But in Phelps’ case, not only was Twitter’s grave dance stomach-churning to watch, it was also incredibly counterproductive and unnecessary.

This year, in sponsoring the desecration of its own soldiers' graves, the federal government has gone beyond "political correctness" to the point of perversion. Indeed, Mr. Baker has publicly admitted that it is "about time" for American Indians to gloat over the slaughter - though one wonders how he would feel about whites "gloating" over a mass grave of Indian warriors killed and mutilated under similar circumstances.

Even excluding the ghoulish grave-dancing, the very notion of holding a "Victory Dance" near a mass grave would certainly be discouraged by the NPS if it were proposed for, say, a Civil War battlefield.

Modern grave-dancing is popular with some liberal Democrats, though occasionally one sees it tried on someone like Lyndon Johnson. His final resting place has been disturbed by Robert Caro's scathing biography that portrays Johnson as someone with only slightly more appeal than those guys in ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.'' Notice how the grave-dancers are already warming up for their work atop the resting place of Richard Nixon.