If you’re looking for the video on Politico’s website featuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) Chief of Staff Josh Holmes, then good luck.

Roll Call’s Meredith Shiner, a former staff writer at Politico, reported that as of Thursday, the video had been removed from the advertising page of the Rosslyn, Va. news outlet’s website at the request of McConnell’s office.

As the piece explains, the video may have violated Senate Ethics Rules, which prohibit senators and the staffs from using their “official congressional capacity” to endorse outside entities. This would not prevent Holmes (pictured at left) from endorsing Politico as an avid reader, but it does apply to the use of his chief of staff title.

From Roll Call:

“The video, posted earlier this week under the ‘audience’ tab of Politico’s advertising page, features Josh Holmes and identifies him with the title: “Chief of Staff, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, KY.” Holmes spends the first half of the video explaining his job, with shots taken inside McConnell’s office, and the second half of the video explaining why he reads the Washington publication. The video ends with the top staffer saying, “I’m Josh Holmes and I’m a Politico.”

A shortened version of the video can be found here on Vimeo.

The full video was removed from the advertising page but can be found on a different Politico page, by itself, which Roll Call found “via a live Politico link.” Politico Editor-in-Chief John Harris was asked by FBDC to comment on the situation, but is on the road and unable to respond so he passed the request along to Sara Olson, Politico‘s VP of Marketing.

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In an evening press release, the National Press Club issued a request to the Obama Administration to publicly explain the reasons why the DOJ secretly obtained the phone records of AP reporters.

“This appears to be a gross violation of press freedom,” said National Press Club President Angela Greiling Keane, a Bloomberg News reporter. “If there’s a good explanation for this, the public has a right to hear it promptly.”

In a May 10 letter, DOJ told AP that last year it had obtained two months of personal and professional phone records for AP reporters working the House Press Galleries as well as AP bureaus in Washington, New York, and Hartford.

CQ Roll Call is hosting its annual “Taste of America” contest. It’s a tournament-style food competition that pits state against state in a March Madness style bracket. Beginning today, readers will decide the winner by voting online for their state’s signature food.

The contest debuted in 2011. All the foods are listed here. Some notables: Virginia – fried oysters; Pennsylvania – Philly Cheesesteak; Ohio – buckeyes; North Dakota — sunflower seeds; Nevada — Chuckwagon Buffet (this is not dog food); Utah – cherry cobbler; Delaware – peach pie; and New York – hotdog.

The final eight states will be part of a reception at Nationals Ballpark prior to the Congressional Baseball Game, of which CQ Roll Call is a founding sponsor, where the winner will be announced on June 13. Publicist Sujata Mitra explained: “Members of Congress and their offices from the Elite 8 are invited to participate at the reception where the top 8 dishes are served and the winner is announced. It’s been a lot of fun the last two years and we’re looking forward to seeing who makes it to the Elite 8 this year!”

The rules… Read more

This just in…

As part of the transition from print to digital, CQ Roll Call has announced that it’s offering a “small handful” of employees in editorial voluntary buy-out packages. In order to achieve their goals, they have to make reductions to the print product, hence the buyout option. There are 180 employees in the department. The number of buyouts needed depends on who takes it — obviously a person earning more will cancel out having to eliminate other positions. The goal is to complete the process within two weeks, but there is no set deadline date.

UPDATE: The newsroom is clearly on edge and yet eerily pleased this is being spun as good for the company. The general sentiment: “No matter what anyone does, they can get cut at any turn.” (Paraphrasing): As is the case with many pubs, this one gets made with fewer and fewer people. The folks in London want to starve newsroom resources and keep more for themselves. Management doesn’t take responsibility for its own decisions. Many reporters are looking to business side employees who have left to secure them jobs elsewhere.

See the memo. Read more

There are easier ways to get baptized.

Now here’s some Washington gossip we can get behind. Roll Call‘s HOH reported last night, just as the Boston bomber 7-Eleven stickup and shootings were underway, that Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Ohio) had fallen into a fountain at a gala at the National Building Museum.

See how Coburn’s spokesman handled the news. Why can’t all flaks have a sense of humor?

See the full item here.

Hot off the presses from Akron, Ohio…

A reader writes in that he was initially confused this morning while reading his hometown newspaper, the Akron Beacon Journal. In it is a regional roundup of briefs. This being the Akron Beacon Journal, where sunflower displays are as likely to be found in the news section as budget cuts, he was surprised to see the headline “Fudge commended” in a section typically devoted to crime. Just below “Fudge commended” is “Relative arrested” about a woman accused of stealing jewels from a relative. Below that: “Three men robbed” and “Man stabbed.” The brief was not crime related. Rather, it was about how the Akron City Council commended Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) this week for opening up an Akron office.

“I burst out laughing,” the reader wrote. “When I scanned the section where crimes are usually posted, and the first thing is ‘Fudge commended’ I figured they were talking about like a fudge award. Or a good fudge. They put her basically in the criminal section.”

We wrote Fudge’s spokeswoman Belinda Prinz for comment on how prevalent fudge jokes are as in pertains to constituents and press. We’ll report back should Prinz have a response. UPDATE: Prinz got back to us about 30 minutes ago (I’ve been conducting an interview or this would’ve posted sooner.) Her response: “The topic of her name does not come up often, by either the media or constituents.  When it does, it’s generally been in good humor. Congresswoman Fudge is a good sport and she appreciates tasteful humor as much as anyone.”

How chic. How Charlie Rose. Current TV’s “Full Court Press” radio program went dark this morning as Pepco killed power for the entire building where Bill Press‘s studio is housed in Washington’s Eastern Market neighborhood.

Pepco says “a feeder” went out.  Press was forced to do half his show in the dark.

(A sprinkling of what we think you ought to know…)

Boyle Bullied At American U?– Breitbart News‘s Matthew Boyle claims that as a grad student at American University, his professors would “intimidate” him for having conservative opinions. “They held me to different standards than anybody else in the program because I was a conservative,” Boyle told Campus Reform, a conservative news outlet that reports on college education. Boyle said he was “graded on a different scale than everybody else.” Boyle doesn’t provide any specific examples of the discrimination he says he faced. Though, in the video interview, he says “a perfect example” was a 2010 Time magazine cover that asked “Is America Islamophobic?” Boyle says he questioned the article’s premise in class. But that’s it. He doesn’t say how his professor retaliated. He simply says any suggestion that the country is afraid of Muslims or that the Tea Party is racist is “bunk.” Mind you, this is the same Boyle who cried “assault” when a bodyguard for U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. John de Jongh held him at bay.

National Journal says Rick Perry was just “ahead of his time”– Texas Gov. Rick Perry‘s bid for the Republican presidential primary was a bust, mostly because he could barely string a sentence together in the debates and because he did things like mistakenly refer to Solyndra as a country. Even so, NJ is out with a story by Michael Catalini that calls Perry “a candidate ahead of his time.” Ray Sullivan, Perry’s former chief of staff told NJ, “I could easily see him seeking another term as governor and making another run at the White House.” Covering our eyes now.

Bash v. Bachmann Round 2– It’s about time someone set up a high heel race between CNN’s Dana Bash and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). It’s been less than a year that Bash pounced on Bachmann on Capitol Hill. Both scooted along at nearly 5 mph as Bash tried to ask Bachmann about suggestions she previously made that an assistant to former Sec. Hillary Clinton might have anti-American Muslim ties. On Tuesday it was round two. Bash staked out a spot on the Hill to tackle Bachmann as she passed by. Again, a 5 mph high heel race took place, Bachmann balancing an apple on top of a book in her hands, Bash trying to speak and catch her breath at the same time. Bash asked Bachmann about recent claims she made at CPAC regarding frivolous expenditures at the White House. Bachmann asked Bash why she was focusing on her inaccurate claims that Obama has a paid dog walker and film handler over a September terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the death of four American officials. “Congresswoman, but you’re the one who brought it up,” Bash replied. And with a whoosh of the hair, Bachmann was gone. A segment on it appeared on CNN’s “AC 360″ earlier in the week. Bash remarked that Bachmann is usually relatively polite. Seeing as Bachmann is avoiding the national media like the plague these days, as reported by Roll Call, she probably wasn’t too ecstatic to face Bash on just about anything.

Sometimes too much press is a bad thing?

That’s the sentiment of a Roll Call story (or CQ Roll Call depending which line you believe on the website) today by Kyle Trygstad on Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) who is largely avoiding the press these days.  Think of her as the antithesis of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-MediaWhore, N.Y.).

But not locally. Last weekend, Trygstad reports, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune featured a lengthy profile of the congresswoman who ran for President and lost and then ran for reelection to Congress and won by only one point.

Bachmann, known for freely engaging reporters on Capitol Hill has been turning down press requests and keeping a decidedly lower national profile. She wouldn’t even speak to Trygstad for his story.

An excerpt: Read more

There’s no way to deny the undying respect C-SPAN reaped Wednesday night during Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul‘s filibuster/one-man reality show. While late-night talk shows often poke at the channel, referencing how nerdy or dry it can be, Washington journalists and political journalists outside the Beltway raved about it without apology. As scribes of all political persuasions turned into garden variety C-SPAN junkies, many took a moment to thank the hand that occasionally feeds them.

Today, we should all give thanks for C-SPAN.

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) March 7, 2013

Political blogger Jonathan Bernstein remarked on C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb being a personal hero of sorts: “Yes: Thank you to Brian Lamb, Hero of the Republic.”

If you haven’t taken a moment to tweet thnx to @cspan today, do it. Coming up on 34th anniv. 1st broadcast: Mar 19 1979!

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) March 6, 2013

Journalists can get all up in arms defending C-SPAN.

If you’re watching #PaulNighter & wondering why we can’t see Paul while others speak: Senate controls the cameras, not C-SPAN. Strict rules.

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 7, 2013

The fan club is a big tent: C-SPAN “rules!” remarks WaPo‘s Chris Cillizza, and another journalist expresses unwavering trust in the channel. Read more