Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts report that U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D, NY) is “still steamed about the grade he got on his college thesis.”
Schumer was a senior at Harvard in 1971 when he wrote the paper about building a more effective Congress — and furious when he received a B. His instructor? Conservative commentator Bill Bennett, a Harvard law student who was teaching the undergraduate social studies course. “He went nuts,” said Bennett, who was unmoved when Schumer lobbied for a higher grade.
Bennett said the senator still reminds him of the beef every time they meet. “He says, ‘I don’t know if you remember this . . .’ and I say, ‘Stop with the grade-grubbing.’”
Ronald Reagan, a “C” student at Eureka College, harbored similar resentments fifty years later. He often told audiences, “Even now I wonder what I might have accomplished had I studied harder.”
