Gentlemen, start your fingers!

I'm sure you've noticed how White House officials have a tendency to start pointing fingers after they resign. But there's no little gremlin named "Not Me" running around (I can't believe I just wrote that). I think it suggests that they already have a pretty good idea of how the Bush years will be remembered by historians, and they'd prefer their little asterisk in the history books to say "but this guy wasn't so bad." The only problem there is the cowardice involved in lying your socks off as long as the checks keep clearing, conscience be damned.

To no one's surprise in a world where top White House aides with any president eventually write a book about it, former Press Sectetary Scott McClellan will be coming out with his volume in April.

It's called "What Happened" and its publisher, Public Affairs, at its Web site carries this brief excerpt:

"The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.

"There was one problem. It was not true.

"I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself."