"It's Starting."

That's what my mother's friend from Palm Beach called me to say today. I usually never hear from her. But she had to call to tell me how she participated in a vigil for Cindy Sheehan.

"There were 20 vigils going on within 20 miles of me," she said. "I felt so helpless before to speak out about this war, but now I feel like there's something I can do. It's finally starting."

This is definitely a partisan Democrat, but not exactly a plugged-in activist, or blog reader. It's an average American who finally sees a ray of hope in this period of time. She was literally excited to participate in democracy. That doesn't happen a lot in this country.

Cindy Sheehan had her own reasons for staging her sit-in at the Western White House in Crawford. But she's giving a lot of average Americans courage. Public opinion had been turning against this war without the visible presence of anything resembling an antiwar movement, and in fact an outward hostility against anyone who would even dare to suggest an antiwar sentiment. Now that it's out in the open, you're going to see an avalanche. It's obvious.

And from a political standpoint, you couldn't have bungled this more than the Bush Administration has. They were in a no-win situation, but they could have had the President meet with her and diffuse this thing early. Now it's lingering, and what's worse, the GOP's initial instinct was to treat a grieving mother like a political operative and do a hit piece on her. It makes them look like anti-military Republicans, and it's not far off. When the body armor for troops is still not competent, when veteran's health benefits are cut, when the commander-in-chief has yet to visit a funeral of anyone killed in service to the War on Terror, when parents of dead soldiers are subject to oppo research, what would you call it?

So, I agree. It's starting.