E-Mail This Article to a Friend Convention news Clinton, Affleck, Albright to Celebrate the DNC in Cambridge BY RICHARD RAINEY

CAMBRIDGE — As Boston reels from news that most of the city’s principal highways will be closed during the Democratic National Convention — leaving residents dreading the massive traffic delays and swamping Mayor Tom Menino in waves of commuter outrage — a handful of Cambridge political insiders are smugly harboring a secret: former president Bill Clinton and his wife, New York senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, will spend the convention at Harvard Square’s Charles Hotel.

The Charles is owned by Richard L. Friedman, who for three summers hosted the Clintons at his Oyster Pond home on Martha’s Vineyard. Friedman, cherubic and charming, is a master of the Cambridge-style power game: ask for little or nothing, and reap much more. His frequent guests include the taciturn and talented playwright David Mamet, a close friend; Jack Nicholson stays at the Charles when he’s in town to watch the LA Lakers play the Celtics.

The hotel’s high-profile convention guests will also include former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright. If the rumors pan out that members of the Kennedy family will board there as well, then the luster of Friedman’s coup shines all that much brighter.

Of course, Clinton’s choice of lodging has more than a little to do with political expediency. Party leaders are concerned that the charismatic ex-president, whose memoirs are scheduled for release this June, will steal the spotlight from Senator John F. Kerry, who should be the star of the show when he accepts the Democratic Party nomination.

But Clinton is more than welcome to headline in other venues. The City of Cambridge is working with MIT, Harvard, and the Academy of Arts and Sciences to present a series of intellectual panel discussions throughout July that will spotlight the city as a fertile ground for growing ideas. Hopes are — and they are only hopes at this point — that Clinton will headline this academic initiative by hosting a symposium on the current state of America in the international community. Other potential topics: the future of bioscience, how the international press views America, exploring "the death of radicalism," and — in light of the recent decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to legalize same-sex marriage — understanding the future of matrimony in America.

Cambridge vice-mayor Marjorie Decker has invited Hollywood celebs and her childhood friends Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to help stage a youth-oriented town-hall discussion. Affleck is confirmed. Damon has a film-related scheduling conflict, but is trying to make the event, planned for Tuesday, July 27. (The second night of the convention is traditionally a "liberal" showcase, when what passes for the party’s left wing struts its stuff. The rest of the week then veers back to what passes for the party’s "center.") Comcast and MTV have expressed interest in sponsoring and broadcasting the event.

Cambridge being Cambridge — that is, the Berkeley of the Northeast — some people are pissed off. The local arts community thinks the convention programming focuses too much on the delegates and the status quo. In answer, it’s planning events of its own. Even local anarchists hope to stage parallel actions. (Check the print edition of the Phoenix for more information.)

Democrats from across the nation will flood the FleetCenter from July 26 to 29. Nearly 300 delegates from four states and a US territory — representing 32 total electoral votes — are scheduled to board for the week in Cambridge hotels. Representatives from Minnesota, Utah, and Kansas will be staying at the Marriott Cambridge hotel, in Kendall Square. Indiana delegates will lodge at the Hotel@MIT on Sidney Street, while Puerto Rico’s representatives have chosen the Inn at Harvard.

In terms of voting clout, Indiana leads the pack with 81 delegates and 11 votes. Minnesota is close behind with 86 delegates and 10 electoral votes, followed by Kansas with six votes, and Utah with five. Puerto Rico will send 58 delegates, but as a US territory, it has no vote.

Come November, Minnesota will likely be the only Cambridge-based delegation of real importance to Kerry’s White House bid. Pundits and campaign managers have labeled it a battleground state, as it’s one of 18 states that have bucked the growing trend of voting strictly along party lines. Former vice-president Al Gore won Minnesota by little more than three percent in 2000, and it’s shaping up to be an even closer race there this time around. Kerry will likely focus less on Utah, Kansas, and Indiana, since all three states lean decidedly Republican.

With delegates on their way, bringing along a flood of national and international media, Cambridge plans to pack the whole month with as many large-scale events as possible. The Taste of Cambridge, an annual face-stuffing event sponsored by local chefs and restaurateurs, will take place July 21. A music festival reminiscent of the 2000 Cambridge World’s Fair will close off Mass Ave between Harvard and Central Squares for a day. Concerts are also in the works, including one on a floating barge near the Galleria mall. The Cambridge City Council remains tightlipped about confirming the attendance of any big-name music artists.

Smaller, more intimate events will be hosted throughout the city as well. The council hopes to sponsor historic and arts-minded walking tours, ideally to be guided by local celebrity residents. Again, the council was unsure about who might be willing to participate, but had already hashed out a number of potential destinations. For instance, MIT’s Ray and Maria Stata Center, designed by internationally renowned architect Frank Gehry and recently built in Kendall Square, may become one, according to Councilor Kenneth Reeves.

And of course, there must be a parade. Given Cambridge’s love affair with the left and its residents’ propensity for extroversion, Reeves warned, the march is unlikely to resemble the standard Main Street tickertape parade.

"[The revelers] may be ‘boy scouts,’" he said with a laugh, "but they sure won’t look like boy scouts."

With $100,000 already earmarked for July and a campaign to attract business and individual sponsorships in the works, Cambridge hopes it can capitalize on chaos in Boston to bring people — and their wallets — to its bricked sidewalks. All in the name of political partisanship, of course.

"They’re billing this as the second revolution," Mayor Michael Sullivan said. He recounted how, in the dark days of pre-democracy, George Washington stood on Cambridge Common to rally the Continental Army against King George the III. This time, the city wants to kick off celebrations heralding the ouster of King George the W.

"I can’t make this stuff up!" said Sullivan.