blair's staff/bush's staff-equally urbane?

LONDON (Reuters) - A top aide to British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) apologized on Tuesday for comparing the dead Iraq (news - web sites) weapons inspector at the center of his government's worst political crisis to Walter Mitty.
The suicide of Iraq weapons inspector and scientist David Kelly days after he appeared in front of a parliamentary panel, investigating whether the case for war in Iraq was exaggerated, has turned into a test of the government's credibility.
Blair's official spokesman, Tom Kelly, apologized for linking the scientist to Walter Mitty just hours before the funeral of the respected government weapons inspector who made dozens of trips to Iraq to search for the banned weapons, which British and U.S. officials made their prime cause for war.