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"What does it all mean -- the rock-in-the-water thing? I'm not sure I got that."

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Gravel hadn't quite known what it meant either when he tossed the rock. But, like any smart politician who has heard a question several hundred times, he has developed a response. "The rock in the water creates ripples -- which symbolizes ripples of change."

Gravel is wheeling around, looking for Jacobson, who has taken a seat at a table, eating a bagel.

"You're keeping an eye on that meter?" he calls to his aide.

Jacobson nods. "Mike, good bagels here."

"The meter, Elliott."

Jacobson disappears to put coins in the meter. Gravel walks into a ballroom, where about 50 people quietly wait, most of them sipping coffee and reading newspapers. The event seems an odd fit: a Democrat from way out in left field trying to pitch himself to a largely conservative, libertarian-leaning Republican audience rabidly disdainful of federal tax policies. But in the next 10 minutes, Gravel demonstrates the quirky appeal of his iconoclasm; he offers not a Democratic platform but simply his own contrarian view of things. He calls for the abolition of the federal income tax and all corporate taxes. He vows to push for the institution of a national sales tax that he calls the "fair green tax." Such a tax, he promises, "would change us from a consuming society to a savings society, because the less you bought the less you would be taxed." Polite applause ripples through the ballroom. Gravel touches on his opposition to the war and his support of term limits even for the judiciary.

Jacobson has returned, sweaty from trudging outside and stuffing the meter. Gravel wraps up. "You might not think I can get elected," he says. "And that's not important. What's important is that I am bringing a campaign no one is bringing . . . I brought an end to the draft with a five-month filibuster when I was [in the Senate in the early '70s] . . . I was very controversial then, and I was not popular. That's leadership . . . Well, this leader is back. His name is Mike Gravel, and he is running for president of the United States."

He leaves the stage. Outside the ballroom, he looks over his shoulder. "Where's Elliott?" Gravel cranes his neck for the aide, who has plopped down at a nearby table, holding a fresh blueberry muffin and a bagel.

He walks down a hallway with Jacobson alongside him: "You took care of the meter?"

"Uh-huh."

Jacobson pants a bit, struggling to keep up, raising his bagel aloft for Gravel. "Did you try one of these, Mike? They're great."