NEW YORK — Unlike his Democratic opponent, who put in barely a cameo appearance at her party’s shindig last month, Republican U.S. Senate nominee Jim DeMint is spending much of the week here at the GOP gathering — rubbing shoulders with wealthy contributors and top party officials.

He even addressed the convention for about two minutes Monday afternoon, repeating remarks he has made on the campaign trail about opportunity for the future.

“We’ve heard the Democrats tell us that it can’t be done,” the Greenville congressman said. “But I’m here with you to tell them to get out of the way because we’re already doing it.”

The 88 South Carolina delegates and alternates, standing on their feet, gave him a rousing reception.

Unfortunately for him and his campaign, the appearance did not make the major cable news coverage. Fox News showed DeMint walking out to the podium before cutting away for a commercial.

His remarks did air live on C-SPAN.

Last month, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Inez Tenenbaum left the Democratic National Convention in Boston after spending one day there. Word was she didn’t want to be seen anywhere near Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry or filmmaker Michael Moore, who produced “Fahrenheit 9/11,” the highly controversial anti-President Bush movie.

Her campaign has consistently maintained that Tenenbaum had a previous campaign commitment in the state.

DeMint was among six U.S. Senate candidates introduced to the convention by U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Later, DeMint said the NRSC sees the S.C. seat — held by Democrat Fritz Hollings since 1966 — “as one of the most winnable” in the country.

The NRSC says internal polls show DeMint leading Tenenbaum by 8 percentage points.

In three days here, DeMint will have spent a great deal of time networking. He has met a lot of new people who have a business interest in the state and “have lots of money.”

Among those were representatives of International Paper. They informed the congressman that company executives had sent notices to their more than 2,700 employees in South Carolina, urging them to vote for DeMint.

DeMint came to New York via Minnesota, where 3M officials held a fund-raiser for him.

The congressman expressed some concern that party officials are starting to see him as a shoo-in against Tenenbaum. He cautioned against overconfidence.

Nevertheless, at times he sounded as if he already had the race in the bag.

“Everything looks good right now. We’ve just got to catch up on the money side. But the (poll) numbers look real good,” he said.

DeMint started out about $2 million behind Tenenbaum in fund raising, having depleted his coffers in a tough primary and runoff battle with former Gov. David Beasley in June.

Asked about the possibility of a campaign visit from President Bush, DeMint said he would be surprised if the president came. Party officials are thinking “less and less that I need it.

“They say that South Carolina is in pretty good shape, that we came out of the primary with real strong numbers.”

DeMint generally declined to say anything about his Democratic opponent. When pressed, he noted she has disassociated herself from her party, which he charged is “no longer a national party.”

That was a play on “A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat,” the best seller by disaffected Democratic U.S. Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia — who on Wednesday will deliver the keynote address at the Republican National Convention.

DeMint looks for Tenenbaum to go on the attack over the next two months. She has been relentless in her criticism of his proposal to impose a 23 percent national sales tax and do away with the Internal Revenue Service.

“We’ll be talking about ideas, and she will be critical,” he said. “She hasn’t proposed anything new.”

Tenenbaum spokeswoman Kay Packett saw an opening.

“Big ideas that are bad are just big ideas,” she said. “Jim DeMint has a lot of ideas that are hugely bad for South Carolina.

“If his 23 percent national sales tax is an example of big ideas, South Carolina middle-class families might want to think a little smaller.”