Poor Don. The guy can’t catch a break.

The grilled shrimp appetizer had just arrived at the 128th annual press-pols Gridiron dinner Saturday night when NAACP President Benjamin Jealous fell into conversation with a fellow white-tied dinner guest about the Supreme Court’s recent argumentover the Voting Rights Act.

The distinguished-looking gentleman told Jealous he thought the NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyer, Debo P. Adegbile, had done a fine job arguing that the law needed to be continued.

Sure, but what happened to the solicitor general? Jealous wondered aloud, he was just awful.

Well, I am the solicitor general, Donald Verrilli Jr. replied.

An apparently mortified Jealous apologized profusely and excused himself from the table for what seemed to folks at the table an awfully long time, returning just about when the famous Gridiron petits fours arrived with coffee.

Jealous resumed apologizing on his return.

In my book, I rehabilitate Verrilli quite strongly. His performance in the ObamaCare cases went accordingly to plan, and much of the criticism he received for being unprepared and flustered is flat-out wrong. Just think rope-a-dope.