My lone connection with Scott McClellan

And no, it's not because I worked for his brother, Mark, at Medicare.

In November 1998, the voters of South Carolina decided I didn't need to be Gov. David Beasley's press secretary any longer. A week or two after the election, I heard from a work colleague that top aides to then-Gov. George Bush had inquired about my availability to help out the gubernatorial press shop while other folks moved off the state payroll to begin setting up the presidential campaign. I was excited about this potential, and at an governors meeting in New Orleans later that year I went up to Karl Rove and asked whether he thought I could help out. He nodded, and said, "Maybe." My memory is fuzzy about whether he suggested I talk to Karen Hughes or if he said Karen would call me.

A couple of weeks went by, and Karen did call. She was nice, and told me that they'd decided instead to hire the son of the comptroller general to help out, since he was already in Austin. That person would be ... Scott McClellan.

It's trivial, but every time Scott makes news, I think about it.

He must miss her so

Thinking today of Maria Chapman, daughter of Steven Curtis Chapman, who died on Wednesday. May God be with her father and mother and the rest of their family on this difficult day.

Progress To Celebrate

A young lady from Texas married a gentleman from Virginia on Saturday, under the watchful but misty eye of her father, a former governor of Texas. The couple are both white, the pastor an African-American.

Given who the newly married couple is, and who their father is, one has to ask -- would such a thing have happened 40 years ago? It is remarkable that this aspect of the event is considered unremarkable, isn't it?

I Scream for Ice Cream!

Irvine Robbins, the co-founder of ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins, has died. He was 90 years old!

Best part of the story:

After retiring, he moved to a Rancho Mirage home equipped with a six-flavor ice-cream counter and was known to start the day with a bowl of cereal topped with a scoop of banana ice cream.

Maybe all that sugar, cream, butterfat, etc. isn't bad for you after all?

(HT: Gawker)

Achingly sad

Apparently the "D.C. Madam" is dead, and suicide is suspected. She leaves this world apparently without finding the solace and forgiveness she could have found in Him.

I get dizzy following this one.

In Greenville County, state Rep. Gloria Haskins is being challenged the GOP primary by Wendy Taylor Nanney, the daughter of Bob Jones University dean Bob Taylor. Meanwhile, Rep. Haskins' son, Bryan, challenges Taylor in a GOP primary for his County Council seat.

Nothing personal, Haskins and Nanney say, just politics.

I need to sit down.