Goodnight sweet prince of darkness

The guy with the toughest job in the world, White House spokesman Scott McClellan has resigned. In his honor, let's look back at a testy and representative exchange between Scott and the press in June 2004.

Q.: Well, let me ask this as a policy question. You said that the President sees this as a serious matter, anybody inside or outside who has information should disclose it. What does the President -- if someone in the administration did disclose this information, what action is the President prepared to take against that individual?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, now you're asking me to speculate about an ongoing investigation --

Q.: No, no, I'm not. I'm just asking you to talk about what White House policy is.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I previously, I think, addressed that question. But the President --

Q.: Well, could you just refresh my memory?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- this is an ongoing investigation and --

Q.: Can you refresh my memory?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, this is an ongoing investigation, John, and I'm going to direct further questions to the officials in charge of the investigation.

Q.: Yes, but this would be a White House matter. I mean, would the President fire a person if they had -- if it's found that they leaked this information? Would he admonish them, reprimand them -- what would he do?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think that we made that clear previously -- I made that clear previously in briefings, you can go back and look exactly at what I said. It still stands.

Q.: Do you just want to reiterate it now, just so that we've all got it straight?

MR. McCLELLAN: John, I think you can refer further questions to the people in charge of the investigation.

You can find years worth of these wonderfully entertaining transcripts here.