Well, I'm mentioning it now

Something that kicked around lefty blogs last week was this item from the Toronto Globe and Mail for January 16:

Ottawa - This is the tale of the two Scotts - one American, the other Canadian. One is dark-haired, the other blond. Both are 35 and both work for the most powerful men in their respective countries.

Scott McClellan is the press secretary to U.S. President George W. Bush; Scott Reid is the senior strategist to Prime Minister Paul Martin. ...

Mr. Bush met Mr. Reid earlier this week at the summit in Monterrey, Mexico, just after the President's breakfast with Mr. Martin. ...

"Well, what do you do for this guy?" the President asked as he pointed to the Prime Minister.

"Well, you know, sir, I can't really say," Mr. Reid said. "It's not that I don't want to. It's just that, you know, I don't really know from day to day."

This is true. Mr. Reid handles a number of files and performs a number of different duties, depending on the issue and the day.

The President chuckled. "Well, you got a pretty face," he told the surprised Mr. Reid. He wasn't done. "You got a pretty face," he said again. "You're a good-looking guy. Better looking than my Scott anyway."

Now when this first came out, I didn't mention it because I thought it was just a silly thing not really deserving of comment.

But yesterday, I was sitting in an examination room at my doctor's office, killing time with the seriously outdated magazines that are the usual fare in such a place, when I came across this on page 8 of the October 6, 2003 issue of US News & World Report:

"In all due respect, you've got a beautiful face and everything." - President Bush, apologizing to Fox's Brit Hume for not watching much TV news.

Now, once is just an odd story. Twice is kinda strange. I don't know what to make of it.

Footnote: The item is now in the pay-for-access of USNWR, so I didn't link to it here, but the page for getting the item, if you want to pay for it, is here; you're looking for the "Washington Whispers" link.