While we don’t know the long-term fate of CNN’s Erin Burnett, she was noticeably passed over for the network’s revamped morning show, which leaves her as host of OutFront. That leaves her future a little murky, but if times get really tough, she could always get a side gig as a look-alike for actress Zooey Deschanel.

It’s just after 7 a.m. and no doubt HuffPost‘s Howard Fineman is really glad he woke up at the ass crack of dawn to appear on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” from Washington only to be told that he’s boring the host, Mika Brzezinksi.

“Well Mika, I agree with you and even though the administration might want to cite civil service rules as it relates to some of those people. I mean, last night they fired the one guy they could fire — Steve Miller, who is a political appointee — so they could just summarily fire him. There are rules down there in the thick of the bureaucracy, but if I were the President, I would I would I would [sic] ignore them and try to move quickly, very quickly, to that source. To answer your earlier question about whether we’re going to look back on this as a fool’s errand or something that changes the nature of the historical view and accomplishments of the Obama administration, I think unfortunately for the Obama people we’re now in the situation where the situation is what did they know and when did they know it?”

Mika interrupting Fineman, saying, “But see, I just got bored. I just got bored. I’m just, I’m telling you.”

How does a guest recover from that? In Fineman’s case, he continues being toothpick prop your eyes up boring.

“Okay,” he continued, a little flustered, “but, but if it’s true as it said that both the IRS story and actions and the AP story and actions were down there in the bureaucracy and had absolutely nothing to do with and were not known by or managed by or shaped by the White House staff and the President … if that, in fact, is true,then this is going, in history, is going to seem like a wasted summer and a wasted year.”

Mika proceeded to awkwardly explain her boredom. Translation: It’s not you Howard Fineman, it’s me. Read more

Quotes of the Day

LAPCHILD ALERT: “Mel Watt has a toddler on his lap, name of ‘Nico.’” — Politico‘s Glenn Thrush.

“As I think Mark Twain said, trust leaves on horseback and returns on foot. … A president leads by persuasion, not command.” — Former Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld last night on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live” on the current state of White House scandals and the concept of a Benghazi coverup.

Memo to world: Keep your smoke to yourself

“I AM SO SICK OF INHALING YOUR CANCER SMOKE AT BUS STOPS PEOPLE. Have some class. That is all.” — Reuters Amanda Becker.

Important Q to Ponder: “Is it technically plagiarism if they only took half a sentence? How about if they use your half sentence to buttress an incorrect assertion?” — Megan McArdle, special correspondent for Newsweek/Daily Beast.

Deep thoughts with Michael Scherer

“Ironies: Benghazi/IRS may help pass immigration reform; AP subpoena may help pass shield law.” — TIME‘s Michael Scherer.

KATIE WEIGHS IN (so to speak): “A great shot of @morningmika, Katie Couric and Diane Smith during the taping of an hour special on Mika’s book.”

TV Critics/Observers

“Shep Smith is a conservative cockblock — going from red meat Obama scandal coverage to Jodi Arias.” — The Daily Caller‘s Jeff Poor.

“Chris Matthews is the whitest cracker to ever come out of the Pillsbury Dough Boy’s rear end. Funny to hear him scream racism.” — RedState Editor and Fox News Contributor Erick Erickson.

“I feel Wolf Blitzer‘s pain, having to transition from WH coverage to Jodi Arias sentencing.” — NJ “The Hotline’s” Josh Kraushaar.

“Modern cable dilemma: will CNN stick w/OJ Simpson, or switch to AG Holder when Judiciary hearing starts?” — CNBC and NYT‘s John Harwood.

Deep Thinker 

“Amazing thing abt Angelina Jolie: she managed to keep quiet treatment in @nytimes, & cover Time mag. DC needs her.” — CNN’s Jonathan Wald, who runs Piers Morgan Live.

Putting it all into perspective

“Shitty day? Hey, at least you didn’t get fired by the president of the United States on national television for something you didn’t do.” — Stefan Becket, who handles social media and writes for “The Intelligencer” blog for New York magazine.

Eddie Scarry contributed to this report.

As is customary at McDonald’s, Marriott or Macy’s, the customer is always right no matter how angry he gets. And so it is at CQ Roll Call. Enter Paul Martino, an international trade specialist for the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, whose beef is that he wants his papers delivered on time or not at all.

Here’s the exchange between Paul and LaWanda Council regarding Roll Call deliveries. This happened back in late March. Hopefully, for LaWanda’s sake, the issue has been resolved.

Paul: “Hi LaWanda- thanks we are already receiving the .pdf. Please stop delivery of the newspaper if you cannot guarantee timely (within 2 days).”

LaWanda: “I am sorry that your CQ Roll Call papers are not arriving to you on time. May I offer to set you up to get the pdf that will come directly to you each night? Please confirm and we can get this going for you.”

Paul: “This is ridiculous. STOP SENDING US NEWSPAPERS> [sic] Today we received 12 Newspapers dated May 8, May 9 and May 10, from last Wednesday Thursday, Friday. Again I ask you who would have any interest in receiving newspapers a week old and three days all at once. This is nuisance. I have sent you half a dozen emails on this matter over the past few months and your organization has done nothing to remedy the issue. You are wasting tons of money and I wonder why you haven’t stopped it or figured out how to ensure timely delivery. I would think this would be a priority. Again stop sending us week old newspapers.”

This week’s TIME magazine capitalizes on Angelina Jolie‘s big revelation this week that she spent the last three months having and recovering from a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

This week’s cover story is a special report on how her actions may affect women’s choices.

A blurb on the story:

“TIME’s Jeffrey Kluger and Alice Park report on the differing takes within the scientific community, as well as the cost-benefit ratio of this kind of genetic testing: Jolie, by nearly universal agreement, made the right choice for her…. But a lot of experts worry that we may over-read the lessons. Genetic screening is a young science, and while we may have detected genes linked to a host of ills… we often do a terrible job of calculating our resulting risks, making irreversible decisions based on dangers that don’t exist. Jolie’s brave example can make us all smarter and help keep us healthier—but only if we take the right lessons from it.”

Karin Tanabe, formerly a reporter at Politico CLICK, just had her first novel, The List, published in February and she’s already churning out another.

Publisher’s Marketplace, a forum for publishers and authors to promote their work, just posted a synopsis for the forthcoming book titled Lot 24. It reads:

… Tanabe’s Lot 24 [is] about a hot young antique furniture specialist at Christie’s in NYC who discovers a mysterious piece of Middle Eastern pottery that sends her career and her love life into a tailspin…

Tanabe told FishbowlDC that the release date for the book is currently summer 2014. Even though the book, unlike her first one, isn’t about politics and journalism, she said it isn’t “devoid” of either. “It’s hard to totally leave what you know,” she said.

Also unlike her debut novel, which was loosely based on her former colleagues at Politico, Lot 24 will be steamier. “There’s also lots more sex!” Tanabe said. Read more

He’s not a comedian, but the Wall Street Journal editorial board found the humor in one of David Freddoso‘s tweets. So much so, that it was included in one of Wednesday’s editorials about the the Obama administration distancing itself from the IRS.

“The Washington Examiner‘s David Freddoso joked on Twitter that ‘Seal Team 6 is the only govt agency that acts directly on Obama’s behalf,’” it reads. (That’s actually not a direct quote of Freddoso’s tweet but it’s close.)

“Hey, I got a shout-out in today’s WSJ editorial,” Freddoso tweeted with a link to the editorial attached.

It was a clever remark, no doubt. But should Freddoso turn in his pen for clown shoes just yet? How funny was the joke? We’ve requested comment from Freddoso. But in the meantime, cast your vote in our Fish Poll:

Update: Freddoso got back to us after this post published. He told us he wasn’t aware that his tweet would make it into the editorial. “A friend wrote to tell me about it this morning, I had no idea,” he said. “I think some people at the Journal follow me.” Otherwise, he said, they may have seen the tweet featured in a post Slate‘s Dave Weigel wrote Tuesday.

Oh what a little time outside the Beltway will do for a person. On Tuesday afternoon, Adam Weinstein, a former engagement editor and national security reporter for Mother Jones and a former contestant on Survivor Baghdad, exposed his real feelings about the AP-DOJ scandal, including a sarcastic crack at National Journal national reporter Ron Fournier.

Weinstein, who did a stint for Mother Jones in Washington last year, is always a bit of firecracker. In October of 2012, he called FNC and Daily Caller‘s Tucker Carlson a “dickbag” after lashing out at him on Twitter for once wearing bow-ties. Now Weinstein’s based in Miami and working as an editor, writer and media consultant.

Fournier, who tweets at least once an hour, didn’t lob any comment back at him.

That before Tim Grieve went to work for National Journal he had to bide his time at home, waiting out the completion of his contract with Politico, before he could start. Though not entirely unexpected, Politico wasn’t exactly pleased when he quit and strode over to the competitor. So they made him wait it out.

Ouch. We can still feel those bridges burning.

Like many websites around town, some like to boast their successes. Foreign Affairs has released a “record-breaking” month for April. Tucked into the release amid all that bragging, however, is a line about their readership — 60 percent of which comes from outside the country. The publication has newsstand buyers in 190 countries.

The other stats speak for themselves. For April they received 1,142,383 visits and 2,295,136 page views.

“We set out to make ForeignAffairs.com fresh, relevant, and engaging on a daily basis,” says Lynda Hammes, publisher of Foreign Affairs. “This has elevated our global profile as we attract new online audiences and enjoy increasing repeat traffic from our loyal readers.” Today, nearly 60 percent of visits to ForeignAffairs.com come from outside the United States.

The mag attributes its inflated readership to a number of things, one of which is a app that includes “Foreign Affairs on TV,” a collection of essays and video on the foreign policy dimensions of popular television shows like Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, Boardwalk Empire, and Homeland.

“We spend way too much time watching all this stuff too. So to feel less guilty, we went out and got top experts to produce some Foreign Affairs–quality cultural commentary,” said Editor-in-Chief Gideon Rose.