Deploying Cindy's Antiwar Army

Taylor handed out pictures of what he said was Sheehan meeting Bush. "You can see they're holding hands, and she's leaning into the kiss," he said, outlining his case to undermine Sheehan's credibility. Still, he acknowledged, "You've got a grieving mother. She is a catalyst for them."

In an unintended Vietnam reference, Taylor said he thinks Sheehan's success is also "galvanizing the silent majority" in support of the war. But the silent majority was a distinct minority in Lafayette Park last night, as antiwar protesters approached to heckle.

Tom Fahey, who works for an insurance outfit, told one of the Free Republic crowd that he wouldn't send his kids "to die for you and George Bush."

"Believe me, honey, I wouldn't send mine to die for you, either" came the reply from a heavyset woman, who offered only her pseudonym, Just A. Nobody.

"Amen, baby, but I'm not asking you to," Fahey said.

"You're not telling me to go over there? I have witnesses," Nobody retorted.

As the taunts continued in this vein, one of the antiwar crowd, Jerry Stein, tried to make peace. "We recognize your right to demonstrate," he offered.

"We recognize your right to be an ignorant moron," replied Just A. Nobody.

It was time to light the candles, and Fahey, joined by a friend who won two Purple Hearts in Vietnam, moved toward the vigil. "They say Cindy Sheehan is the Rosa Parks of the antiwar movement," he said, walking toward the White House at dusk. "I think, yeah. Americans have had a bellyful of this. The war is over. We're going to bring the kids home."

Fahey turned to his friend. "Now we storm the Bastille, eh?"