After an evening at Vice President Dick Cheney and Mrs. Cheney's Washington, D.C., residence, I was inspired – let's say nuclearized – to continue my fight for the troops and their mission. The extra energy came in handy during my latest run-in with Code Pinkos on Capitol Hill.

During the soiree at the Cheneys' home, I spoke with Washington's A-listers (a refreshing break from liberals) and pried information from them that confirms everything I have done with Move America Forward, the nation's largest pro-troop organization.

I will not name names, but a very senior official told me that one reason the Bush administration has taken such big hits with the war is its failure to communicate our troops' historical work. We all knew this. But the reason behind the near-silence was because President Bush wanted to focus his second term on saving Social Security, so communication efforts for the war were virtually silenced.

Social Security reform flopped, and our troops and country suffered. The moral of this misguided policy: Never ignore the needs of our troops, which translate into the needs of our country.

The administration's communication snafus left pro-troop organizations, like MAF, Freedom Watch, Gathering of Eagles, the Band of Mothers and countless others, carrying the message that we ARE winning the war. We are glad to do it. Our troops deserve no less.

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I came to Washington, D.C., as part of MAF's "Honoring Heroes at the Holidays" cross-country tour. We wanted to collect 100,000 cards for our troops – and we have surpassed that, thanks to thousands of patriotic Americans.

Vice President Cheney and Mrs. Cheney signed the 100,000th card, which I will take to Iraq next week.

Meanwhile, I have had the honor of standing with Beverly Perlson, founder of the Band of Mothers and proud mother of Sgt. John P. White, a Bronze Star recipient serving in Afghanistan.

Beverly, who is from Chicago, set up shop in front of Rep. Nancy Pelosi's office building on Monday and stands guard all day to send a message that the do-nothing Democrat-controlled Congress better get busy and cast the vote most Americans are demanding, funding our troops' needs in the middle of wartime.

"We report to our post outside Madame Pelosi's office at 9 a.m. sharp! We begin our duty with the bugle call known by soldiers worldwide: 'Reveille,'" Beverly said. "How fitting and what a boisterous way to let the speaker know we are on duty!"

Beverly stays the day outside playing patriotic music, lobbying Congress and swatting at wayward Code Pinkos. She leaves the post after playing "Taps." Wednesday was her son's birthday, which she honored by hounding liberal lawmakers.

I joined Beverly and others in front of Pelosi's office Wednesday morning. I was a bit offended that my hometown congresswoman didn't come out to see me. After all, I was in D.C. all the way from San Francisco, Calif.

Not long after I arrived at the post, a gaggle of Code Pinkos straggled down the sidewalk wearing Pepto Bismol-pink getups. They looked like bums with bad taste. I immediately felt my nuclear energy ramping up. One Code Pinko began barking like a dog with distemper, daring to ask what I do to support the troops.

"We confront traitors like you every day," I said (well, I yelled). "Your group sent $650,000 to terrorists' families when our soldiers are getting killed by them!"

She called it "humanitarian aid." Right. Roadside bombs have a certain human touch, don't they?

The Pink stink disengaged and we won another battle against our homegrown enemies. I felt so much better.

The skirmish got me to thinking about the Bush administration's communications dilemma. Maybe it is better that President Bush leaves the communication to us. It's a close-contact job with high risk of catching communicable diseases, such as liberalism.

But at least today, the smelly hippies and their liberal offspring were quarantined by old-fashioned conservative values of American patriotism.

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