Quotes of the Day

IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS: “Rush Limbaugh with a porn-stache will save your Tuesday afternoon.” — BuzzFeed’s Bennie Johnson. 

Weinermania

This morning at 5 a.m. the NYT Magazine’s big blockbuster story on ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner and wife Huma Abedin broke. Read it here.

“Just spitballing here but why not Weiner v McConnell? Don’t let this opp pass you by DSCC.” — Executive Director of America Rising PAC Tim Miller, former aide to presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman and GOP flak.

“Weiner Wants Back In The Game- why can’t disgraced politicians find a different job?” — tennis star Martina Navratilova.

“Long read, but Weiner’s diagnosis of himself regarding his behavior could apply to many elected officials.” — NBC’s Chuck Todd.

“Will Weiner Rise Again?” — Drudge.

“Why is Weiner not wearing shoes and socks in NYT picture? Cmon man!” — Politico‘s Ben White.

Autocorrect War Stories

“Autocorrect: When ‘free cone day’ turned into ‘free clone day.’ Where do I sign??” — National Journal‘s Brian Fung.

“My spell-checker just suggested I replace ‘Coburn’ with ‘corncob.’ Not doing it, but you have to wonder.” — Daily Mail U.S. Political Editor David Martosko in regard to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

WTF Central

“It’s weird how by typing these few words I can ruin your whole day: La la la la la, la la, these little lies. La la la la la, la la, these.” — Slate and NYT‘s Farhad Manjoo.

Bald dudes: Don’t let this happen to you

“Fuck I really should have put some suntan lotion in my bald spot #soooooburned.” — Mike Elk.

ABC’s Stephanopoulos plugs wife’s TV appearance

“Proud hubby time: Check out Ali on The View today.” — ABC GMA and “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos.

Something to look forward to?

“@KevinWGlass Remind me to schedule a beatdown for your ass when I’m in DC in May” — Jazz Shaw, weekend editor at Hot Air in reference to Townhall Managing Editor Kevin Glass.

Important question to consider and an interesting open invitation… Read more

Today begins Tim Cavanaugh‘s six-week trial run at The Daily Caller. Formerly of the Libertarian leaning Reason magazine, Cavanaugh could, if all goes well, permanently replace David Martosko, now at the Daily Mail‘s new Washington bureau.

Cavanaugh is a former Los Angeles-based screenwriter. He was managing editor of Reason.com and a columnist for the magazine. Previously, he was a web editor of the LAT opinion page and Editor-in-Chief of Suck.com. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Slate, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Beirut Daily Star, San Francisco Magazine, Mother Jones, Agence France-Presse, Wired, Newsday, Salon, Orange County Register, and The Rake magazine.

So far at this budding stage, reviews are positive. As one individual phrased it, “Cool dude.”

David Martosko is officially out as executive editor of The Daily Caller and in as U.S Politics Editor of the Daily Mail. Though he’s still tweeting out links to Daily Caller stories, Martosko began tweeting Daily Mail stories as well on Saturday.

Emails to Martosko’s former Daily Caller address are returned with: “I’m no longer with The Daily Caller.” Signed, “With Every Good Wish, David Martosko.”

He told FishbowlDC that his last day at The Daily Caller was Friday. “I’m in London today, meeting new colleagues and learning the Daily Mail‘s online and content management systems,” he said in an email. No last-day party was thrown by Martosko or his Daily Caller colleagues. “Not my style,” he said.

His transition to the high-trafficked Daily Mail couldn’t have possibly come at a better time. Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones reported on Friday that in 2008 Martosko posed on Facebook as a “dope-smoking commie” to gather information on animal rights activists. Read more

Quotes of the Day

Rome unveils a new Pope

“CNBC seems unprepared for #pope coverage. They don’t have anyone translating what he’s saying.” — WSJ‘s Victoria McGrane.

“Remember when we were all watching the chimney and waiting for the reveal of the new pope? #nostaliga” — Politico‘s David Chalian.

“So, another Pope who thinks contraceptives are evil. Good luck with that.” — Blogger and pundit Craig Crawford.

“How did the Pope name himself so fast? Do all cardinals have a papal name short list ready?” — TNR‘s Julia Ioffe.

“The House Science subcommittee hearing on energy subsidies has now been delayed for 45 minutes. I blame the Vatican.” — SNL Energy power and policy reporter Corbin Hiar.

“For the record, I yelled ‘POPE SMOKE’ in my newsroom < 1 minute before we saw the smoke. So, yeah, I’ve got some powers. – NJ‘s Elahe Izadi.

“With the pope jokes winding down, Twitter will return to its bread and butter of poop jokes.” Yahoo! Sports Big League Stew Contributor Dave Brown.

Steak: It’s what’s for dinner at midnight

“It’s absolutely silly to grill steaks at midnight, said no smart person ever.” — The Daily Caller‘s soon to be Daily Mail‘s David Martosko. (Except maybe a cardiologist?)

Reporter hopes Kissinger yells at her

“So, last time I spoke to Henry Kissinger he yelled at me. Fingers crossed tonight will be two for two #dreams.” — Roll Call‘s Neda Semnani who had an encounter with him at the Nixon Centennial a few months back.

Journo Love

The Atlantic‘s Molly Ball: “I hope everyone appreciates the greatness of @sarahlyall. Everything she writes is fantastic.”

NYT‘s London-based correspondent Sarah Lyall: “What an extremely nice thing to say! Thank you.”

Politico Playbook Publish Time: 7:23 a.m.

Erick Erickson trash talks MSNBC

“MSNBC shocked the new Pope is Catholic.” — FNC Contributor and RedState Editor Erick Erickson.

Quote Taken Way Out of Context

“Everything is terrible.” — BuzzFeed‘s Rebecca Berg.

Important Q to Ponder: Can we ever get enough of Marty Rudolph? Read more

Quotes of the Day

“Abby Cornish has vegan shoes.” — CNN’s Soledad O’Brien regarding the actress, not NPR’s Audie Cornish as we originally thought due to a lack of caffeine.

Whoa! What?

“Chicks with big tits always seem to say the right things.” — Undisclosed D.C. publicist. (Of course we’re going to go ahead and assume the person was hacked. We haven’t heard back.)

Journo Hate Mail

The Hater: “@kirstenpowers10 you dumbass political whore please explain to the rest of us how Paul Ryan ran up this national debt?”

FNC Contributor Kirsten Powers: “Really?”

HotAir’s Mary Katharine Ham: “It’s always nice when they say ‘please, whore.’ Blech.”

Martosko, Markosko, Marsoko?

“Hey, at least Dave Weigel spelled my name right. Oh, wait …” — The Daily Caller‘s Executive Editor David Martosko on Slate‘s Dave Weigel‘s screwy spelling of his surname this week in a story. He wrote: “Markosko” (We’re sure it wasn’t personal. He got it right in the first reference. As of this moment, the spelling of Martosko’s last name is still “Markosko.”)

Politico Playbook Publish Time: 9:32 a.m.

Speaking of which….today Mike Allen makes fun of WaPo: “WASHPOST ON IT! Front page TODAY (also leads homepage, in case ya missed everyone else’s stories the past couple days)” You can read the rest of today’s edition here.

The Media Critic

“Shorter National Journal now: how may we troll you today?” — Media Matters research fellow Oliver Willis. Three minutes later: “We need a good distracting celebrity scandal. What’s Lohan or Spears up to?”

Technological difficulties

“(sniff, sniff) microsoft email not working for some reason … this is a crippling setback, and I’m not sure how to act – champagne, anyone?” — Bill Starks, News Assignment Manager, WUSA-TV9.

You’d have thought that the hooker confusion from earlier in the week would’ve been enough excitement for The Daily Caller‘s Executive Editor David Martosko, who has spearheaded the publication’s hooker coverage ever since original hooker beat reporter Matthew Boyle left for Breitbart.com.

But no.

Today Martosko and Charles Johnson, team up (yes, these things sometimes require teams) to write about a book that came out last year. The headline: “BOOK EXCERPT: Bob Menendez ran political machine in New Jersey’s corrupt ‘ground zero.’” The story contains quotes about Menendez from 2005 and discusses an investigation led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie about a nonprofit that rented property from Menendez in the book that came out last year. “Through the courtesy of St. Martin’s Press, The Daily Caller is republishing those pages,” Martosko and Johnson write.

The story basically reiterates… Read more

The plot thickens with the case of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and his alleged penchant for Dominican prostitutes. While this story, originally reported by The Daily Caller‘s Matthew Boyle, who is now with Breitbart, has been stewing for a few months, things really heated up on Monday evening. WaPo reported that the prostitute in question told authorities in the Dominican Republic that she was paid to make up the story and she has never met Menendez. Ruh roh. WaPo reports, “The woman said a local lawyer had approached her and a fellow escort and asked them to help frame Menendez and a top donor, Salomon Melgen, according to affidavits obtained by The Washington Post.”

So, it looks like the Menendez story is bullshit. Or is it? The Daily Caller wasted no time in rebutting the story by WaPo saying that, essentially, they got the wrong hooker. The argument, by outgoing Daily Caller Executive Editor David Martosko, says that the women that THEY interviewed were 24 at the time, while WaPo claims the escort was 23. Martosko also says neither of the prostitutes they interviewed went by the name “Nexis de los Santos Santana,” as WaPo identifies her.

So, what the hell is going on? We have a few questions. Read more

The Daily Caller‘s controversial Executive Editor David Martosko is leaving to be the U.S. Political Editor for the Daily Mail. He’s off to London for training. Soon he’ll open the Washington office of the largest news outlet in the world.

Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson sent word out today to staff.

Martosko has written several of the prostitute-related pieces surrounding Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) as of late. The latest of which involved a woman they called “Beth”, a woman who was interviewed in person by The Daily Caller.

While the development is a huge mark of success for Martosko, recent weeks and months haven’t been so promising for Martosko inside The Daily Caller. The staff long grumbled about his management style, which they found annoying. Interns often didn’t want to be alone with him and complained about him. No specific bad behavior was told to FishbowlDC, just a general feeling that they didn’t want to be alone with him.

Martosko, meanwhile, has been searching for a new job as management has been internally weighing possibilities of a new editor to help run the newsroom. He arrived at the paper 20 months ago with a long rap sheet and little to no journalism experience when the publication’s Executive Editor left to live abroad.

Congratulations to Martosko.

UPDATE from Martosko: “I’m truly excited about joining The Daily Mail. It’s the biggest newspaper website in the world, and every click is hard-earned and well-deserved. That said, I’ll miss The Daily Caller. It’s bursting with first-rate talent, and Tucker Carlson has been a fantastic guy to work with. I highly recommend a career at The Daily Caller, but only for journalists who don’t have many sacred cows, don’t take themselves too seriously, and don’t mind an occasional hail of arrows fom the cheap seats outside our newsroom.”

UPDATE #2: Despite numerous and persistent reports to the contrary over the course of the past month from inside The Daily Caller, Publicist Nicole Roeberg has insisted that we add a statement she sent late in the day. See it after the jump.

See the internal memo…a lovely sendoff from Carlson… Read more

Another day, another call girl surfaces to discuss alleged sexual encounters with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) with The Daily Caller, which we may soon have to rename, The Daily Call Girl.

Does this stuff ever get old?

And get this — the story has a double byline that includes Executive Cigar Smoker and Editor David Martosko and a woman we’ve never heard of before named Conchita Sarnoff.  (Conchita, not one of the prostitutes, has written for HuffPost and The Daily Beast. At the end of the piece she’s described as “an American writer publishing her first book on child sex trafficking in America in the fall of 2013.”)

Details. Details. They interviewed the woman in the flesh (meaning, in person). She’s in her late thirties. They’re calling this alleged Menendez call girl “Beth” — not her real name. Maybe the best detail in the whole five-page piece? She claims she has been paid to provide sexual favors for Washington lobbyists and “several” U.S. senators, including some who are no longer living. Our minds went wild. Read more

By Betsy Rothstein and Eddie Scarry

We asked Washington journalists to tell us something they want or something they want to happen in 2013. There’s a few New York-based political scribes sprinkled in here. Here’s what they told us.

CBS Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett: “I want political courage and skill commensurate with that demonstrated by our armed forces and diplomats in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and other places of peril since 9/11.”

The Daily Caller‘s Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson: “I’d like to catch more trout. And I plan to.”

The Weekly Standard‘ Matt Labash: “I’m hoping this is the year in which  the internet finally craters. It’s had a good run, but nobody ever shuts it off.  So after all this relentless exposure – after everyone having their say, then saying a lot  more – we now get sick of people in minutes that used to take us years to get sick of otherwise. Which is why I’m pulling for less connectedness, and more solitude. Less digital. More analog. More wondering what people think, instead of knowing, then being disappointed. Less concern about trending topics. More concern with staying unconcerned about what everybody else is concerned about. Also, I think 2013 is going to be the Year of Joey Lawrence. He’s due. And with the internet disappearing, we’re going to need something/someone to fill the void. To teach us how to live again. To show us the old ways.”

WJLA’s Rebecca Cooper: “My wish list for 2013: 1) Jayne Sandman’s body WITHOUT Jayne Sandman’s workout schedule; 2) Pamela Sorensen’s social schedule WITHOUT Pamela Sorensen’s late night hours; 3) Dana Bash and Susanna Quinn’s Super Mom abilities WITHOUT Dana Bash and Susanna Quinn’s early morning wakeup calls; And – the thing I would most like in 2013: 4) to see my friends who cover politics without having to go to New Hampshire or Iowa in winter or Tampa or Charlotte in August to see them.”

Raptor Strategies’ David Bass:  “Shock and awe.”

FishbowlDC and Current TV’s Full Court Press Co-host Peter Ogburn:  ”Peace, love and harmony finally coming to the nation’s capital. Also, I’d like to see a fistfight between Tim Grieve and David Martosko.”

FishbowlDC and The Blaze‘ Eddie Scarry: “I’d like Politico to be the first news organization to genetically engineer a reporter with a Blackberry for genitals. Makes anonymous sourcing of political operatives that much easier.”

Queen Levine (a.k.a. radio correspondent Mark Levine): “In 2013, I’d like to see mediabistro get just a few basic facts right. Jon Stewart has proven you can be snarky and a journalist. (If you want to just make shit up, that’s fine too, but then you gotta know you’re doing it and be funny. Like the Onion. Good luck in 2013! And let me know if you need help understanding any of the hard words above. Like ‘journalist.’” (We suspect Levine’s snappy answer is in response to the drama queen’s appearance on our year-end list. He never misses a chance to brag about himself. Long live the queen!)

Current TV’s David Shuster: “In 2013, I want the baby Kera and I are having to come out healthy and happy and to possess a little more tact and patience than me — In other words, be like his/her mother.”

The Hill’s Managing Editor Bob Cusack: After about a year in the works, I finished a new screenplay this month (It’s not about politics). I hope to sell it in 2013. I also want to see Barney Frank get on Twitter in the new year.

Tommy Christopher, Mediaite White House Correspondent: “Besides fetch? In 2013 I really want a federal assault weapons ban (including semiautomatic handguns) with Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s NFA grandfather clause, and a federal firearms registry with a psychological fitness test, to happen.”

The Daily Caller‘s Jeff Poor: “Just off the top of my head, I’d like to see…1) Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher go away — go back to selling men’s suits or something 2) Political journalists to stop acting enamored with Robert Griffin, III and Bryce Harper as if they’re life-long Washington, DC sports fans 3) Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert to find Jesus or some other form of organized religion of his choosing and have a little love in his heart 4) Someone to remind me why BuzzFeed Politics exists.”

SiriusXM’s Julie Mason: “In 2013, Gov. Rick Perry needs his own talk show, a la Huckaboom (but sassier). There must be world recognition of the massive journalistic skills of Josh Rogin, Josh Lederman, Andrew Harnik and Meredith Shiner. We should also pause, as a nation, to admire Suzanne Malveaux‘s new, longer hairstyle. Because that shit is awesome. Also, my favorite shows need to quit the nine-month hiatus between seasons. That is really annoying.”

WaPo‘s Jennifer Rubin: “Real entitlement reform. Gumming up the Obamacare works. Republicans champion immigration reform.”

WJLA’s Steve Chenevey: “Can we extend the telecommuting concept to journalism? I’m all for home studios in 2013. Would love to get PR pitches more than a day in advance. And the freedom to critique viewers on their choice of outfit for the day. Not that I would ever do that, but overly opinionated viewers never seem to surprise me.”

See more wishes… Read more