Just Joshin' – In The White House Press Room

It wasn’t April Fools Day, but White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was in the mood for a practical joke today and threw a scare into reporters as he took the lectern for his daily press briefing.

"At 6:30 tomorrow morning," he declared in a routine manner, "the president will announce his Supreme Court nominee."

Huh? What’d he just say? Did you hear that?

"Gotcha!" said Gibbs with a laugh, as if getting even for some past misconduct by reporters.

Us? Misconduct? Surely you jest.

Gibbs clearly was.

"That’s obviously a joke," he said, while reveling in the moment of putting the press off balance.

"If somebody can quickly text me the name of a chiropractor," asked Gibbs facetiously, "because at least four dozen necks snapped in one direction."

"Now lemme give you the real week ahead," he said, while refusing to offer any solid information about what the president was doing to choose his nominee for the high court.

Of course, reporters don’t get mad. They get even.

"Hey, Robert. The Electoral College called, and they say they added wrong."

Just kidding.

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Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.