What’s a mulligan? In golf, it is a do-over — a second shot, from the same place, if you are displeased with your first shot. Of course, no one who takes a mulligan can be said to have a real score — an official, by-the-book score. Bill Clinton was, and presumably is, a mulligan man. And he apparently pretends to have real scores. I tell a story in Impromptus today — about the time Clinton played with Jerry Ford and Jack Nicklaus. Afterward, the men faced the press, in some fashion (I believe). And Clinton claimed to have shot a score of 80 (far too low for him). According to Bob Woodward, “Ford was shocked. Golf was a matter of honor, even for old duffers . . . Nicklaus leaned over to Ford and whispered in disgust, ‘Eighty with fifty floating mulligans.’”

In my book, to have Jack Nicklaus’s disapproval is a lot worse than having the Republican party’s disapproval.

Anyway, a reader wrote to say that the word “mulligan” is in the air. She pointed me to this item from Newsweek, about Adm. Dennis Blair, our director of national intelligence, who told Congress that the Christmas Day bomber should have been treated as an enemy combatant, not as an ordinary criminal suspect. His colleagues were seriously ticked.

“People are annoyed, angry, and frustrated about this,” said [a] senior official, who asked not to be identified, speaking about Blair’s testimony. The official added that the White House has ordered Blair to “correct” his remarks. “He’s taking a mulligan on this,” the official said.

How did the word “mulligan” come about? Someone named Mulligan? Sure. If you’d like to read an interesting account of the word’s origins, go to Wikipedia.

One more thing: Another reader writes to inform me, or remind me, that today is Nicklaus’s 70th birthday. What a great man. I don’t say this often, or about many, but . . . I wish I knew him.