By Eddie Scarry and Betsy Rothstein

The New Republic celebrated its relaunch last night at Bibiana Restaurant where politicos and journalists from print and TV mingled with bigwigs like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.J.) and Americans for Tax Reform Prez Grover Norquist over hors d’oeuvres and an open bar. The highlight of the evening: Answering the question, “Who is Franklin Foer?”

Meanwhile, we spoke to Publisher and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, who was all smiles and relaxed. “I’m feeling super exited, energized,” he said, as we cornered him at the bar. “It’s a big moment for us.” Asked if he’s been sleeping, he replied, “I will sleep tonight.”

At around 7:30 p.m. FishbowlDC approached a man with glasses who we mistook for NYT‘s Nate Silver. We were all ready to ask if he was excited to be in the same room as Politico‘s Dylan Byers, who during the presidential election questioned whether Silver was a “one-term celebrity.”

The mystery man in question had a laugh with two other male attendees before denying that he was Silver. Except then he said he was Silver. Then said he wasn’t. Then someone else said he was. Finally, he identified himself as Franklin Foer, editor of TNR (pictured above). But by that point, we didn’t believe that either.

After consulting Google images, it was revealed that he was indeed Foer. It was our mistake, though Foer did acknowledge that he shares “some Semitic features” with Silver.

In a party speech, Hughes said the challenge ahead is to “produce a magazine 20 times a year that is as good” as the relaunch issue, which features an interview with President Obama. He called the TNR team “the best in the business” and said he wants the magazine to “become financially sustainable in the coming years.” In a moment that drew audible awes from the crowd, he admitted, “The day that Frank Foer agreed to come back to TNR was one of the best days of my life.”

Who showed up? See more pictures. Read more

When we first showed up to last night’s screening of ZeroDarkThirty at the Newsuem, Politico‘s Tim Mak was persuading a press handler to let him inside the event. He had a ticket in hand but wasn’t on the list.

“There are already two others from Politico on our list,” the handler told Mak. A few minutes later, however, we spotted a happy Mak walking around with what appeared to be a glass of champagne in hand. The crisis wherein Politico would only have two reporters covering an event was averted.

Much of the news media who showed up to the screening weren’t as lucky. They (FishbowlDC included) weren’t allowed in to see the actual movie, a film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and were limited to red carpet coverage.

Still, there was plenty of weirdness to see.  Read more

Late last week we asked readers to submit new, ingenious questions for our Friday FishbowlDC Interview. The prize? Tickets to tonight’s screening of Nat Geo‘s “Seal Team Six.” Your names will be sent to the proper authorities. Tickets will be at Will Call. The movie begins at 7 p.m.

Without further ado, here are the winners. Each wins a pair of tickets to the movie and reception at the Newseum. All questions will appear in future FishbowlDC interviews. Congratulations to all!

1. Daphne Domingo: ”What’s on your Bucket List? What items have you crossed off from the list (recently) and what do you hope to cross off soon?”

2. Betsy Schroeder: “What is your go-to dance move? (You can really tell a lot about a person!)”

3. A woman calling herself “Gloria Borger” writes in: “Tell the story of the time you were most drunk in a professional setting. And (assuming you didn’t throw up), who would you most have liked to barf on?” We don’t believe it’s the CNN Gloria Borger. Still, we like the question. We’re checking in on who we think is the fake Gloria for a real name so “she” can win the tickets.

4. Politico publicist Olivia Petersen: “Have you ever become starstruck around a celebrity?” And, “Have you ever become starstruck around a celebrity?”

5. Katherine Trujillo writes, “If you could supplant the setting for the Osama Bin Laden raid from Pakistan to any other locale–a different time, a new place, heck you could even shift the ideologies of the parties involved–what would would the setting be and what soundtrack would you have blasting in the background?”

Despite the cancellation of CNN’s “John King, USA” and the recent announcement by Worldwide CEO Jim Walton that he’s a goner by the end of the year, the CNN DC bureau is trying to remain relevant. So last week they shot a pilot.

Could this be the shot in the arm they need?

The show is called “Unconventional Wisdom,” and is a pet project of CNN’s managing editor Mark Whitaker, who oversees the network’s program development unit.

One of the participants is Gloria Borger, CNN’s Queen of Conventional Wisdom. Shot in the DC’s bureau glitzy new studio, another CNN’er involved is legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

Among the bigwigs involved in the pilot is Eric Sherling, CNN’s director of DC Programming, and Amy Entelis, who joined CNN in January as Senior Vice President for Talent and Content Development for CNN Worldwide.

Memo to Mark, Amy and Eric: you better hope the pilot tickles the fancy of Walton. The last time CNN’s remarkably boring DC bigwigs shot a pilot, the reconstituted “Capital Gang,” a typical inside-the-Beltway show that so awful Walton couldn’t stomach 10 minutes of it and reamed out the executives assembled, got up, and left.

Shortly thereafter in March, CNN announced longtime employee Sue Bunda, executive VP of content development and strategy, left to pursue other opportunities. In fact, she was forced out after the horrible “Capitol” pilot. Four months later, her chief lieutenant, Randy Subarsky, vice president of development, was told she was toast but was allowed to finish out the year. Also shown the door was DC bureau chief David Bohrman, now president of Current TV.

Better make the show shine, Mark, Amy and Eric. Your future boss could be watching!

(A Sprinkling of Things We Think You Ought to Know…)

Network Anchors Shilling for Candidates – It’s not what it sounds like. A new story in the Columbia Journalism Review and linked to by HuffPost examines political candidates and their use of news clips that feature anchors delivering stories that show their opponents in a negative light. While this isn’t something new, the scale of which this is being used is much bigger. Just a few months ago, when Newt Gingrich was putting the pressure on Mitt Romney, the Romney campaign released an ad featuring nothing more than NBC’s Tom Brokaw delivering the news that Gingrich had been found guilty of ethics violations. Brokaw spoke out against it. But the tactic proved so effective that Romney deployed it again against Rick Santorum. An ad featuring footage of CNN’s Gloria Borger reminded Pennsylvania voters that they had already thrown Santorum out of office aired 177 times in ONE DAY in Pennsylvania and would have aired many more if Santorum hadn’t dropped out.

I C&*t Believe This Happened – It wasn’t so long ago that we reported on the Daily Caller’s Michelle Fields being called “a cunt” by an Occupy protester. We can only hope that she doesn’t find the word TOO offensive, because she was exposed to the mother of all dirty words again last week. As we ramped up to the hysteria surrounding Kim Kardashian at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Fields tweeted “Sorry. I’m a Kardashian hater.” This did not sit well with the army of Kim K fans on the internet who began attacking Fields. One member of the Kim Army, @SheivaG, told Fields “dont worry im sure people hate you too .” That then prompted a Fields Fan to reply, “@SheivaG @MichelleFields, you are a CUNT. Don’t be jealous Michelle .” Fields did not reply to that comment (obviously).

West Wing Reunion – The cast of The West Wing reunited for a good cause in a new video on Funny or Die. It’s for a public service announcement encouraging people to walk 30 minutes each day. The video features Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Dulé Hill, Joshua Malina, Melissa Fitzgerald and William Duffy in their first appearance together in five years. It should come as no surprise that the video relies heavily on the “walk and talk”, one of the trademarks of the former TV show.

Jordin Sparks

At Childhelp’s “Capitol CAREaoke” charity event last night, the Fox News crew narrowly beat CNN’s team in most money raised.

FNC’s Shannon Bream, Jennifer Griffin, Jake Serwer, Lanna Britt and Fox Business’ Rich Edson were joined by local Fox reporter Melanie Alnwick to sing “Don’t Stop Believing.”

CNN’s Dana Bash, Lisa Desjardins, Lisa Sylvester, Jill Chappel, Gloria Borger, Peter Morris and Athena Jones performed a sloshy rendition of “Sweet Caroline.”

As Glittarazzi‘s Greg Blakey put it: “Fox did a good ass job.”

ABC 7′s Rebecca Cooper founded the event and told FBDC she started the fundraiser five years ago as an alternative to the usual stuffy black-tie events in Washington. She said they intended for members of Congress to be the performers, but the ones who agreed to sing got cold feet. “So at the last minute I had to recruit all my friends in journalism,” Cooper said. She told us Chris Matthews and his wife Kathleen have been two of the events’ “worst singers.”

Before the karaoke started, R&B singer Jordin Sparks, a celebrity ambassador to Childhelp, posed for pictures and took questions from the media. During the photo op a friend nearby alerted her that she had lipstick on her teeth. STOP THE PRESSES. “Everyone, Photoshop the lipstick off my teeth!” Sparks instructed after clearing it off.

Sen. Jon Kyl

Some attendees participated in a silent auction, which featured two tickets to a Madonna concert and two porcelain miniature lions (valued at $900), among other items.

Fresh FM’s Tommy McFly, Kelly Collis and Jen Richer performed “Love Shack” and thought it would be a good idea to toss frisbees into the audience, which was full of wine glasses and dinner plates. Can you say DUNCE?

The event drew in a total of $310,000 in donations.

Notables

ABC 7′s Kendis Gibson, Natasha Barrett, Kris Van Cleave and Pamela Brown; WRQX’s Aly Jacobs, Brooke Ryan and Chilli Amar; D.C. Councilman Jack Evans; NASCAR’s Paulie Harraka; Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.); LushClick‘s Elizabeth Manressa; Pamela’s Punch‘ Pamela Sorensen; Kate Michael of “K Street Kate”; and former Politico reporter Kiki Ryan, now with “Komen for the Cure.”

Quotable

“$18 million for charity at 10 years old? That’s fuckin’ insane.” — Random attendee remarking on child prodigy and violinist Brianna Kahane who performed at the event and has raised that much money for charity.

HBO’s Game Change came to Washington last night, perhaps in more ways than one. Politicians, their aides and reporters came together last night at the Newseum for a star-studded evening to celebrate the now famed book by NY Mag’s John Heilemann and TIME‘s Mark Halperin. On hand was Julianne Moore, who plays former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and producer Tom Hanks.

Also dotted in the crowd were network stars like the inseparable Mika Brzezinksi and Joe Scarborough of MSNBC (pictured above). The pair mingled at the cocktail party. Once in their seats, they rose twice — once to say hello to Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson and then a second time. Mika returned with little slices of bread, which she shared with Joe. Then 15 minutes into the movie, they bolted for the door.

Before the screening, reporters convened on the ground level for what turned out to be one of the sanest red carpets we’ve seen in a long time thanks to SKDKnickerbocker. Check-in was smooth and drama free. Reporters appeared to quietly get the interviews they needed and none of the cameramen were shoving or stressed out. Unlike some of these celeb events, the scene never turned into a brawl. Guests received fancy chocolate on the way out.

Halperin and Heilemann were the belles of the ball last night. Halperin explained that he and Heilemann were not close before writing the book. “We sure are now,” he said. ” We had never even written a shopping list together. Now we’re joined at the hip. We debate, but our general view of journalism is simpatico.” Asked who is his favorite star in the movie, he replied, “I love all our children equally.” Both men are tall, but Heilemann towers over everyone he encounters, especially Game Change scriptwriter Danny Strong. Halperin is dark-haired and talks in soundbites. Heilemann is bald and speaks off the cuff.  While in a press gaggle, Heilemann joked that he likes to rest drinks on Danny’s head.

The Hill‘s Managing Editor Bob Cusack got quite a jolt to see himself in the film as an extra — well, he’s 98 percent certain it’s him. He’s something of a professional extra (he was also in “Clear and Present Danger”). “I was sitting right behind Woody Harrelson as a bar patron,” he told FBDC. “Spent my life preparing myself for that half a second. I think I nailed the scene.”

Heilemann and Strong

Luke Russert

Spotted in the crowd…

Read more

To kick off its Super Tuesday coverage, CNN will host its first-ever online election roundtable today at noon. Voters are invited to join Wolf Blitzer, Gloria Borger, Peter Hamby and political analysts Donna Brazile and Ari Fleischer for the first in a new series of web video chats about the candidates, issues and elections. If you’d like to submit a question, go to cnn.com/roundtable and sign up for one of the slots. Afterwards, you can join CNN’s political team for a 30-minute conversation, which will be live streamed on CNN.com and on CNN Mobile.

Today we check in with the Sunday morning shows to find out how many trouser snakes will appear on the programs. CNN’s “Reliable Sources” also often invites on two female guests. It comes as no surprise that NBC’s “The Chris Matthews Show” is consistently the fairest of them all: two men, two women.

NBC’s “Meet the Press”: 1

Ted Koppel, Special Correspondent, NBC News, Lisa Myers, Investigative Correspondent, NBC News, Alex Castellanos, Republican Strategist, Chuck Todd, Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent, NBC News

CBS’s “Face the Nation”: 1

John Dickerson, CBS News Political Director
Norah O’Donnell, CBS News Chief White House Correspondent

ABC’s “This Week”: 1

Diane Sawyer, Anchor, World News, ABC
George Stephanopoulos, Anchor, Good Morning America, ABC News
Jake Tapper, Senior White House Correspondent, ABC News
Jonathan Karl, Senior Political Correspondent, ABC News
John Berman, Correspondent, ABC News

NBC’s “The Chris Matthews Show”: 2

Major Garrett, NJ
Kelly O’Donnell, NBC News
David Ignatius, WaPo
Gloria Borger, CNN

CNN “Reliable Sources”: 2

Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg
John Harris, Politico
Matt Lewis, The Daily Caller
John Harris, Politico
Rachel Sklar, Mediaite
Robert Thompson, Syracuse University

FNC’s “Fox News Sunday”: We’ll scrounge for this and get it to you as quickly as we can.

Quotes of the Day

The Keen Observer

“Did Ari Fleischer come directly from a crack house? I’ve got Samsonites smaller than those bags under his eyes.” — Reason Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Nick Gillespie. Gillespie was on quite the roll. He also wrote, CNN’s “John King = generic human Ambien.” And this: “Gergen thinks in full fragments,” referring to CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen. And this: “Listening to most dull pundits is like drinking from a broken water fountain; listening to Gergen like drinking from broken fire hydrant!”

More on Ari…

“I think I speak for everyone still awake when I say we need a closer shot of Ari’s face.” — The New Yorker‘s Washington Correspondent Ryan Lizza.

Newt’s split personality

“Thing about Newt Gingrich is you never know who is going to show up. Right? It could be the good Newt, the smart Newt, the full of good ideas Newt, or it could be the negative, nasty, anti-media Newt Gingrich. I think we saw the first Newt Gingrich.” — CNN’s Gloria Borger.

Uh oh.

“Troubling metaphor? While frantically filing for second edition, cleaning staff turns out the lights in the bureau.” — USA Today’s Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page. About two hours earlier there were also difficulties. She wrote, “Our CNN feed keeps flickering on and off. This could make covering the debate more, um, difficult.”

What does a male sports anchor know about lipstick?

“Wow, Bachman went extra heavy on the lipstick .. #toomuchmakeup” — NBC4 sports anchor Dan Hellie on GOP Presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann.

A reader writes in…

“Betsy, sweetheart, you need therapy. Please don’t try to work out your issues on your blog. It’s sad to watch, honestly. Take care.” –Sent to us by am anonymous reader shortly after we published “Why Washington D.C. Gossip Sucks” regarding the self-analysis of The UnReliable Source in a TBD story. Hmmm…fishy. Wonder who could have written that, someone with the initials A.A.? Read the item that incited this here.

Debate Bloopers by FishbowlMatt

“Herman Cain just called @wolfblitzercnn ‘Blitz’ instead of ‘Wolf’ Oops.”

“Oh Santorum! Africa’s not a country. #samedifference?”

“Call me whatever you want.” — CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to CNN’s John King post debate.

Idiot Watch

“Proof many Ron Paul fans are stupid? I tweet one thing about Ron Paul tonight, it’s positive, and Paul fans complain.” — Editor-in-Chief of RedState.com and CNN Contributor Erick Erickson.

Pick one: The Debate or Dancing With the Stars?

“Wonder what % of #CNNdebate viewers flip to #DWTS. Afterall, very similar: voting system bureaucracy, dancing around issues, fake hair/smiles.” — WJLA-TV reporter Mike Conneen.

National Press Club Exec. Dir. strikes back against suspended member

“It’s not like Sam Husseini can go to the White House, Congress or the State Department and ask a question. We’re about the only place in town he can go and ask a question. We are his meal ticket. For him to say we’re censoring is ridiculous.” — National Press Club Executive Director William McCarren on club member Sam Husseini‘s suspension and charge that the club is censoring him. Husseini was suspended after he allegedly behaved in a disruptive manner at a recent press conference with a Saudi prince. Missed the report published late Tuesday? Read here.