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DENVER - Addressing the New Jersey delegation this morning, former Gov. Jim Florio told his fellow Democrats that they need to brush up on the harder-edged passages of the Hebrew Scriptures to get toned for what’s coming.

"We can’t afford to have this as a New Testament campaign," Florio told the crowd. "This is not turning the other cheek. This has got to be an Old testament campaign."

The way the Republicans demolished John Kerry four years ago, twisting a war hero, in Florio’s words, into a coward, should provide sufficient preview for GOP campaign tactics. But the Democrats have to huddle up and get ready to fight back with the obvious arguments.

"This president has to slither in and out of a foreign country before anyone knows he’s there, because he’s shredded our relations with the world," Florio said of President George W. Bush. "It’s an embarrassment."

DENVER - The affable salesman from the Midwest landed on the outskirts of town here with a bright smile and anecdote-laden speaking style that even the most bleary-eyed early morning Democrats responded to through the haze.

If the junior senator from his home state is the glamorous superstar, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) can claim the mantle of progressive, happy warrior work horse, and he kicked off his breakfast address to the New Jersey delegation today by noting how much he liked the deli cuisine that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Ill.) introduced him to when Menendez hosted Durbin one day in Hoboken.

He would get a standing ovation here, this politician who looks like an actor who would insist on playing Willie Loman as the guy who plays out a happy ending, in what amounted to a nearly perfect set-up when Gov. Jon Corzine prepped the crowd for his onetime Senate colleague.

"If you want to know how we get through healthcare, it’s going to be through the leadership of Dick Durbin," Corzine said of Durbin. "If you want to know how we’re going to change our foreign policy, it’s going to be through the leadership of the majority whip."

Obama calls Durbin his mentor and the older legislator responds publicly in the role of witness to what he sells as American excellence. Tonight he will introduce his friend and the Democrats’ presidential nominee at Invesco Field.

DENVER -- United States Rep. Rob Andrews made it to the convention yesterday, and while there are clearly still some frayed relations between himself and members of the party who were loyal to incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg, he said he’s been received warmly.

“It’s really been very positive, very heartwarming, very good,” he said.  “I feel very comfortable here.”

This morning he ducked out of the delegation’s breakfast during Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-Illinois) address to pick up his credentials.  There he ran into his recent campaign chairman, Michel Murphy.

Andrews has been the topic of much discussion among members of the New Jersey delegation.  Despite the report that he’s negotiating for a job at Goldman Sachs, many say he’s still weighing returning to Congress.  When asked today why people were still speculating about it, Andrews didn’t issue the blanket denials about returning to his house seat that he’s used since he entered the primary against Lautenberg. 

“I’ll have something to say about that next week.  This is a week to talk about the convention, not about me.”

West Ward Councilman Ron Rice, Jr. pounds pavement with Obama volunteers.: Politicker file photo 

DENVER - Months and months ago, when West Ward Newark Councilman Ronald C. Rice used to display his Obama button, friends would laugh.

"No chance," they told Rice, who went on organizing and serving as an Obama surrogate.

Tonight, from his vantage point among the New Jersey delegation, Rice said he felt inspired when he heard Sen. Joseph Biden’s (D-Del.) speech and saw the vice presidential nominee stand on-stage with Obama.

Not surprisingly, the New Jersey delegation was thrilled with Joe Biden’s speech tonight.  But among three delegates, the most powerful moment was Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden’s introduction of his father. 

Beau Biden’s recounting of the family’s tragic narrative, when he and his brother survived a car wreck that killed his mother and infant sister, struck State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) particularly hard.

Listening to his son speak and seeing him come out, that was very powerful,” she said.  “You could see the son’s eyes welled up with tears, appropriately so.”

Former Gov. Jim Florio - superdelegate.: Politicker photo 

DENVER - He’s slated to speak at the State Democratic Committee breakfast tomorrow, where former Gov. Jim Florio says he intends to make the message very simple: it’s get tough time.

"I don’t well up easily," said Florio, as he rose from his chair in the Spotted Dog bar after watching senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden stand together on stage at the Pepsi Center. "It’s an inspiration, and hopefully the start to a great campaign."

Great implies it will also be enormously challenging.

Given what Florio terms as the "abysmal" record of the Bush administration, " this should be a coronation, not an election, but the Republicans will unleash negative ads against Barack that will make the Swift-boating of Kerry look like kindergarten.