News-Record.com

A friendly staffer up in D.C. e-mailed this photo earlier in the week:

If you'll look closely, the gentleman seated on the left is no longer English Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Instead, Rep. Howard Coble, Republican of Greensboro, is among the big three at Yalta.

Apparently, Rep. Walter Jones (or, more correctly, someone on Jones' staff) has been producing a series of pictures as homage to Coble's "long and varied career."

While the photos are beginning to make the rounds via e-mail, they've been getting posted in the Republican cloak room just off the U.S. House floor.

Coble chuckled when I asked him about the Yalta picture Wednesday.

"I told Walter Jones, 'Your chief of staff has too much time on his hands,'" but quickly added that the pictures have "become the talk of the cloakroom."

Others in the series of doctored pictures include Coble walking ashore in Korea with Gen. Douglas MacArthur and walking with President John F. Kennedy.

But Coble says the Yalta picture is his favorite. Not only does Coble's head seem to fit perfectly on Churchill's body, but Churchill was holding a cigar in the photo.

"I'm an occasional cigar smoker," Coble allowed.

Here's another from the series:

Update: Glen Downs, chief of staff for Jones, called back and fessed up to being the artist behind the illustrations. Downs grew up in Greensboro, went to Paige High School, and knew Coble when the now-Congressman was in the legislature.

The pictures started as an inside joke, Downs said. Coble's resume has a bit more variety than your average Congressman, from Coast Guard commander to state secretary of revenue.

"The guy has pretty much done everything," Downs said.