Quotes of the Day

BREAKFAST AT ABC’s THIS WEEK: HuffPost-AOL Editor-in-Chief Arianna Huffington: “French toast, home fried potatoes, sausage patties and bacon in the ABC green room. Seriously?” Host George Stephanopoulos replied, “Sorry, Arianna, I ate all the Greek yogurt.”

On Margaret Thatcher’s passing

“Margaret Thatcher was the first politician I ever met. She was a wonderful person and a great leader.” — FNC Contributor and RedState Editor Erik Erickson.

“Obviously, everyone should relate Thatcher’s death to something in American politics, and then tweet it, because that is a Good Thing to Do.” — Politico‘s Tony Romm.

“Over-under on # of people who will write interesting columns about what Thatcher meant to them: 4″ — Politico‘s Alexander Burns.

Music editor ties the knot

“En route to the church to marry my best friend, @mabinty. #weddingday.” — WCP‘s Marcus Moore, who married Mabinty Koroma.

Violent dream talk.

“I’m killing people off in my dreams right and left this week. Sorry, everyone. I don’t like it either.” — Photographer and blogger Laurie White.

Weekend TV Watching

“This episode of Cops takes place in Portland. The squad car pulls over a naked man on a bike who is ‘protesting global warming.’” — Politico’s Byron Tau.

“Watching ‘Point Break’ with Alex Pappas. It’s his favorite movie.” — The Daily Caller’s Will Rahn regarding he and his colleague, Alex Pappas.

Tschida’s exotic vacation to southeast Asia

“Long airport layover, so sign up for ‘foot massage.’ 90-year-old man comes in says please take off trouser but please leave underwear on.” — ABC7′s Stephen Tschida. And unfortunately, upon returning home, Tschida falls ill: “Back from the jungle and all day long I go from chills to sweat. Sure hope it’s the D.C. weather and not dengue fever. But with my luck?”

Editor throws caution to wind

“Went to the P St. Whole Foods after 2pm because YOLO” — Foreign Policy magazine Managing Editor Blake Hounshell.

TV anchor admits culinary weakness and a reader panics that Politico Playbook has been nixed today. Read more

The bane of every reporter’s and blogger’s CPAC existence has been a slightly raised cord protector in the middle of the  media center.

Most journalists have tripped, stumbled or completely fallen over it at least once while passing through the area. “Everyone. And we’ve tried everything,” a CPAC organizer told FishbowlDC when asked if she’s received any complaints. “We’ve tried ‘caution: wet floor’ signs, we’ve put the yellow tape down but people move them and keep tripping.” She confirmed that at least one person took a complete spill on the floor.

Erik Wemple, media reporter for WaPo, was one of many who took a while to get the hang of it.

“Happens every time,” he said, when we watched him take a tumble.

Other journalists who tripped over the cord protector (besides us, many times) include BuzzFeed Washington Bureau Chief John Stanton and The Daily Caller‘s Alex Pappas.

FBDC captured Wemple’s trip in the animated gif above.

(A Sprinkling of Things we Think you Ought to Know…)

Weingarten Defends D.C. – WaPo “humorist” Gene Weingarten uses his weekend column to defend the honor of Washington, D.C. from NYP’s Cindy Adams. Adams famously bashed Washington a few weeks ago, calling it “a sewer.” While Adams doesn’t return Weingarten’s requests for an interview, Gene tries interviewing her anyway. He writes, “Cindy, I make fun of Washington all the time, but I do it because it is the opposite of dirty. It’s as though we took a city and surgically removed all the grit. Washington is spit-shined. People are annoyingly polite and genteel. Nobody jaywalks. The homeless wear spats. You can eat off the sidewalk; indeed, many fine restaurants encourage it. Whereas — and I mean no disrespect to your city — New York smells of stale pee, with a fresh pee chaser.” Is Gene trying to start ANOTHER DC-NYC turf war? Good for Gene for taking on a tired, hack writer for a major market newspaper. Where on EARTH could he have come up with such an idea?

Ashley Judd bares it all and Diplomat Dennis Rodman… Read more

If any journalist in Washington has a reason to mourn the passing of C. Everett Koop, it’s The Daily Caller‘s Alex Pappas. “So sad to hear of C. Everett Coop’s passing,” he wrote on Twitter Monday. “He operated on – and saved the life of – my mom when she was a baby with rare heart condition.”

Indeed, in 1960, Pappas’ mother was an infant living in Martinsburg, West Virginia. She had been diagnosed with a rare heart condition called A-V fistula of the coronary arteries. Though the surgery was risky, Koop operated on her at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia when she was just five months old.  “At the time, there were only five other known cases of people having it,” said Pappas. “Mom was the first known attempted surgery.”

The surgery made history: Pappas says his mother was the first person to survive the kind of operation Koop did. As she grew older, she saw him several times and thanked him in person. “As you can imagine, C. Everett Koop means a lot to my family,” Pappas said.

Quotes of the Day

AUNTIE OF THE CENTURY: “This is what 100 years old looks like on my amazing great aunt, Helen Forbrich. Happy birthday, Auntie Helen!” — WaPo‘s Karen Tumulty.

Baier’s son to get heart tests

“Good morning! Paul’s getting some tests on his heart this morning at @childrenshealth & he’s into “Wreck it Ralph”!” — FNC’s Bret Baier with accompanying photograph.

Reporter hates talking points requests 

“Least fav tweets are pols asking followers to retweet the talking points they’ve already tweeted 1,000 times before.” — CQ Roll Call White House reporter Steven Dennis.

This is how rumors get started

“Norm Coleman on CNN right now…Wonder if Zucker is trying him out as a regular contributor? Talking with Hilary Rosen about #Oscars.” — Jennifer Moire, public affairs and media consultant.

A boiling hot idea for next year’s Oscars

“Next year they should just have Satan host the Oscars.” — Politico‘s Ben White.

Journos face rough start to week

“Yep, please start my Monday morning with construction knocking out the water pipes … Again.” — Politico‘s Seung Min Kim.

“Apparently I slept on a mouse. True, it was a stuffed toy mouse, but the sight still jolted me as I got out of bed. #helloMonday” — Metro Weekly‘s Randy Shulman.

Politico Playbook Publish Time: 9:29 a.m.

Editor feels pulled in different directions…

Read more

Quotes of the Day

Burying the lead

“Magistrate in Pistorius case really knows how to bury the lead. He’s been reading back the case for more than 1/2 hr now w/o ruling on bail.” — Jon Belmont, AP Radio News.

Travel Bitches

“Nothing like starting off the day with a 4 am wake up for a 6 am flight.” — WaPo‘s Karen Tumulty.

“Instead of “quiet car” Amtrak should have one where everyone who screams on their phones all the way from DC to NY sits together.” — MSNBC “Daily Rundown” Executive Producer Brooke Brower.

“Longest Circulator ride of. My. Life.” — MetroWeekly‘s Justin Snow.

“Seatmate warns: ‘I didn’t sleep last night, so I may doze on your shoulder.’ #StrangerDanger” — Erica Elliot, the avid travel tweeter who is also the Communications Director for the Major Whip of the House, Kevin McCarthy.

Ouch and more ouch!

“@ErikWemple Looking forward to your next piece when you ask the Obama campaign which Politico and WaPo stories helped them the most.” — The Daily Caller‘s Alex Pappas to WaPo‘s Erik Wemple for this story, in which he takes Breitbart.com and The Daily Caller and lumps them together into a story on shoddy conservative media reporting. Shockingly (and yes, we’re being sarcastic), no one from either publication would speak to the Erik Wemple Blog for his story. Before he began writing for WaPo, Wemple indicated that he would not be covering WaPo. He has broken this declaration a few times, but has mostly stuck with it.

Politico Playbook Publish Time: 9:39 a.m.

New D.C. slang: “the metch” 

“Today in IMing: a friend refers to Metro as ‘the metch’ which is not shorter than ‘metro’ but is more fun to say I guess.” — TPM‘s Evan McMorris-Santoro.

Moving woes

“It was a huge mistake to think that I could install my internet by myself.” — BuzzFeed‘s Rosie Gray, who recently moved to Washington from New York.

Bon Voyage!

“Thank you so much everyone for your kind notes. Psyched to head to Beijing but sad to be leaving such amazing friends & colleagues in DC.” — WaPo‘s Felicia Sonmez. We inquired what Sonmez was up to in Bejing. She replied, “Today is my last day at the Post. I am planning to move to Beijing in the next few months and study Chinese, and then find a reporting job there.” All the best to Sonmez on her new adventure.

Self-Appointed Media Critics

• “Local news doing a fabulous job with storm coverage. Too bad they suck at covering most everything else.” — Conservative radio host and gun enthusiast Dana Loesch.

• “Every year National Journal’s ratings of conservatives and liberals come out I’m reminded of just how stupid National Journal can be.” — FNC and RedState‘s Erick Erickson.

Senate gets new rail to protect clock from reporters chasing senators (a joke, sort of, of course)…

Read more

This is uncomfortable.

Ginni Thomas, a contributor at The Daily Caller, was grouped with other conservative “clowns” yesterday in a daily morning tip sheet written by The DC Senior Editor Jamie Weinstein.

The item by Weinstein linked to a story by his colleague Will Rahn involving a letter drafted by several movement conservatives defending the conservative Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell. Republican consultant Jonathan Collegio reportedly referred to Bozell as a “hater” on a local D.C. radio program this week. To that, other conservatives along with radio host Mark Levin and Thomas drafted a letter calling for Collegio to be fired from his job at the American Crossroads Super PAC.

Weinstein called it “a clown letter that embarrasses clowns.” More from his tip sheet… Read more

Fretting a natural disaster isn’t the ideal way to celebrate a large part of Christmas day, but it’s how The Daily Caller‘s Alex Pappas celebrated his.

Yesterday evening a tornado warning was issued for parts of Mobile, Ala., Pappas’ hometown and where he spent the holiday. About 40 minutes after retweeting the warning at 5:20 p.m., Pappas tweeted, “We can see tornado in midtown Mobile.”

He told FishbowlDC, “It was probably four or five blocks away when we saw it.” Pappas had just returned from a day at the beach.

Pictured above is the tornado taken by one of Pappas’ neighbors.

After the tornado had passed, Pappas tweeted that he and his family (15 people total) were fine but the power was out. He saw some people exit their homes holding martini glasses.

Pappas and other neighbors then went next door to a home powered by a generator. “In Mobile, we’re used to hurricanes,” Pappas said. “Not until this Christmas had we ever experienced a tornado. Thankful everyone is OK and my Waffle House coffee cup Santa brought me survived.”

Last we heard, Pappas was on a flight back to Washington.

After the disaster, he posted a full account of what happened to his Facebook… Read more

Walking into the Breitbart Embassy last night was sort of what one imagines walking into Michael Jackson‘s old home: Stationed in the living room was an ice cream stand with the Good Humor man. Outside was a petting zoo with ducks, bunnies, an alpaca and a tiny horse. And walking around the whole house was Nancy Leonard, an accordionist dressed in traditional Swiss clothing, who prides herself on being able to walk and play music at the same time.

“Do you know what the difference between an accordionist and an entertainer is?” Leonard asked FishbowlDC. “An entertainer can walk and play. Most accordionists have to sit and read the music.”

Leonard is a former breast implant specialist for the FDA. “I helped all kinds of people,” she said. “I helped men, women, transvestites… anybody.”

Also roaming around the zoo was former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.).

The Embassy was hosting a party for FNC The Five‘s Greg Gutfeld who has a book coming out next month. Gutfeld’s book, The Joy of Hate, is dedicated to the late Andrew Breitbart. It’s a commentary on the knee-jerk reaction people have to cry foul at anything and everything. Gutfeld said young and old people as well as “people that are not young or old” should read the book.

Party invitations inexplicably featured an old ’90s TV screenshot of Gutfeld from when he worked for Men’s Health. In the photograph, a buff Gutfeld is in a tank top and has a high-top haircut. “How dare you,” he said when we brought it up.

More Gutfeld and pictures…

Read more

What was initially thought to be a special appearance by David Martosko‘s personal secretary at last night’s Daily Caller book launch party ended up being nothing of the sort.

To the left is a photo of Nandi, who works with Emperor Vodka, which sponsored the soiree. “I’m just here for pictures,” she said, graciously posing for cameras. Nandi, whose arms are reminiscent of Angela Bassett‘s What’s Love Got to Do with It, said this was her first time working with Emperor. Fun first day on the job!

The Daily Caller hosted the party in its Farragut Square newsroom celebrating The Lizard King, an ebook written by their own Jamie Weinstein and Will Rahn.

“I have no good answer,” said Rahn when asked who should read his book. “It’s a transformative book,” he said (“transformational” also works). He compared it to reading the Bible. “Is this off the record?” Rahn asked at the conclusion of our interview.

Weinstein was a little more willing to talk about the book, though we get the impression he thought he was on TV. “Truth-seekers will like it,” Weinstein said. He emphasized that the book is actually a manuscript provided by a White House insider and that he and Rahn are simply the vessels through which the book is being delivered. “Once in a while, history falls upon you and I think it happened to us,” he said, adding that it “may be one of the most important books since [Fox News host] Sean Hannity’s book.”

The Daily Caller‘s bar was stocked with wine, soda, alcohol and a beer tap that poured Pabst Blue Ribbon. Edibles (vegetables and a few hors d’oeurves) were a little on the slim side.

As guests trickled in, a couple faces stood out in the crowd: Politico‘s Byron Tau and Tim Mak. The DC and Politico have been known to publicly quibble in the past. One Daily Caller staffer said the relationship between the two publications “on paper” is often not the case between individual reporters. He said there are several Politico employees he regularly drinks with. Both Tau and Mak chatted with The DC‘s Alex Pappas for a while, as well.

In the crowd we also spotted a distinguished gentleman with a badass eye patch. It turned out to be Will Rahn’s father, ex-husband to WSJ‘s Peggy Noonan.

The DC‘s editor Tucker Carlson was seen talking with RollCall‘s Jonathan Strong, a former Daily Caller reporter. Strong said work for him has been slow and “a little boring,” given he covers Congress, which is currently out of session.

Notables: The Daily Caller‘s Alex Treadway, Sarah Hoffman, Taylor Bigler, Jeff Poor, Caroline May, Brian Danza, Chris Bedford, Neil Munro, Pat McMahon, Nicole Roeberg, and Vince Coglianese; The Free Beacon‘s Adam Kredo and CJ Ciaramella; RollCall HOH‘s Neda Semani and Warren Rojas; Fox News contributor Jim Pinkerton; WaPo‘s Alexandra Petri; U.S. News‘ Steven Nelson; The Daily Beast‘s Eli Lake; and Donald Rumsfeld‘s former chief of staff Keith Urbahn. Conspicuously absent were Matthew Boyle and Martosko, who had kid duty. We rode the elevator with him down to the garage. He puffed away on what may have been an illegal cigar the whole way down and said Rahn and Weinstein would know he was there “in spirit.”

Quotable:

• “He’s a bit of a self promoter.”– Keith Urbahn on his former boss Donald Rumsfeld, who was Defense Secretary under former Prez George W. Bush. Urbahn spilled that Rummy is currently working on a new book. UPDATE: Urbahn writes in to tell us he was talking about his other former boss, The Daily Beast‘s David Frum.

• Asked about former and recently fired Daily Caller reporter Michelle Fields, Daily Caller Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson said, “I haven’t seen her much on TV lately. That ended for some reason.” Fields was not in attendance.

• “I don’t want to be written about.”– Steven Nelson, after FishbowlDC inquired about his job at U.S. News, which he only recently started.

• “I’m holding out for the chance that Matthew Boyle shows up.”– FBDC’s Peter Ogburn.