to charity.

•  •  Admire 'em: Actor Jon Voight, Angelina Jolie's dad, is now a conservative who claims admiration for what veep choice Palin has to put up with from the press; a subject he is too familiar with because of his tumultuous relationship with his daughter.

•  •  Actor who? It's no secret the creative coalition of actors attending the RNC here are not A-list stars, with the exception of Voight. But actor Richard Schiff, who played Toby on the hit TV series "The West Wing," and conservative actor Robert Davi, were the only notable actors here.

Retired Col. Bud Day, who took care of a crippled John McCain in the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison, claimed McCain was so crippled "his arm was jutting out of his encasement like a stick arm on a snowman."