Inside the Beltway

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Meet Minutewoman

"If somebody had taken a picture, it would have been worth a million dollars. He looked kind of stunned."

So Carmen Mercer, vice president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, described the reaction of President Bush after he finally learned her identity during a fundraising dinner this week in Phoenix -- but only after he smiled and posed with her for a photograph, shook her hand twice and autographed her name tag.

Suffice it to say, Mr. Bush and Mrs. Mercer, who owns a restaurant in Tombstone, Ariz., have not seen eye-to-eye when it comes to public help in addressing illegal-immigration problems that plague her state.

Mrs. Mercer helps direct more than 1,000 Minuteman volunteers who have patrolled the border separating Arizona and Mexico. In recent months, they have assisted federal authorities in the apprehension of thousands of illegal aliens who otherwise might have gained entry into the country.

In a telephone interview yesterday with Inside the Beltway, Mrs. Mercer said "it was quite exciting to see the president this close-up" at Monday night's dinner benefiting Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican.

After a friend of Mrs. Mercer's told the president who she was, Mr. Bush said: "I knew I liked her the minute I saw her."

Vigilance, or else

"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance," states the motto of the Freedom Alliance, founded in 1990 by retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North.