Archives: May 2008

Massive Bike Crash – Watch more free videos

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

Howard Kurtz added 29 Facebook friends this week, bringing his total to 1,721. Despite the impressive friend-adding, however, he only had time for one status update, which was:

Howard is wondering why he never got Scott McClellan to say anything remotely as interesting as this.

If you’d like to add Howard as a friend, click here. Also be sure to check out Fishbowl DC’s Facebook profile here.

And if you want FishbowlDC’s Twitter updates, click here.

Meet the Press: Scott McClellan and former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), an Obama supporter and Harold Ickes, senior adviser for the Clinton Campaign and a member of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee

Face the Nation: Sen. Claire McCaskill and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

This Week: McClellan and Clinton chair Terry McAuliffe, and a roundtable with Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, New York Times’ David Brooks, Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum and George Will.

Fox News Sunday: Howard Wolfson, Communication Director for the Clinton Campaign, David Bonior, Obama surrogate and former Michigan Congressman. Power Player of the Week is Brendan Sullivan, executive director of Headfirst and a panel with Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard & Fox News, Nina Easton, Fortune Magazine & Fox News, Byron York, National Review & Fox News and Juan Williams, National Public Radio & Fox News

Late Edition: Chris Dodd, Sen. Bill Nelson, Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, and a roundtable with CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux, Fareed Zakaria and Jeffrey Toobin.

Chris Matthews Show: Richard Stengel, editor, TIME magazine; Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Howard Fineman of Newsweek; and Kelly O’Donnell of NBC News

C-SPAN’s Newsmakers: Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron will be interviewed by AP’s Alan Zibel and Congressional Quarterly’s Benton Ives.

Tim Russert: Charles Osgood, author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House: Humor, Blunders, and Other Oddities from the Presidential Campaign Trail and Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss

Bloomberg’s Political Capital with Al Hunt: Republican strategist and former director of the Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed

This is America: David Sandalow, Senior Fellow at the Brookings
Institution and author of “Freedom from Oil”

CN8′s Roll Call TV with Robert Traynham: Roll Call Senior Staff Writers Rachel von Dongen, Paul Singer, Emily Heil and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Vice President Bruce Josten.

CNN’s “Reliable Sources”: National Review’s David Frum, ABC’s Martha Raddatz, former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart, Hollywood Reporter’s Ray Richmond, former New York Times Hollywood correspondent Sharon Waxman and CNN’s Fareed Zakaria

From the release:

CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, who transformed broadcast news coverage of major world events including wars, famines and natural disasters, will receive the National Press Club’s highest honor for excellence in journalism. The Fourth Estate Award is given annually to an individual who has achieved distinction for a lifetime of contributions to American journalism. …

Amanpour is the thirty-sixth recipient of the Fourth Estate Award. She is the fourth female honoree and one of the youngest ever to receive the award. Previous Fourth Estate winners include Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, David Brinkley, Brian Lamb, Helen Thomas and most recently Paul Steiger of the Wall Street Journal. The award will be presented to Amanpour at a black-tie dinner at the National Press Club on November 21.

via FishbowlNY‘s Glynnis MacNicol…Portfolio chases down that old rumor that Ana Marie Cox wanted to buy Wonkette.com from Gawker Media:

Didn’t happen…You know what it is, the kernel of truth came from me being out at a bar drinking and saying, ‘Oh, I’d love to own that site. That’d be great. I’d love that.’

For this week’s caption contest, we have this picture of President Bush with some members of the military.

(Photo Credit: AP)

Send your entries through the box below, or e-mail them to us at fishbowldc AT mediabistro DOT com.

Washington Post: Carolyn Hax Live

Washington Times: Climate concern ripped as ‘religion’

Washington Examiner: Blog – Yeas and Nays

N.Y. Times: As Oil Prices Soar, Restaurant Grease Thefts Rise

L.A. Times: Clinton faces new pressure on 2 fronts

USA Today: New index: S.F., Seattle are most fit cities in the USA

Politico: Gay marriage issue not over yet

ABC News: Scott McClellan Apologizes for Bashing Richard Clarke

CBS News: Obama Faces A New Preacher Problem

Fox News: Brazil Discovers Uncontacted Indian Tribe in Amazon Jungle

CNN: Conflicting reports about Jolie birth

Wall Street Journal: Opinion: But is it true?

MSNBC: 15 simple ways to slim down for summer

Congressional Quarterly: Five Questions About the Puerto Rico Democratic Presidential Primary

NPR: Comedic Actor Harvey Korman Dies at 81

Roll Call: Hastert to Join Dickstein Shapiro

CBS’s Bob Schieffer will be performing with Honky Tonk Confidential at the Washington Folk Festival at Glen Echo Park tomorrow at 1pm at the Crystal Pool stage.

And…

Next Saturday (June 7), Bob and the band will be doing something special…

In his editorial on Face the Nation this past Sunday, Schieffer suggested helping two organizations that help returning veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One is the Yellow Ribbon Foundation. Honky Tonk will play at Walter Reed Hospital on June 7 at a private event for soldiers at Walter Reed and their families.

Earlier today, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan held an online chat to discuss his controversial new book. Some excerpts:

Vienna, Va.: Scott: In judging your credibility, what relevance should people place upon the fact that your publishing house is affiliated with The Nation magazine, a very liberal publication, and that it has published books by liberal critic George Soros and even a book linking George W. Bush with murder?

Scott McClellan: My publisher has published books from people across the political spectrum focused on important public policy topics, including Nathan Sharansky, an author whose work the president has encouraged a number of people at the White House to read.

…

Northville, N.Y.: Thank you for your book, which I am eager to read. In news reports, you seem to be saying that President Bush sincerely wants to transform the Middle East and install democracies everywhere. Do you think this shows good judgment, and isn’t this the opposite of what your fellow Texan, Rep. Paul, would say about blowback from our arrogant meddling in other countries’ affairs? Do you subscribe to either philosophy? Also, from your knowledge of the people involved, do you think a military strike on Iran will be conducted before Bush leaves office?

Scott McClellan: I came to realize that the driving motivation behind the president’s desire to remove Saddam Hussein and his regime was a sincere belief that Iraq could be the lynchpin for spreading democracy across the Middle East. In the book, I discuss a number of moments when he passionately talks about this idealistic and ambitious vision.

During his campaign for president, he asserted that we needed a strong but humble foreign policy. 9/11 clearly changed some thinking. I do believe the Iraq decision legitimately calls into question the judgement of the president and some of his advisers who were intent on toppling the Iraqi regime. My philosophy is based in a moral belief that we should not wage war unless it is absolutely necessary. It is clear to me today that the Iraq War was not.

…

Atlanta: While defending himself against your charges in an interview on FOX (yesterday I believe), Karl Rove said that your claims demonstrated just how out-of-the-loop you were on important decisions. I was astounded that he used this as a defense. The media (and the nation) depends upon the press secretary for need-to-know information about the administration’s actions. Did you consider yourself out-of-the-loop, and if so, how? Was this just a little CYA on his part, or a Freudian slip?

Scott McClellan: I think that is a very good question. In the book, I discuss this very sentiment that existed among some Bush advisers. I participated in many presidential meetings–cabinet meetings, congressional meetings, foreign leader meetings, policy briefings and others. But this White House has been too secretive and too compartmentalized. Some decisions tend to be made in very small groups outside those meetings. The book covers this in pretty good detail, and my concerns about it as I was considering whether to move forward on being press secretary.

It’s the Big Buyout Buh-Bye Day at the Washington Post!! (Earlier on FishbowlDC: “Happy Buyout!”)

The Washington Post’s Metro section sent out this notice, obtained by FishbowlDC, to staffers today:

Metro will have a cake today at 4 p.m. to bid farewell to colleagues who are taking early retirement effective June 1. Those to be honored include reporters Kirstin Downey, Susan Levine, Sylvia Moreno and Yolanda Woodlee, and Tab Desk editors Chris Garsson, Leonard Hughes and Karl Payne. – Bob McCartney/ AME Metro

And Style!

The buyout departures have started. On Friday, we’ll have cake at 4:30 to celebrate Peter Carlson, Peter Hayes, Desson Thomson and Linton Weeks. Tammy Jones, whose last official day is also Friday, will be out of town. – Deborah Heard/AME Style

Financial!

Please join us at 5pm for the toasting/roasting of our early retirees. We are scheduling ours at 5pm, since Metro’s farewell is at 4pm and we have several people who would like to attend both. Sandy
ps/if anyone has stories they would like to tell about any of our retirees, let me know. thanks – Sandy Sugawara/AME Financial