UPGRADED SEATING LIEBERMAN'S YANKS MOVED TO FRONT OF HALL.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

Delegates from Connecticut condemned to sit in the back row during the Democratic National Convention next week have been told to put away their binoculars.

When Vice President Al Gore anointed Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his presidential running mate this week, a party maitre d' waved each delegate to the front of the house.

Each of Connecticut's 72 delegates has been shuttled from the farthest recess of Staples Center to right in front of the podium.

For the state whose motto means, ``He who transplanted still sustains,'' each delegate will get front-row seats between Gore's home state of Tennessee and the colossus called California.

``When the vice presidential nominee is decided on . . . the delegates are moved to the front of the hall,'' said DNC spokesman Peter Ragone. ``It's standard procedure.''

That meant some creative rearranging late this week on the part of the convention committee, which had housed Tennessee directly in front of the podium between California and the states of Louisiana, New Hampshire, Arizona, South Dakota and Maine.

Asked whether the Yanks from Connecticut and the 86 Rebel delegates from Tennessee would be seated on top of one another, Ragone insisted in a brief telephone interview late Friday, ``there's ample room for everybody on the floor.''

But a voice behind him chirped, ``We've moved somebody, 'cause California's up real high.''

Each delegate from Connecticut will undoubtedly whistle the state song of ``Yankee Doodle'' to the front of Staples Center next week. Neither delegates from Connecticut, nor those from Tennessee could be reached for comment about the move Friday night.