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Make no mistake, we enjoy taking it from both sides. To show our GOP love we tracked down one Republican among a sea of red, white, and blue (mainly white, though). We present Michael Bates, a REAL LIVE convention delegate! Ooooh, aaaaah. He s come here from Oklahoma, presumably by covered wagon, to attend committee meetings and crowded parties. For those in need of a serious civics lesson (in our case, geography would help too), he explains the inner mechanics of party machine politics and how gay marriage is really like putting a slice of tomato on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. More delicious bites after the jump.

Age: 40.
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Occupation: Software engineer, republican delegate from Oklahoma.

1. You're here in New York as a Republican National Convention delegate from Oklahoma. Besides taking in a few Broadway shows and nominating Bush, do you really have anything to do?

Officially, the delegates have four significant items to vote on — nominees for President and Vice President, the Republican Party platform, and the rules governing the Republican Party for the next four years. Beyond that, the receptions and parties are important for networking and building connections for future political endeavors. Congressmen who are looking to move up to the Senate or up the House leadership ladder, Senators and Governors who are thinking about a run for the White House — they're holding receptions to build name recognition and goodwill with donors, activists, and fellow elected officials. And political organizations outside the party, like the Club for Growth, are holding special events to promote their ideas to this unique quadrennial gathering of Republicans from across the nation.

2. You make frequent mention of the "control freaks" in the Republican Party and those "northern states" on your website. What's your beef here? Are the grass roots being overrun by bad weeds?

While it's important to conduct a convention in an orderly fashion and to put our best foot forward, there are certain control freaks who want to eliminate even the most polite debate and any form of spontaneity. The Rules Committee considered several proposed rules changes which would have opened up the convention in a very modest way. For example, Utah State Senator James Evans proposed designating four convention speaking slots for delegates chosen at random, as a way to highlight the party's grass roots, the people who give and volunteer and keep the party running. Opponents of the idea argued that we can't take the risk of someone going "off message" during even one of the precious minutes of coverage the big networks still give the convention. They think of the convention as a long-form infomercial — Senator Bill Frist even gave out a 1-800 number during his speech last night. But the more the convention becomes like an infomercial, the less worthy it is of serious news coverage or public attention.

In the Rules Committee meetings, most of the support for these grass-roots-friendly initiatives came from Sunbelt states where the Republican Party is strong, while the opposition tended to come from Northern states where the Republican Party is often only a tiny minority. The Rules Committee has equal representation from every state — whether large or small, and whether or not the state party is successful, every state gets two seats on the committee, which allows states with small populations and weak Republican parties to have a disproportionate influence. It seems that the weaker Northern state parties are organized from the top-down, with a structure dating back to the days of machine politics, while the Sunbelt parties are open to the influence of grass-roots party supporters.

3. You've been attending the RNC Rules Committee meetings at the Javits Center, which is in "the deadest part of midtown Manhattan" as you say. No offense, but wouldn't the deadest part of the WORLD be the most appropriate location for a political convention rules committee?

I know it sounds terribly dull, but the work the Rules Committee does is crucial. They present a set of rules that will govern this convention and the party's organization until the next convention in 2008. While the convention as a whole has the final vote on accepting the rules, the existing rules make it very difficult to amend or debate the recommendation from the Rules Committee. That's deliberate because the "control freaks" don't want any visible debate during the convention.

The rules we passed on Monday will govern the 2008 presidential primary process. I was disappointed that no effort was made this year to address the front-loaded schedule. The current system promotes a rush to judgment and could weigh down the party in 2008 with a nominee who fails to inspire party activists and fails to appeal to the broader electorate, which is the problem the Democrats face this year. Worse yet, we could end up with a presumptive nominee in March and learn something scandalous about him in July, and under our current rules, most delegates would be bound to vote him anyway if he refused to step aside. Unfortunately, the word was sent down from on high that no significant rules changes would be considered this year.

4. Panhandle, manhandle. The Oklahomos are facing a tough battle with Question 711, an anti-gay marriage amendment, on the state ballot. It sounds like a real sword fight at the Not OK Corral. Are state Republicans trying to encourage the gays to move to Kansas?

The state question is a constitutional amendment to buttress the traditional definition of marriage against attempts to use judicial activism to overturn it. If a church wants to hold a ceremony to acknowledge a homosexual relationship, that's the church's first amendment right, but it's not right to force employers, landlords, churches, and other institutions and individuals to recognize such as relationship as if it were a real marriage. That's what the amendment is all about. A blogger friend of mine (www.theroughwoodsman.com) compares the effort to redefine marriage to the idea of redefining a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to cover some other combination of ingredients. It's fine if you'd rather eat a BLT, but don't force me to go along with your re-labeling of it as a PBJ.

5. What do you really think of New York? Do the apocryphal lights, sounds, and tranny hookers posing as cops confuse you?

I love this city. It is exhilarating to be here, to start the day with seemingly infinite possibilities for how to spend it. I've been here a week and still get a thrill walking into Grand Central Station — to look up at the restored ceiling, and then to get swept into the fast-moving streams of people that cross but never collide. I love being in a place where you can get anywhere without getting behind the wheel of a car. I experienced that in college in Boston, and I miss it terribly — it's an impossibility in Tulsa. Walking from point A to point B you can see details and oddities that you'd never spot driving at 30 miles an hour.

I love the brilliant people who come here to be the best they can be. I've had a great time meeting and hanging out with the small but growing band of New York conservatives who write blogs, work in print and broadcast journalism, are activists or some combination of the three — people like Dawn Eden (www.dawneden.com), Karol Sheinen (www.alarmingnews.com), Gary Shapiro of the New York Sun, Kevin McCullough of WMCA, and the creative young Republicans who put on the "Communists for Kerry" demonstrations. (http://www.batesline.com/archives/000773.html)

Michael Bates Top Five

1. Martin Luther — for all his flaws, the man's confidence in God, our "mighty fortress", and in God's Word, gave him the strength to speak the truth under threat of death and to begin the liberation of a continent enslaved to superstition.

2. "And Can It Be" — Charles Wesley's hymn of amazement at Christ's sacrificial love for us, who were in rebellion against him — echoing the words of Romans 5:11 — "But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

3. Ronald Reagan — greatest president of the 20th century for his resolve to do the right thing for our nation's defense, our economy, and the world's freedom from tyranny. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma's Senate candidate is one of the few active politicians I would put in his class.

4. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs. This book put into words my gut feelings about what gives a city or a neighborhood life, and Jacobs eloquently lays out an indictment of government stupidity as the cause of a lot of urban ugliness and decay. Jacobs' ideas have motivated my involvement in local politics.

5. Rachmaninoff's Vespers — beautiful settings of the beautiful words of the Russian liturgy, drawing on ancient melodies. When I travel, it's my lullaby music.

—Andrew Krucoff and Chris Gage conduct a daily interview series for Gawker.