A reasonable and compassionate inquiry, in THE SCRAPBOOK’s view. Webb’s son is a Marine corporal serving in Iraq; Webb wore the boy’s combat boots throughout his campaign, which he removed and held aloft in triumph when he won election; and Bush is commander in chief of the armed forces.

Webb: “I’d like to get them [sic] out of Iraq.”

Bush: “That’s not what I asked you. How’s your boy?”

Webb: “That’s between me and my boy.”

Webb’s staffers let it be known around Washington that the senator-elect was so angered by Bush’s inquiry that he was tempted to “slug” the president, and Webb later told the Washington Post, “I’m not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall.” He further explained: “Leaders do some symbolic things to try to convey who they are and what the message is.”

In recounting this episode, columnist George F. Will moved swiftly to the heart of the matter, pronouncing Webb a “boor” and adding, by way of admonition, that “in a republic, people decline to be led by leaders who are insufferably full of themselves.”

As always, however, THE SCRAPBOOK prefers to be prescriptive. And our counsel to Senator-elect Webb would be that, if the prospect of shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with the president of the United States in the White House is too painful to bear–if, that is, it conveys the wrong message about who you are–it would be altogether fitting and proper to decline the president’s hospitality and stay home. Surely somewhere in Webb’s training as an officer and gentleman at the United States Naval Academy, he was taught that important lesson?

Oh, and speaking of Annapolis: We would further advise the senator-elect to avoid discussion of “slugging” George W. Bush when Webb’s best-known experience in the ring involved losing a boxing championship to his Naval Academy classmate (and fellow Marine) Oliver North.

The “Dirt on Churchill”

Elsewhere in this issue, Harvey Mans field takes note of the many obstacles to teaching young people to appreciate greatness. “Any American education in greatness,” he writes, “could begin by appealing to the admiration most of us already have for those who initiated the society we now enjoy. I know, of course, that such an appeal is not as easy as it ought to be” (an elegant understatement, as we shall see). Mans field continues: “It must overcome or bypass the denigration of the Founders by the social scientists, today’s version of the democratic historians, enemies of greatness, that Tocqueville warned against.” It so happens that a particularly vivid example of the denigration of greatness landed in our lap last week. A friend who belongs to the online ChurchillChat group (incongruous-sounding, we know, but you can find it at groups.google.com) pointed out this entry from a student trolling for help on a final paper:

Perhaps needless to add, this sparked quite a long set of rejoinders from the group’s members. (One can’t discount the possibility that the message is a deliberate provocation.) We’re with the one who said, “Sorry you got this assignment; there isn’t enough ‘dirt’ on Churchill to get a 50 word paragraph, let alone a 2,000 word essay.”

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

Important scientific research, as summarized by reporter Andy Bromage in the New Haven Advocate:

No word on how their get-out-the-vote drive turned out.

Satire Alert

From our good friend Scott Ott at Scrappleface.com: Bush Orders Preemptive Redeployment to Iran, Syria

“At the very least,” said Mr. Bush, “Redeploying our troops to Iran should help Iranian weapons manufacturers save some money on shipping.”