President Bush finally made it to the Boy Scouts' national jamboree in Virginia yesterday. The 30,000 scouts and their leaders suffered a punishing week that saw the electrocution of four leaders and a dismal Wednesday when hundreds of scouts, waiting for Bush, fell ill with heat exhaustion, only to have Bush cancel at the last minute due to approaching thunderstorms.

What did they endure all this to hear? The president trying to pick up some really young recruits to solve the Pentagon's manpower shortage ("Thousands of scouts have shown the highest form of patriotism by going on to wear the uniform of the United States..."), warning them about people (liberals) who might "question the values you learn in scouting," and promising them that they, too, could grow up to be like former scouts Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.