Who said the following?

“If you all want to continue to focus on this, you all can spend your time on it. We’re going to keep focusing on the pressing priorities of the American people, like talking about how to make healthcare more affordable and accessible. We’ve got important work to do for the American people, and that’s where we’re going to keep our focus.”

Was the speaker:

(A) White House spokesman Michael McCurry, addressing the press during some Clinton scandal or the other?

(B) White House spokesman Joe Lockhart, addressing the press during some Clinton scandal or the other?

(C) White House spokesman Scott McClellan, during questioning about Vice President Cheney’s hunting accident?

If you guessed (C), you win the prize. McClellan did indeed utter those words at Tuesday’s White House briefing during questioning about Cheney’s accidental shooting of a fellow hunter in Texas.

But if you guessed (A) or (B), don’t feel bad. McCurry and Lockhart said the same things, with a few variations in wording, during their time at the White House podium.

Here, for example, is what McCurry said in the White House briefing Jan. 23, 1998, at the beginning of the Lewinsky scandal:

“I think we have to continue to do the work that we are doing on behalf of the American people in fulfillment of the prerogatives and priorities of this president. That’s what we get paid to do, and that’s what we do on behalf of the American people.”

At that point, the American people weren’t quite ready to move on as McCurry and his boss hoped. And McCurry’s strategy — the news of the president’s dalliance with Monica Lewinsky was only hours old, for goodness’ sake — was rather obvious. But he kept spinning.

Now, for many supporters of the Bush White House, it was no doubt distressing to see McClellan deliver a McCurry-esque performance. But of course the White House’s entire handling of the Cheney hunting accident, at least up until the moment the vice president decided to do an interview with Fox News’ Brit Hume, was distressing to many supporters of the Bush White House.

No one needs to tell Dick Cheney how Washington works; most of us would count ourselves lucky to know a fraction of what he knows about that subject.

Yet after the accident, late Saturday afternoon, Cheney apparently did not realize, or did not realize quickly, that when the vice president of the United States shoots somebody — well, that is self-evidently news.

Of course it was an accident. Of course Cheney took care to see that the victim, Texas lawyer Harry Whittington, received quick medical attention. Of course he notified the authorities.

But after that, Cheney decided he would not tell the public, agreeing instead to a plan by which his host, the prominent Texas Republican Katharine Armstrong, would tell her local newspaper.

The decision was inexplicable. And it led to this week’s barrage of questions about the whole affair.

All this would be even more distressing than it already is for Bush supporters had the administration not gotten a big help from an old reliable source: the White House press corps.

On Monday, with many questions about the Cheney incident still unanswered, the press corps performed the Herculean feat of steering the story toward itself, with a performance that was so over the top that the reporters themselves became part of the story.

First, NBC’s David Gregory got into a tussle with McClellan at an off-camera morning briefing.

“Hold on,” McClellan told Gregory when the reporter asked about Cheney. “The cameras aren’t on right now.”

“Don’t accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras,” the TV newsman answered. “Don’t be a jerk to me personally when I’m asking you a serious question.”

“You don’t have to yell,” McClellan answered.

“I will yell!” Gregory said. “If you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don’t appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that’s wrong.”

“Calm down, Dave. Calm down.”

“I’ll calm down when I feel like calming down!”

After that came McClellan’s regular briefing, at which one reporter asked the question, “Scott, would this be much more serious if the man had died?”

Why yes, it would be.

For a follow-up, there was this: “Is it proper for the vice president to offer his resignation, or has he offered his resignation?”

Why no, it wouldn’t be.

So even on an occasion in which McClellan was in an obviously weak position — after, he hadn’t even been told about the Cheney accident until the morning after it happened and had not played a role in the vice president’s ill-advised press strategy — the press corps could still make itself the story.

And for that, Dick Cheney must be grateful.

York is a White House correspondent for National Review. His column appears in The Hill each week. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it