AP photo
U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., waves as he tours the podium at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., today. He's scheduled to speak tonight.

The most urgent worries about Gulf coast hurricane damage are ebbing, so Republican officials are gearing up to stage a full schedule of of convention events tonight in St. Paul, possibly to include a video address by President Bush and a speech by Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a hawkish Democrat-turned-independent who is a close friend of GOP presidential candidate John McCain.

"We've got 5,000 people here,'' Rhode Island national GOP Committeeman Rob Manning said of the convention-goers, "and if possible we want to give them some content and let them scream and jump around.''

How the night's program will unfold is not yet clear. GOP officials planned a series of conference calls this morning with their delegation leaders and with the news media. Manning said, however, that there's a strong sense "that it's time to be getting on with the business of the convention.'' He said he is "pretty confident that there will be a full schedule tonight,'' with details to be fleshed out this morning.

In the meantime, Manning said he thinks McCain and the party's leaders "made exactly the right choices'' in cutting back yesterday's schedule. "I don't think the loss of a day is going to hurt us at all.''