Politico channels "Reservior Dogs," as pointed out by Patrick Gavin via Twitter. Photo from VF.

Todd Purdum's Sarah Palin piece isn't the only Vanity Fair article getting some play this week. Michael Wolff profiles Politico's Beltway Boys- executive editor Jim VandeHei, editor in chief John Harris, publisher Robert Allbritton, and chief White House correspondent Mike Allen.

Comparing Politico to CNN in its heyday, Wolff says, "Politico brings the news cycle down to about 15 or 20 minutes."

It is constant, unrelenting, second by second. It exalts, and fetishizes, in breathless, even orgiastic news flashes, the most boring subject in the world: the granular workings of government bureaucracy. It is, arguably, in its hyperbolic attentions and exertions, in its fixations on interests that could not possibly interest anyone but the person doing it and the writer writing about it, something like a constant parody of itself.

Wolff even attributes some of Washington's rediscovered popularity to Politico (and, of course, President Obama).

...much of the country may still find politics to be an execrable and mind-numbing proposition, but Politico has built a far-flung network of actual and armchair political professionals who find it not just exhilarating but habit-forming. They're on the edge of their seats. Politics may not be the national sport again, but it's a niche sport with the right audience.

DC's must-read of the day, you can find the VF article in full here.