I know you're not afraid, Little Bill! :-)
We weren't afraid of them either. We unfortunately mingled with the leftists (not by choice!) a good part of the day on Thursday. There were several sign-carrying leftists on our Metro train also - from as far away as the Vienna, VA station.
We gave up trying to join the FReepers (and gave up trying to get into the swearing-in ceremony earlier) because we never would have made it through the huge "blocks" of protestors clogging up the works AND the normal folks ahead of us at the security checkpoints in time for the Inaugural and parade. It would've taken several hours. As it got to be early afternoon, we realized we needed to get back to our hotel (far from DC) and get ready for the Ball, which was our main reason for being in DC. The trains were running extra-slow that day, at least the Orange line we were on was - according to some DC-area natives we met on the trains. We stayed far from DC only because we found a hotel where we could use Holiday Inn points, so our stay was free.
We plan to be at CPAC... hope to see you there!