Unanswer Man

And that: "At the end of the day, this is about the president and his agenda."

The maitre d' addresses McClellan as "Mr. Secretary," which means he is either mistaking him for a Cabinet member or believes this is the appropriate way to address a press secretary.

"Sometimes the nature of this job will put you in a tough spot," McClellan says. He is speaking about the Plame investigation, which has been a source of great strain, according to people he has confided in privately, including several reporters.

He has anguished that his credibility has been harmed by his statements in 2003 that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby "have assured me they were not involved in this," this being the outing of Plame as a covert CIA agent.

Today Libby is under indictment, Rove's involvement has become apparent and McClellan's public statements haunt him. "His credibility is shot," the San Francisco Chronicle said in an editorial calling for McClellan's resignation.

Over lunch, McClellan will refer to the leak investigation as "the thing I can't talk about," "the thing that's put me in a tough spot," "the investigation" and simply "it." You can see McClellan's spine stiffen when the case is raised, his normally fast speaking style slowing to a grind.

He says, repeatedly, that he would like to say more about the investigation, and in time he will, "hopefully sooner rather than later."

Asked if he's spoken to Rove about Rove's assurances that he was not involved, McClellan says: "That's asking me to talk about it and I'm not gonna do it."

Asked if he was wrong in a 2003 briefing to characterize suggestions that Rove and Libby were involved as "ridiculous," McClellan says: "That's not something I can get into."

Asked why he himself has not hired a lawyer, McClellan says: "I'm not going to talk about it."

In the course of researching this story, the following Scotty fun facts were extracted:

McClellan's wife, the former Jill Martinez, volunteers part time in the White House. They were married in November 2003, live in Arlington, have no kids, no iPods, two cars, two dogs and three cats -- all of them rescued strays and none of which McClellan has ever kicked.