Scotty come lately

I watched the Olbermann hour-long interview and read the "puzzled" reactions from his former bosses and co-workers, but I ain't buyin' Scott McLellan's conversion (nor his book, for that matter).

His public quasi-confession is as much about trying to avoid prosecution as it is about selling books. Recall, from the historical record, what McClellan said when the first Boosh whistleblower, Richard Clarke, outed the adminstration's prevaricators:

McClellan pointed to the timing of Clarke's book.

"If Dick Clarke had such grave concerns, why wait so long? Why wait until the election?" Instead, McClellan said, Clarke "conveniently" released a book in the middle of the campaign season.

This must have been long before his pangs of conscience got the best -- or worst -- of him.

And when Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said basically the same thing in January of 2004 that Scotty is saying now, except a with a tad more bluntness ...

Former US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has provided the grist for an unflattering tell-all book about the Bush White House called "The Price of Loyalty". ... Mr O'Neill said President Bush was disengaged, "a blind man in a room full of deaf people," and said the administration was hatching plans to invade Iraq from the day Mr Bush entered office.

... McClellan responded with equal force:

"We appreciate his service, but we are not in the business of doing book reviews," he told reporters. "It appears that the world according to Mr. O'Neill is more about trying to justify his own opinion than looking at the reality of the results we are achieving on behalf of the American people. The president will continue to be forward-looking, focusing on building upon the results we are achieving to strengthen the economy and making the world a safer and better place."

Come to think of it, maybe O'Neill was ahead of Clarke. Anyway, somewhere along the road to Damascus Scotty learned the truth and decided to come clean err, write a book.

Good on him, I suppose. Note that Scotty is directly descended from an opportunistic stripe-changing zebra and a grand conspiracy collaborator/author.

So this appears to be nothing more than the next edition of "All in the McClellan Family" to me.

I'll pass on both the applause and the account of his coming to Jesus.

Harvey Korman 1927 - 2008

The late Harvey Korman, second from right, in a 1968 skit on "The Carol Burnett Show," in which some shapely legs -- and then their owners -- are revealed to the audience. From left, Betty Grable, Martha Raye, Jackie Gregory, Lyle Waggoner, Korman and Burnett.

"Give me something bizarre to play, or put me in a dress and I'm fine," Korman jokingly said in a 2005 Chicago Sun-Times interview.

My family to this day will recite lines from "Eunice and Ed" when we get together.

Korman and Conway developed an uncanny rapport that made them arguably one of television's most lethal comic teams; Conway's on-camera ad-libs often made Korman crack up; producers wisely kept them in the show.

For about eight years, until late last December, the pair toured the country in a stage show that, more than anything, was a homage to their years with Burnett. They performed about 120 shows a year.

"I don't know whether either one of us was the straight man," Conway said. "The most important thing in comedy when you're working together is for one guy to know when to shut up. And we both knew when to shut up; quiet show, actually."

One of their favorite routines from the Burnett show was the dentist sketch, "where I kind of anesthetize my entire body with Novocain" while trying to fill Korman's teeth, Conway told The Times on Thursday.

"They play it at all the dental schools, as kind of an introduction on how not to do it," Conway said.

Korman suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm in January, the same malady that claimed my uncle Toots in his early sixties, several years ago. Most people cannot survive it but Korman battled for four months before passing on Thursday.

I think my favorite memory of Korman is from Blazing Saddles, when his character Hedley Lamarr was constantly irritated at having to correct the pronunciation of his name.

"Head - leh"

It's been a difficult week for Hollywood legends, and those of us who are their fans.