Greg Gutfeld, host of Fox News’ “Red Eye” and co-host of “The Five,” took time off last week to care for his ailing mother, who he said on Twitter had recently undergone surgery.

Nobody knew what would transpire was a long Twitter fight and flight back to New York City with Oliver Willis, a fellow at the liberal Media Matters for America.

After Sen. John McCain‘s (R-Ariz.) appearance on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,”  in which he discussed the attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya, Willis sent out a series of sarcastic tweets about it. “Mr. President, on the morning of the attack, which aftershave did you use? Please name a specific brand,” said one tweet. “Mr. Vice President, the daily briefing says you had oatmeal that morning but you later told an aide you had cereal,” said another.

Gutfeld saw the tweets and pounced. “Hey Willis, do u have any knee-slapping tweets about Sandy Hook, you bumbling, irrelevant gasbag?” he asked.

Given that Media Matters’ sole purpose is to criticize Fox News and Fox News has long-since used the criticism as TV fodder, it’s only natural that a battle between Gutfeld and Willis ensued. Read more

Quotes of the Day: The V.P. Debate Edition

“Biden is better than Viagra for senior citizens #vpdebate” — ABC’s “The View” and Current TV’s Joy Behar.

Praise for Martha!

“Martha Raddatz already won this debate.” — lawyer and CNN Contributor Rachel Sklar.

“Can we have Martha do the debates at Hofstra and Boca, too?” — New York magazine’s John Heilemann.

“Hold Ryan’s feet to the fire Martha! That’s right!” — D.C. Councilman and former Mayor Marion Barry.

“Asking Martha Raddatz to moderate my Thanksgiving dinner.” — JRC’s Ryan Beckwith.

“Have we mentioned in the past 3 minutes what a great #VPdebate Martha Raddatz is running? Yep.” — Mother Jones.

“Martha Raddatz is doing a great job. Substantive and also maintaining control.” — NBC’s David Gregory.

“Holy smokes does @MarthaRaddatz know her facts or what?” — Photographer Lauren Burke.

Down with Martha!

It seems like whenever @PaulRyanVP is getting on a roll, Martha ‘Obama attended my wedding’ Raddatz cuts him off.” — The Daily Caller‘s Matthew Boyle, who added, “Martha ‘Obama attended my wedding’ Raddatz shouldn’t be allowed to moderate any more debates in future. She’s failed.”

“THE MARTHA AND JOE TAGTEAM INTERRUPTING RYAN.” — Conservative blogger Robert Stacy McCain.

“I’m sorry, after tonight I cannot support the Lehrer-Raddatz ticket.” — National Review‘s Jim Geraghty.

A compliment and an insult for Martha

“The thing about @MarthaRaddatz is she’s a reporter, not an anchor.” — Slate‘s Farhad Manjoo.

Debate fallout: Top Thoughts 

“Crossfire: VEEP edition.” — NYT‘s Nick Confessore.

“Old guys acting like a jerk ain’t cool. Think Romney’s jeans-wearing is also silly, for what it’s worth.” — Washington Examiner‘s Paul Bedard.

“Biden translation: I’ve been boys with Bibi since you were in diapers little buddy.” — CBS’s Kaylee Hartung.

“Biden is noticeably more loose. More folksy. Ryan has been solid..and his little interjection just now showed some life.” — NationalReviewOnline‘s Robert Costa.

“There is a real hair-product gap between the Obama-Biden and Romney-Ryan tickets.” — The New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza.

“Biden is seriously annoying. Shut up dude.” — The Daily Caller‘s Paul Conner.

“Biden basically uncorking every line liberals wanted Obama to use.” — Slate‘s Dave Weigel.

“Fair to say Biden is speaking with details and Ryan in broad platitudes. Reflects their backgrounds on this subject matter.” — HuffPost‘s Sam Stein.

“This is better than Jerry Springer!” — Reason magazine’s Peter Suderman.

“I think Biden thinks he had his Lloyd Bentsen ‘you’re no Jack Kennedy’ moment with his “you’re kennedy now?” line. He didn’t.” — NationalReviewOnline‘s Jonah Goldberg.

“It is frightening right now how much Joe Biden reminds me of my dad (also from Scranton)” — NYT‘s Ashley Parker.

“Amazing Ryan is keeping his cool. I’m not onstage and Biden is starting to piss me off.” — The Atlantic‘s Molly Ball.

“Biden is going full-Biden tonight.” — RealClearPolitics reporter Scott Conroy.

“Seriously, Biden is just schooling young Ryan…fun to watch tho” — Media Matters‘ Eric Boehlert.

“What’s weird: Biden a little too loose, Ryan a little too tight.” — WaPo‘s Chris Cillizza.

“Biden fueled up for debate last few days on M&Ms, animal crackers & Gatorade. Sugar high appeared to kick in around 8:59 ET”  — West Wing Report‘s Paul Brandus.

“You have to admit, Biden is on fire.” — UVA Political Science Prof Larry Sabato.

“The Biden smile. its like a thousand snarky hate daggers” — BuzzFeed Washington Bureau Chief John Stanton.

“I think they tightened @JoeBiden’s hair plugs a little too much tonight.” — TownHall‘s Derek Hunter.

“Biden has mastered the art of answering the subject (and not the question), which is very effective in debates.” — The Week.com‘s Marc Ambinder.

“I’m 47 and not rich. I’m going to need Social Security, fuckers.” — WashingtonStakeOut.com  blogger Sam Husseini, who is also Comm. Director for the Institute for Public Accuracy.

“This debate is terrible. It is not a matter of who wins. It is a matter of this is just the kind of politics people hate.” — GOP Pollster Dick Morris.

“How this debate differs from fish: It takes three days for a fish to start stinking.” — Reason magazine’s Nick Gillespie.

And now, Chris Cillizza for the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

“The pumpkin spice latte is the Raul Ibanez of coffee drinks. It’s not always around but when it is, it’s very, very good.” — WaPo‘s Chris Cillizza.

Photo Credit: A parade of compliments poured in for the above Reuters photograph of Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. 

MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough criticized the NYT on his program yesterday after the paper published an extensive report on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney‘s upper-income neighborhood in San Diego. He said the story was “an embarrassment” for the publication, alleging that NYT didn’t cover Sen. John Kerry‘s (D-Mass.) wealth to the same extent when he ran for president in 2004.

Politico‘s media reporter Dylan Byers wrote a post citing an NYT rep who provided four examples of the paper’s coverage of Kerry’s wealth. In a follow-up post he quoted Scarborough (who has his own Politico blog and regular column) doubling down on his criticism and dismissing the four stories provided by the Times as follows:

“They may have a database showing how many articles they did on each candidate. I have to talk extemporaneously for three hours a day. But the general impressions of people like myself and [MSNBC contributor] Mark Halperin, that does count in the perspective that active news consumers have.”

Despite the rock-solid defense of having to talk “extemporaneously for three hours a day” and having “general impressions,” criticism of Scarborough by other journalists came flooding in.

“MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough didn’t learn much from last week’s Politico misfire on the New York Times’s alleged bias in covering presidential campaigns,” WaPo‘s media blogger Erik Wemple wrote in a post. “Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen tried to make that case and ended up getting buried. Turned out that the pair hadn’t dug deeply enough into the archives to put together an airtight argument.”

On Twitter, NYT‘s Jim Rutenberg said, “debate is healthy, but if @JoeNBC wants to stand by verifiably false assertions about our covg then not much more 2 say.”

Also on Twitter, Media Matters‘ Eric Boehlert summarized Scarborough’s defense in his own words: “Shorter Joe Scarborough: I have nothing to back up my attack…”

In another tweet, Slate‘s Dave Weigel said, “Please note: *Feeling like* some paper is biased is not actually media analysis.”

On Salon, Alex Pareene wrote: “The ‘general impressions’ of vain, blathering idiots like Joe Scarborough and Mark Halperin certainly do count, because someone gave them a TV show, for some reason.”

Scarborough’s one lukewarm defense came from Byers who tweeted to Rutenberg, “I believe his point is it’s about a general impression, your database be damned.”

There is much talk about John Derbyshire‘s notoriously-racist column published in Taki last week. Not just because it was so nastily anti-black, but also because Derbyshire was fired from National Review as a result.

Derbyshire’s “latest provocation, in a webzine, lurches from the politically incorrect to the nasty and indefensible,” National Review Editor Rich Lowry declared in a post on Saturday. “So there has to be a parting of the ways.”

Though originally from the UK, Derbyshire lives on Long Island. His earliest column for National Review Online is from the year 2000. He hasn’t responded to a request for comment. He was with the publication since 1998.

Derbyshire’s column drew widespread criticism. In Washington, journos and political types weighed in over the weekend.

Politico‘s Alex Burns compared Derbyshire to D.C. Councilman Marion Barry, who recently caused a stir by commenting on Asians who open “dirty” stores in the District.

“I should be offended by this Derbyshire piece but it’s so incoherent that I can’t tell why. Probably my Negroid IQ”– The Atlantic‘s Ta0Nehisi Coates.

“Good news for Derbyshire: [Breitbart.com]  is always looking for race-baiting writers.”– MMfA’s Eric Boehlert.

“According to [Politico's Dylan Byers] Derbyshire’s column was “widely viewed as racist in nature.”– Metro Weekly‘s Chris Geidner in an apparently snarky tweet about Byers’s post on the column.

“I know I don’t,”– National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru responding to a tweet from ObsoleteDogma who asked if anyone at the publication wants “to be associated with someone who publishes racist trash like this.”

“At what age should parents have ‘the talk’ with their kids about John Derbyshire?– Former White House speechwriter Jon Lovett.

Some reaction from the comments section of the column:

• “[D]ownright disgusting way of messing up the kids,” one said.
• “Well, he’s done a public service, having the racists out themselves by allowing them to pretend to be ‘hard-headed clear thinkers,’ who extrapolate a mugging into a theory of eugenics,” said another.
• And, “Is there something statistically incorrect about this article?”

Quotes of the Day

“I just said something nasty to someone on Twitter. I should not have done it and I apologize.” — Peter Roff, U.S. News & World Report Contributing Editor.

What else could he say?

“Condolences to Andrew Breitbart’s friends and family today. He was a force of nature and a passionate foe.” — MMFA’s Eric Boehlert only tweet from Thursday.

Slate‘s Yglesias gets called c-word

“Look up cunt in the dictionary, and there’d be a picture of someone other than Yglesias. Because Ylglesias gives cunts a bad name.” — Anonymous journo Thursday to FishbowlDC after Slate‘s Matt Yglesias wrote this in response to Breitbart’s death: “Conventions around dead people are ridiculous. The world outlook is slightly improved with @AndrewBrietbart dead.” We received numerous reactions from Washington journalists to Yeglesias’ comment, including this one: “Should Slate fire him? This is beyond bad taste.”

AnonyMASS Tipster

“Your work product this afternoon is reporting that Ezra Klein is a smug douchebag and Gretchen Carlson wears short skirts. gotcha. Please, folks, I mean this … try harder. Your site used to have real news! Sad to see it in such a state of decline. Thanks.” — Thanks AnonymASS, you’re a real charmer! Your comments after reading one item are always appreciated.

Some journos initially thought Breitbart news was a hoax

“The ‘I didn’t believe Breitbart news until a REAL news org confirmed it’ talk is hilarious. REAL news orgs didn’t get the Weiner story.” — Slate‘s Dave Weigel.

In Memoriam…

“If there’s a Twitter in the afterlife, @AndrewBreitbart is retweeting every asshole thing being said about him.” — Mediaite White House scribe Tommy Christopher.

Convo between Two Journos

Reuters‘ Jack Shafer: “What does it say about Breitbart that the Twitterverse is skeptical about his death?” PJMedia’s Vodka Pundit Stephen Green: “It says that he was just 43. #Asshat.”

Quotes of the Day

A word to the wise: When pointing out another person’s stupid errors, don’t make one yourself (at least not in that moment). “Of course, is [sic] anybody actually edited @andrewbreitbart sites this kind of hilarity wouldn’t occur so regularly.” — Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert. Read what he links to here.

Sounds just like Howie…

“Just got email asking me to post pics of a model wearing a dress made of 1000+ condoms. At least this PR pitch is well protected.” — The Hill‘s Howeesha (a.k.a. Judy Kurtz).

Awful…just awful

“All I can promise you is that I believe she will be quite happy tomorrow night. … But I’m not going to — no more details.” — GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich on celebrating V-Day with Callista. More on this later as we delve into what we think the night entailed…

Valentine’s ‘hard’ mix up

Where President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama spent Valentine’s Day: Vermillion in Alexandria. The White House Pooler, Christian Science Monitor‘s David Cook, initially got it wrong when he reported that the Pool was holding at Hard Rock Cafe. Cook soon corrected the report — he was actually holding at Hard Times.

New media maven can’t sleep on Ambien

“Can’t sleep on Ambien. So I’m now on Twitter with zombie slow reactions. No good.” — Elizabeth, a.k.a. DCGOPGirl who describes herself like this: “NC girl making it as a DC politico. Former Cap Hill Press Secy turned new media maven. Crazy about GOP politics, Jr League & all things pink, green & pearls.”

Peter Ogburn contributed to this report.

Give Andrew Breitbart a plate of spare ribs and a goblet of red wine and he’s yours for as long as you want him. In fact, he’ll stay up until 5 or 6 in the morning telling you what he thinks about a whole host of things on his mind. Hey, if we’re going to do that, can we at least have some ribs and wine too?

For now, it’s 8 p.m. on Wednesday night — CPAC eve — and Breitbart, a publisher who runs six websites, is just getting warmed up. He’s at home at “The Embassy” (the townhouse he and his business partner, Larry, call “home” in Washington) for a book party on digital kids books that focus on family values like hard work and patriotism. Larry is a little freaked out about by my miniature blue notebook and pen but soon enough he gets over it. No one is talking about those kiddie books. Certainly not Breitbart.

He’s chilling in the parlor in a masculine rich brown leather armchair. His exquisite mop of gray curls sets off nicely against his attire, a pale blue button down, faded blue jeans and dark loafers, and his eyes, a crystalline blue.

For starters, Breitbart in person is not Breitbart online. He dominates every room he enters with his emotional and physical presence, but he’s warm and hospitable — and quite the goofball. He knows the perception is off. “All these bastards in media who meet me like me because they know I won’t lie,” he says. But not all like him, not even on the right, and he knows it. Hence the bodyguard he’ll have as he attends CPAC this week. He doesn’t like to think about danger too much. He jokingly mentions weapons he carries that include a “bazooka, a dog feces catapult and horse urine balloons.” He gives a nod to his publicist on the dog feces line and makes sure she thinks it’s funny. At two or three junctures in our conversation, he prefaces what he is about to say by declaring that THIS will be the most shocking thing I hear from him all night. In those moments, I brace myself for news that he once ate a live chicken including the beak and then he inevitably tells me something comparatively benign.

But Breitbart, even at his least shocking, is anything but benign…

Read more

Like ending world hunger or homelessness, Media Matters makes it a life mission to take down Fox News. And they often get discounted for being so ideological.

But today, despite ideological warfare, Eric Boehlert has a humorous outline of Fox News’ running commentary of President Obama‘s decision to take a vacation this summer to Martha’s Vineyard.

A favorite line… “I don’t begrudge the president a vacation. I want him to take a vacation. I think everybody needs a little time off. Even a cigarette I’d give him. But Martha’s Vineyard when the country is suffering? I don’t know, I’d rather see somebody down on a ranch in Texas. “(Judy Miller,  Aug. 20)

Read the rest here.

Quotes of the Day

Beauty and the Guido: “Colorado’s rocked so far! At the Steamboat Institute now and hung out with @michellemalkin yesterday.” — Washington’s version of “The Situation” Jason Mattera, Editor of Human Events, in a Friday tweet with the accompanying photograph. We prefer Mattera’s usual wife beater tank to this shapeless snow-patterned purplish T. It looks like he found the elusive Michael Stars – Grimace collection. They tried it once in the mid-90′s but never spoke of it again.

Media elitism

“I go to Whole Foods, other people go to Walmart. There’s a difference.” — The Daily Caller media writer Matt Lewis on media elitism and what it means on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” on Sunday in response to Texas GOP Gov. and presidential hopeful Rick Perry getting “pounded by the press.” Lewis remarked that this cultural bias is even more prevalent than a liberal bias. Later he opined that President Obama going to “hoity-toity” Martha’s Vineyard doesn’t make for good optics.

Astute observation

“CONNOISSEURS of Sunday-morning TV noticed that ‘This Week’ today revived the more urgent, David Brinkley-era opening music.” — Politico‘s Mike Allen in a weekend Playbook observation.

What is not journalism

“How sad that campaign ‘journalism’ has now devolved into, Is so-and-so going to run?? #thatsnotjournalism” — Media Matters‘ Eric Boehlert in a weekend tweet.

And this…

“This is par for the course for Politico. I brought this up on another story and they said they had it first but were just waiting to ‘report out the details.’ Politico, waiting to break news?” — Anonymous Tipster in response to our story, “Politico Behaves Unprofessionally.”

Hairless in D.C.

“There’s a laser hair removal Groupon for the Washington area twice a week, at least. At this rate, #DC should be hairless by 2013.” WaPo Express News Editor Sara Schwartz in a weekend tweet.

Future weatherman

“It’s raining it’s ass off in suburban MD/DC… yeesh!” — Washington Business Journal designer Tim Wong in a Sunday tweet.

En route to Mongolia

“You’ll next hear from us from Ulan Bator, something pooler never thought he’d have the chance to say just a few weeks ago.” — LAT‘s Mike Memoli in a Sunday night VPOTUS Pool Report from China. Ulan Bator is the capital of Mongolia.

Journo Love

“Whole lotta Twitter love for @SavannahGuthrie’s first time filling in on @MeetThePress today.” — NYT Brian Stelter in a Sunday tweet.

Where does Bret Baier shop?

A follower asks FNC’s Bret Baier: “Where do you purchase majority of your shirts/ties from? Good looking combos.” Baier replied, “Most are Brooks Brothers.”

Arianna tweaks Weiner

“And on the pretty geeky side of the news ledger, it was announced that ‘retweet’ and ‘sexting’ have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. No word on whether @RepWeiner feels validated.” – HuffPost/AOL Editor-in-Chief Arianna Huffington in her “Sunday Roundup.”

Seeing the glass half full…

“So the only good thing about waiting 20 minutes for a train is that I finally got to read about Kim kardashian’s over the top wedding.” — Netcentric editor and writer Elizabeth Brotherton in a weekend tweet. She was formerly an HOH writer for Roll Call.

The media critic

“Peggy Noonan’s wrong that Obama doesn’t have a solid base of people who ‘love’ him. Cheap shot w no data to back up” — NBC’s Domenico Montanaro in a Sunday tweet on WSJ Columnist Peggy Noonan, who appeared on NBC’s “MTP” on Sunday.

QUOTES of the DAY

The Daily Caller‘s Mary Katharine Ham: “4th of July nails. My toes are red.”

Thanksing the Press

“He will thanks [sic] the press and then take a few questions.” — Politico Playbook this morning explaining what Pentagon flack and former ABC Correspondent Geoff Morrell will do when bids everyone farewell today at his final press conference.

Good times: Journo has bright future as chef for drunken, hungry pals

“My drunk roommate assures me that if I fail at journalism, I have a bright future making him scrambled eggs at three in the fucking morning.” — Reason‘s Associate Editor Mike Riggs in a weekend tweet.

Ari warns mainstream press

“Prediction: MSM will try 2 ‘Palin’ Bachmann. Not sure what I think about her yet, but if press is unfair, I’ll like her more.” — Former George Bush Flack Ari Fleischer in a weekend tweet.

Gawking at Bachmann

“Liberals call Bachmann a ‘flake,’ what? She works v.v. hard, passionately and earnestly, to come up with her shit.” — Gawker Political Editor Jim Newell in a weekend tweet.

WaPo scribes are forced to belong to DCCC?

“This is *creative*: @DCCC fundraising e-mail says my membership (4949109!) has expired. Except never had a membership.” — WaPo‘s Aaron Blake in a weekend tweet. To which colleague Dan Balz remarked, “You too?”

The tears for Beck will roll

“If Glenn Beck doesn’t cry on camera this week I’m gonna lose a $10 bet. #FarewellWeek #FoxNews #tcot” — Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert in a weekend tweet. Tonight Boehlert and his colleagues will celebrate Beck’s departure at the MMFA “Bye Bye Beck” party. Beck won’t be there, but we hear they’ll be passing out miniature chalkboards (no, not really, but they could make for nice goody bag gifts.)

The Rambo of Journalism

“Sometimes I’ll write a horrendous email and send it just to use gmail’s undo feature. one day that’s gonna backfire.” — The Onion’s Director of Digital Baratunde Thurston in a weekend tweet. He’s based in Brooklyn, but has been known to frequent D.C.

A convo between one CBS journo and one CBS producer

CBS’s Christine Delargy: “Witnessed history today folks.” (This was in reference to a tweet by CBS White House Radio Correspondent Mark Knoller who reported that this was the first time that POTUS had played golf twice on both Saturday and Sunday in one weekend.)

CBS White House Radio Correspondent Knoller: “Well, you witnessed the motorcade, not the round of golf.”

Delargy: “One helluva motorcade @markknoller. Even gave you a shout-out in one of my pool notes today.”