John D. Roberts And John G. Roberts

“What’s In A Name?,” CBS correspondent John Roberts asks in a CBSNews.com commentary: “It was a bit of an ‘Alice In Wonderland’ moment last night, watching President Bush in the State Dining Room lauding the accomplishments and character of one ‘John Roberts.’ After my four and a half years covering the Bush White House, I couldn’t imagine the name ‘John Roberts’ and the phrase ‘widely admired for his intellect, his sound judgment and his personal decency’ being used in the same time zone, let alone the same sentence.”

Roberts says it was all a bit disorienting — “But it could work to my advantage. Now, every time I telephone a White House official and say that it’s ‘John Roberts’ calling, I’m certain that I’ll hear a heart skip a beat on the other end of the line. I imagine that it won’t take long for aides who answer the phone to soon pick up the query ‘Is this Judge Roberts?’ And I’ll be relegated (through my innate sense of fairness) to say, ‘No, it’s the CBS correspondent’ — which, no doubt, will be met with a sigh of relief and a disparaging ‘Oh.’ Of course, it will probably become infuriatingly frustrating for the Supreme Court nominee who has the misfortune to share my moniker.”

At least the correspondent’s middle name isn’t Glover…