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.