"Ain't nobody over there at that anti-war protest except the usual old geezer peaceniks!"

That's the message from today's Washington Post, the mouthpiece of the Bush administration, as found in "On the Mall, Songs of Old Carry Current Plea for Peace: Familiar Faces Protest Potential Action in Iraq," by Ian Shapira:

Surrounded by about 400 peace activists who carried lighted candles and posters urging "Mr. President, Please Change Your Mind," guitarist Noel Paul Stookey of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary mused that folk songs are always apt for political demonstrations….

Stookey and fellow trio members Peter Yarrow and Mary Travers serenaded fans old and new at the vigil below the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Organized by Win Without War, a District-based nonprofit group led by former Maine congressman Tom Andrews (D), the vigil was one of 6,000 that were scheduled in 136 countries at 7 p.m. in their respective time zones.

I see. Around the world thousands of people -- ordinary citizens: your family, friends, and neighbors -- gather to express their opposition to a war on Iraq, but what does the Washington Post find in its own backyard?

"Peace activists" and Peter, Paul, and Mary.

Hardy-har-har. Get it? Oh, please, Peter, Paul, and Mary? They are, like, so over! This motley trio has been protesting everything that's come out of Washington since the Vietnam War. There's just no pleasing them! What do you expect? They're the heart and soul of the hard anti-American left! They hate their own country! Liberals have no new ideas!

I would expect to read a piece like this in a little right-wing flyer like Human Events or the Weekly Standard, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the group's appearance mentioned at National Review's "The Corner" today, made the centerpiece of some snide and sneering missive from the likes of Jonah Goldberg.

But the Post? How sad. How pathetic. And how utterly typical.