Speaking of soirees, Mr. Sykes...

Republican radio talker Charlie Sykes and I had a little exchange the last couple of days over the war in Iraq, started by his calling the observances and vigils to mark the death of the 2000th American servicemen "soirees."

He and other right-wingers claimed the anti-war people were somehow "celebrating" the 2000th death.

Actually, it was the Republicans who were celebrating inappropriately, as Dana Milbank points out in this Washington Post article:

A Celebration in Search of an Occasion

It was, perhaps, not the best possible time for the Republican Party to hold a soiree.

The war in Iraq reached a macabre milestone yesterday afternoon as a 2,000th soldier was added to the list of the U.S. dead. Consumer confidence took a surprise tumble to a two-year low, the Conference Board announced. Support for the GOP fell to its lowest level in at least 13 years, according to a poll released by the Pew Research Center. All of Washington, meanwhile, was waiting for Friday's deadline for a prosecutor to say whether he is indicting top White House officials.

And yet, there they were at the gilded Mellon Auditorium last night: the Republican Party's biggest donors, men in tuxedos and women in cocktail dresses, dining on Asian spoon canapes, orange carpaccio and seared mignon of beef, and listening to the soothing tones of a jazz band and a keynote address by President Bush. About 250 Republican Eagles -- those who have contributed $15,000 or more to the party -- and guests were in town for the Eagles' 30th-birthday dinner, which was expected to bring the party more than $1 million.

Of course, the event was scheduled when nobody imagined this would be the darkest political week of the Bush presidency.