Another Politico journalist is jumping ship. This time, it’s Charles Hoskinson, who is setting sail to join The Navy Times as their Managing Editor. He has been writing the Morning Defense column. Hoskinson has a long history as a military man and reporter. He served 10 years as an officer in the Army Reserve and Guard before diving into the world of journalism. He has also served as an embedded reporter with troops in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

It’s interesting to note that Hoskinson is the third Morning Defense writer to leave in less than two years. And the seventh national security or foreign affairs writer to leave since Politico began five years ago. He’s the fourth Politico reporter to bolt so far this year. Sarah Libby, Bill Hamilton, Karen Tanabe, and now Hoskinson have all left in 2012. (We’re not even counting Ben Smith and Marin Cogan, who left late December of last year.)

We have reached out to Politico’s Editor-in-Chief, John Harris, for a comment.

Despite being promoted recently to Deputy Managing Editor from White House Editor, Bill Hamilton is leaving Politico for the NYT to be the National Security Editor.

VandeHarris hasn’t yet sent out a memo. But just in case they don’t, BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith reported the news on Twitter, saying, “New news: Bill Hamilton, of Politico and fmrly Wapo, lovely guy & great editor, headed to NYT DC bureau as nat’l security editor #congrats.”

Congratulations to Hamilton.

Politico has hired Boston Globe‘s Donovan Slack to be a senior reporter on their 44 page, which chronicles President Obama. She replaces Julie Mason, who worked on the White House team and recently left for Sirius XM Radio. As one reporter put it, “Donovan is a chick. Cool name!”

Indeed, welcome Donovan to Politico and to the Fishbowl.

In an internal memo, Politico‘s Bill Hamilton lays out plans for a new and improved 44 page. The highlight will be a White House blog that focuses on news and personalities. While the entire White House team will write for the blog, two reporters will anchor it — namely Donovan and Byron Tau, who has been hopping around as of late. For a year he worked for Ben Smith and then moved over to Mike Allen‘s team. Tau replaces Matt Negrin, who just left Politico for ABC News.

Congratulations to the new duo on anchoring the page.

See the memo…
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We’ve learned specifics on which Politico reporters received the exclusive invite to the boss’s house on Sunday. As many know by now, Politico‘s Robert Allbritton and wife, Elena, held a post WHCD brunch at their Georgetown home, but only a small select group of journalists of the approximately 200 they employ were invited.

The List: Editor-in-Chief John Harris and Executive Editor Jim Vandehei, Bill Nichols, Danielle Jones, Kim Kingsley, Sara Olson, Bill Hamilton, Julie Mason, Jonathan Martin, Craig Gordon, Katherine Lehrer, Manu Raju, Tim Grieve and Mike Allen. Photographer John Shinkle and reporter Amie Parnes were there to cover the event. It’s unclear but doubtful that they would have been invited otherwise.

To the masses who didn’t get to eat fried mushroom puffs and caviar this weekend, don’t worry. They’re sure to send out a praiseworthy internal memo soon or offer catered lunch in the conference room.

UPDATE: We missed Politico’s chief political columnist Roger Simon, who also got to enjoy those mouthwatering mushroom puffs at the brunch. He attended with his wife, Marcia Kramer. “The food, which was catered by Wolfgang Puck, was terrific,” Simon remarked to FishbowlDC.

Bill Hamilton, a 29-year WaPo veteran, has taken the paper’s 2009 buyout and is heading to Politico.

Jim VandeHei and John Harris announced the move in an email to staff this afternoon:

We’ll work out many of the details on arrival date and title later. Our conversations focused on the big picture: Would there be a good fit here for someone of Bill’s experience and journalistic vision on our leadership team? He and we both decided the answer was emphatically yes.

Full VandeHarris memo after the jump…

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Good Morning FishbowlDC!

Got a blind item, interesting link, funny note, comment, birthday, anniversary or anything of the sort for Morning Reading List? Drop us a line or let us know in the tips box below.

We’re dropping the “Muesli”… just join us after the jump!

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FishbowlDC hears that Kevin Merida may soon be named the Washington Post’s AME/National…replacing Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

>UPDATE: Confirmed. Full memo from Phil Bennett and Marcus Brauchli after the jump…(and new roles are outlined for Bill Hamilton and Chandrasekaran)

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So…

Each election night at the Washington Post, a big buffet spread is provided to staffers, many of whom stay up late and work hard while the results roll in. It’s not only a tradition, but a fairly democratic one at that: Staffers like the fact that everyone from Don Graham on down gets a plate and waits in line and it can provide for some fun encounters.

But lots of Posties are grumbling about what they saw on Election Night: A separate buffet held in the office of National editor Rajiv Chandrasekaran that struck many as a bit exclusive and elitist. Other seen snacking with Rajiv: Post political editors Tim Curran and Bill Hamilton.

Okay, so here’s how it started:

A tipster heard that the Washington Post’s Susan Glasser, Bill Hamilton and one more big time Postie were spotted having coffee recently with NYTimes investigative reporter Marilyn Thompson.

Speculation has it that Thompson was upset that the Times didn’t run their story about the relationship between Sen. John McCain and a D.C. lobbyist.

Oh, and didn’t an investigative gig just open up at the Post recently?

So it should come as no surprise that…Marilyn Thompson is returning to the Washington Post, where she will be the new “Washington accountability editor” on the National desk. She previously worked at the WaPo from 1990 to 2004 before leaving for the Lexington Herald, then the L.A. Times, then the NYTimes.

You can’t help but read this Politico story — “Wash. Post Obama story under fire” — and think that former Posties Jim VandeHei and John Harris were tickled pink to run it.

Discussing last week’s controversial Obama article in the Post, Michael Calderone talks to the Post’s Bill Hamilton, who gives a politician-like “I apologize to anyone who was offended by this” response:

Assistant Managing Editor Bill Hamilton, who oversees political coverage and edited the article, said that he was “a little puzzled” that readers didn’t see that the paper’s intention was to call into question rumors that Obama is secretly a Muslim (rather than a Christian), and was educated in an Indonesian madrassa.

“I’m sorry it was misunderstood,” Hamilton said. “It obviously makes me think about how I edited it.”