You can talk and talk till your face is blue

Most TV viewers who caught D. Kyle Sampson’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday were probably reminded of another chubby, balding and sheepish man: George Costanza, Jerry Seinfeld’s sidekick.

But for political junkies of a certain age – my age – the appearance of the sorcerer’s apprentice of the U.S. attorney firings recalled a witness from almost 35 years ago: John W. Dean, who ratted out the Nixon administration before the Senate Watergate Committee.

I’m not positing a physical resemblance – Dean was lean and still had his hair in 1973 – nor am I suggesting that Sampson has done anything criminal. The point of similarity is age: Dean, the former White House counsel, was 34 when he faced Sen. Sam Ervin; Sampson is 37.

The latter's (relative) youth provoked one of the dismissed U.S. attorneys to gripe that "it looks like that authority was delegated . . . all the way down to a bunch of 35-year-old kids." (A Washington Post reader wondered whether you can still be a kid at 35.)

But it’s an open secret in Washington that many decisions are crafted – and many speeches are written – by thirtysomething aides. (The Supreme Court is different: most of the justices’ law clerks are in their 20s.) Perhaps the Almanac of American Politics should consider merging with this publication.