The House voted on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, yesterday, and the Twittersphere noticed, with uncommonly long hashtag #ObamaCareInThreeWords trending through last night.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) kicked off the avalanche of left and right-wing-aimed Tweets with this:

Hey folks, #ObamaCareInThreeWords — go!

— Darrell Issa (@DarrellIssa) May 16, 2013

Well, “folks” from all over took to Twitter to describe Obamacare in (mostly) three words. Here are some of the top Tweets from inside the Beltway.

Vince Coglianese of The Daily Caller opted to make an observation about the hashtag itself instead commenting on the healthcare bill.

A Long-ass Hashtag #ObamacareInThreeWords

— Vince Coglianese (@TheDCVince) May 16, 2013

Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) decided the hashtag wasn’t long enough, so he made up a new one while dutifully informing Twitter users of the proper terminology.

Not So Affordable & Hurting Small Businesses.#Obamacareinthreewords #butidontcallitobamacarebecausethatispejorative #affordablecareact

— Rep. Scott Rigell (@RepScottRigell) May 16, 2013

Unfortunately for Rigell, the hashtag didn’t catch on.

WaPo blogger Greg Sargent made up a new word as to not go over the three-word limit.

Drove conservatives batsh*tcrazy #ObamacareInThreeWords

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 16, 2013

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The Media Critic

The new Prince book from Toure sounds interesting. – CNN’s Jake Tapper

Spring Fever

You guys, this is the last Friday of the year for which baseball is not an option. - Roll Call’s Meredith Shiner

Never Forget

The song “Friday” by Rebecca Black is two years old this month. – Politico’s Byron Tau

Conversations Between Two Journos

“Somewhere in my family’s junk there is a receipt, signed by Lincoln, for a bunch of fixed roads/sidewalks in dc. No joke.” – Politico’s Ben White

WaPo’s Plumline author Greg Sargent writes back, “uh, dude? might be worth digging that out.” White replied that he’s “been on hunt for some time.” Best of luck, Ben.

The Washington Examiner‘s Conn Carroll sent out two tweets this morning about state unemployment and labor unions and Greg Sargent, who mans WaPo‘s liberal Plum Line blog, saw it as the perfect opportunity for some trolling.

“FACT: 8 of the 10 states with highest unemployment have unionization rates above the national average,” Carroll tweeted. “FACT: 7 out of the 10 states with the highest unemployment rates are forced unionism states.”

Sarcastically, Sargent tweeted back, “FACT: 9 of the words in your last tweet had the letter ‘e’ in them.”

Sargent told FishbowlDC his intention…

Read more

On Friday morning, David Axelrod appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program and had his mustache shaved off. This all stems from an electoral bet between Axe and host Joe Scarborough. While Axelrod WON the bet, he agreed to shave the ‘stache anyway since Joe and Mika Brzezinski helped raise a million dollars for his charity. It’s the first time that Axelrod has had a hairless upper lip in 40 years.

Sure, it was a little hokey to see it all play out, but a million dollars for a charity is a BFD, so we can live with it.

Apparently, it’s too much for some people. One of them is WaPo’s liberal blogger, Greg Sargent.  Read more

Quotes of the Day — The Debate Edition

“Someone wrote me an email and said they thought the Secret Service was going to intervene.” — Politico‘s Mike Allen early this morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

By Far, Funniest Reaction of the Night

“Mitt shot his whole wad in the first debate.” — D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. Whoa, Eleanor, HUH?! WaPo‘s Mike DeBonis tried to come to her defense, saying, “To defend Eleanor Norton a bit, she’s an aficionado of antique muzzle loading firearms. I hope.”

Sweet and Sour Reaction to Candy

“Candy Crowley holding the reins tight tonight…no shenanigans in her house.” — NBC’s and E!’s Ryan Seacrest.

“Best & worst moment of debate was Candy correcting Romney – she was right, but I’m not sure she should have inserted herself in that way.” — Roll Call‘s Emily Pierce.

“Righties already trying to make this about the Qs and moderator.” — Politico‘s SENIOR political reporter Jonathan Martin in what may be his first understandable tweet in awhile. Congrats JMart!

“I’m terribly disappointed in Candy. I defended her today, and I was wrong.” — Houston Chronicle political blogger and Newsbusters’ Kathleen McKinley.

“Ok Candy, you better facilitate, not follow-up!” — Conservative blogger Matt Mackowiack.

“Candy Crowley proved why these media fact checkers are toxic liars.” — Breitbart.com’s John Nolte.

“(I worked with Candy Crowley at CNN and think she’s terrific)” — CBS News investigative journo Sharyl Attkisson.

“A lot of anger on the Twitters at Crowley for challenging Mitt. You see, that isn’t supposed to happen.” — WaPo lefty blogger Greg Sargent.

“I must say that if you aren’t drinking some Jack Daniels during this debate you really are missing something.” — Roll Call Columnist and Political Analyst Stuart Rothenberg.

“Who won the debate tonight? Candy Crowley. She knew her facts and made sure she pointed them out to her opponents. She’s got my vote.” — Author Jonathan Krohn.

Debate Recap: Top Quotes

“If Sec. Clinton is responsible for the security failure in Benghazi, who is responsible for 8 days of of b.s.about what happened that day?” — FNC’s Brit Hume.

“As a woman voter, I feel very wanted tonight!” — ABC talk show host Katie Couric.

“OMG. Panelist on FOX News just said ‘BULLSHIT!’” — ABC7′s Mike Conneen.

“I was filing during that Libya exchange, but holy living fuck.” — TPM‘s Brian Beutler.

“Candy Crowley halts Romney in his tracks, calling him out live in real time on an incorrect Libya statement.” — NYT‘s Ashley Parker.

“I’m excitable – but politics is about emotion as well as reason. My view is Obama halted Mitt’s momentum in its tracks.” — The Daily Beast‘s Andrew Sullivan.

“Watching the @politicolive show again on dc newschannell 8. Forget how fun it was to watch, albeit kind of a train wreck.” — QGA and longtime Senate flack Jim Manley.

“The town hall debate format makes me feel bad about the human condition, like that “What Would You Do” hidden camera show. #sighbinder” — Digital media exec Kenny Day.

“Bottom line: Obama was far more aggressive this time, these 2 men don’t like each other and this race is still a toss-up.” — The Hill‘s Managing Editor Bob Cusack.

“No one puts baby in a binder.” — National Journal‘s Chris Frates.

“Ok, goodnight everyone. tucking myself into my binder for some shuteye.” — AtlanticWire Senior Writer Jen Doll.

“Chris Matthews is wetting his pants in joy, gibbering like a meth freak on laughing gas.” — Conservative blogger and former TWTer Robert Stacy McCain.

“Bottom bottom line: Obama shows up big timme and wins. Is it enough to reverse the polarities?” — HuffPost‘s Howard Fineman.

“MSNBC fawning. Fox News fuming. A pox on both your houses.” — WaPo‘s Dan Zak.

“Love switching channels. MSNBC says clr Obama win, CNN, eh, slight Obama edge. Fox still talking about Benghazi.” — NYT‘s Jonathan Weisman.

“Did Van Jones just call Mitt Romney a ‘DOUCHE’ on CNN – @CNNSituationRoom? Wow, didn’t think that was permitted.” — former Eric Cantor Spokesman Brad Dayspring, who now works as senior adviser to the YG Action Fund.

Greta sees hot pink and blue

“Yes, it is true…both wives in a hot pink (or at least on my monitor it looks like hot pink but faces can be bluish on my tv monitor)” — FNC’s Greta Van Susteren.

Important Q to Ponder: “Do I have time to make pierogies before this debate? Yes, yes I do!” — The Washington Examiner‘s Nikki Schwab.

Something else to Ponder: “How, in a country as powerful and dynamic as ours, could bindersfullofwomen.com not already be taken?” — WSJ‘s Neil King.

The Observer

“You keep it crazy, Bobby Jindal.” — Ronan Farrow, son of Mia and Woody Allen, reacting to post debate interviews from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Farrow is a writer, human rights lawyer and formerly Sec. of State Hillary Clinton‘s Special Adviser for Global Youth issues.

And another journo eats chicken…

“Chicken in pot, my debate night tradition. Thanks, Herbert Hoover!” — blogger and pundit Craig Crawford. Anonymous writes in, “That’s a sweet tradition, but his shicken looks like a dog’s dinner.”

Good rap quote from whitest guy in Washington

“Mystikal: That’s right my meat and potatoes come from my lyrical label I throw my rhymes for No Limit like Jeff George throw for the Raiders” — NBC’s Luke Russert.

Ouch!

“Joe Scarborough will suck-up to a guest, then trash-talk them 24 hours later. Tells you all you need to know…#MSNBCfail” — The Daily Caller TV Reporter Jeff Poor.

Peter Ogburn and Eddie Scarry contributed to this report.

While hardcore righties and hardcore lefties go back and forth today trying to spin how their candidate did at Wednesday night’s debate, one thing is clear. Barack Obama didn’t “WIN” the debate last night. (Assuming ANY debate is actually “winnable.”)

We found it interesting that in the hours after the debate, many of the establishment liberals that we have grown used to hearing defend the President time and time again, really owned up to the fact that…  Obama didn’t show up prepared for last night’s debate. Either that or just genuine shock that Mitt Romney really came off with a strong showing. MSNBC contributor Jonathan Capehart tweeted, “Romney did what he needed to do in the debate. POTUS was good but not at his best.” Greg Sargent, from WaPo’s Plumline blog echoed Capehart saying, “Romney accomplished what he had to do tonight, and then some.” Even Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos admitted, “Nobody likes seeing a prevent defense in action, and that’s what Dems saw tonight.”

The REAL battle between pundits seems to have turned to “How much do these debates even matter?” It won’t come as a shock that Obama supporters think that debates matter very little. Personally, my favorite is from prominent Obama supporter, Samuel L. Jackson, who tweeted, “What Really happened tonite?! NOBODY changed who they’re voting for!! NOBODY!!! ” Arianna Huffington says, “And now begins the overreaction.”

Say hello to Greg Sargent. He’s the guy manning WaPo‘s liberal “Plum Line” blog. Sargent joined WaPo in 2009, after having worked at Talking Points Memo, New York magazine and The Observer.

In the past, FishbowlDC has documented (at great length) the Twitter brawls between Sargent and his conservative counterpart Jennifer Rubin. He typically doesn’t respond to any of our comment requests on the battles, but luckily we got him to partake in the FishbowlDC interview.

Let’s begin…

If you were a carbonated beverage, which would you be?

Scotch and soda.

How often do you Google yourself?

Relentlessly. How else can I keep up with all that abuse?

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever said to an editor/boss (or vice versa)?

Take your butter and shove it! (To my boss at a restaurant where I worked as a busboy in my teens — he’d criticized me for giving customers too much butter with their bread.)

Who is your favorite working journalist and why?

Pleading the Fifth.

Do you have a favorite word?

Yes!

Who would you rather have dinner with – FNC’s Bill O’Reilly, NBC’s Brian Williams or ABC’s Diane Sawyer? Tell us why.

Bill O’Reilly. I want to get a close-up view of his fascinating case of Soros paranoia.

The Earth’s human population is dying out and you must save it. You will spend a romantic evening with either CNN’s Candy Crowley or FNC’s Greta Van Susteren (significant others will understand). Who will it be?

Sorry, no can do. My significant other is not quite that understanding.

What swear word do you use most often?

Fuckshitfuckshitfuckshitfuckshit

You’ve just been told the big news: You get to have your own Sunday morning talk show. Who will be on your roundtable? (Pick four journalists or pundits types.)

Charles Dickens, George Orwell, Samuel Clemens, and William Lloyd Garrison.

On a serious note for a moment, if you could have dinner with a person who has died, who would it be?

Abraham Lincoln.

Who is your favorite Boybander and why? (Ezzy, Hazy, Weigel, Attackerman, Beutler)

Beutler. He gets what my son is about. And he likes chess.

When you pig out what do you eat?

Chicken tacos with coleslaw and jalapeno/cilantro salsa.

What is your absolute favorite item of clothing in your closet? We want the fabric, the brand, the store and the price if possible. If it’s a certain kind of underwear we don’t want to know about it.

My Led Zeppelin t-shirt. But I’m not sure what it’s made of at this point.

Find out what bodily function led to Sargent getting a ticket after the jump…

Read more

Both President Obama and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney have had their say on the Libya incident, in which a U.S. ambassador was killed Tuesday. Now several bloggers have loaded their guns and are pointing them at the news media.

Romney was widely criticized for his comments on the Obama administration’s handling of the attacks. He said the administration’s own response to the attacks was an “apology” for America.

NYT editorialized that Romney “showed an extraordinary lack of presidential character by using the murders of the Americans in Libya as an excuse … to attack Mr. Obama…” WaPo called Romney’s critique of Obama’s foreign policies “crude.” USA Today said Romney “erred in moving so quickly to make political hay of an unfolding tragedy.”

In a post today, RedState‘s Erick Erickson argues that the media, led by “group think,” wanted the “focus on Romney” rather than what he saw as the president’s own shortcomings on foreign policy. He took names:

“I get that Chuck Todd is a former Democrat hill staffer. I get that the Politico is riddled with Democrats, some former activists and a former staffer for Debbie Wasserman Schultz. I get that Michael Scherer from Time magazine is a left wing reporter for Mother Jones and Salon.com turned respectable, “objective” journalist. I get that Ben Smith, leading up Buzz Feed, is a left wing journalist paraded about as if he is some sort of objective reporter at a trendy site full of cat photos. [Editor's Note: Totally forgot to include Journolist and have updated to include it] I get that precious Ezra Klein started Journolist so reporters and political operatives could collaborate on the news and narrative and now he sits at the Washington Post and gets trotted out as a fact checker.”

Erickson, however, does credit Slate‘s Dave Weigel for writing that Romney’s comment wasn’t a gaffe, but a consistent view on foreign policy.

Over at WaPo‘s Right Turn blog, Jennifer Rubin largely made the same argument as Erickson: The collective media didn’t concentrate on the real issue at hand, the death of an ambassador, a delayed response from the White House. “What [Romney] said was valid then, as it remains valid in retrospect…” Rubin wrote today. In a separate post Rubin took another swipe at the media, arguing that conservatives have not turned against Romney as some have suggested. “The mainstream media… decided that Romney was ‘isolated’ or in trouble with Republicans,” she wrote. “Perhaps the media don’t know very many conservatives. Or perhaps they thought a few moldy Beltway insiders were representative of the party at large. … If the media are going to rally to Obama, then, by gosh, conservatives are going to rally to Romney.”

Rubin’s liberal counterpart, Greg Sargent … Read more

Quotes of the Day

LOCKED OUT: WaPo’s Dana Milbank: Mayhem at #dnc2012. Hundreds of delegates, journalists locked out of arena.

Penis sighting

“So yeah. Definitely just walked in on some dude in the bathroom with his pants around his ankles staring in the mirror #dnc2012” — BuzzFeed Washington Bureau Chief John Stanton.

WTF Mars Mention of the Evening: “I always figured if Bill Clinton landed on Mars, he would know how to do it. He would know how to reproduce. He would know everything. He’d just instinctively know how to talk to people…the martians.” — MSNBC’s Chris Matthews at 12:53 a.m. opining on Clinton’s vast reproduction knowledge that extends beyond our solar system. Please, someone put Matthews to bed (no pun intended).

Bill Clinton Speech Fallout

“A significant part of this is off prompter. He is using it as notes.” — TIME‘s Michael Scherer.

“The prompter has stopped rolling as Clinton goes off book.” — BuzzFeed‘s Zeke Miller.

“Take away the TelePrompTer, bite his ankle, throw a rat down his trousers, it only raises his game.” — Editor of The New Republic Franklin Foer.

“Bill Clinton is totally ghost ridin’ the script right now.” — Jamelle Bouie, writer for The American Prospect and fellow at the Nation Institute.

“The constant camera flashes in here are going to send Bubba into a seizure #dnc2012″ — Stanton.

“Bubba’s hands are shaking.” — HuffPost‘s Jen Bendery.

“I think Bill Clinton is the gun you bring to a knife fight.” — Metro Weekly Co-publisher Sean Bugg.

“Bill Clinton looks great. @peta may be right about the benefits of a vegan diet.” — HuffPost Deputy Editor Erin Ruberry.

“Man, Clinton is happier than a pig in Arkansas you know what.” — James Oliphant, Deputy Editor, National Journal magazine.

“Clinton is the master. He makes a speech to an enormous crowd feel like a personal talk.” — LAT‘s David Horsey.

“I really don’t understand reporters who think this is too long for a politician to be trying to talk to voters about policy.” — WaPo‘s Ezra Klein.

“This speech was killing it at 15 mins. Now, it’s bordering on a hostage situation.” — Co-host of MSNBC’s The Cycle S.E. Cupp.

“This is moving from ‘greatest speech ever’ to gong territory pretty fast.” — BuzzFeed Political Editor Ben Smith.

“They’re going to need a crowbar to pry Bill away from that podium.” — NYT Op-ed Columnist Charles Blow.

“There’s no way Rahm Emanuel actually thought ‘a broken clock is right twice a day’ was that funny.” — National Review‘s Jonah Goldberg.

“This is like watching a good lawyer defending a guilty man.” — Former Clinton pollster Dick Morris.

“Poor fact checkers, now they gotta spend the night studying 52 years of employment data” — Craig Crawford.

“Same R bloggers who were touting Clinton as the ‘good’ Dem for weeks suddenly talking about sex scandal and perjury again.” — WaPo‘s Greg Sargent.

The Name Dropper

“Caroline Kennedy just walked into our booth. Interview w @DavidMuir #abcworldnews” — ABC News’ Rick Klein.

Dirty jokester

“PLEASE tell me that Sandra Fluke isn’t wearing a blue Gap dress tonight.” — NRA News’ Cameron Gray in a tweet on the night former Prez Bill Clinton is to speak.

INTO THE POOL: “Oops! A wet former treasury secretary Bob Rubin after falling into a pool at a fancy cocktail party in Charlotte.” — Politico‘s Lois Romano with accompanying photograph.

Peter Ogburn contributed to this report. Above black and white photograph by Roll Call’s Meredith Shiner.

There’s probably no love lost between Breitbart News‘ Tony Lee and WaPo “The Fix’s” Chris Cillizza, because there was probably no love there to begin with.

Last night Lee, lover of all things Sarah Palin, shot off tweets aimed at Cillizza. They were in response to a comment Cillizza made about Palin being unable to “let criticism roll off her back.”

“Says thin-skinned MSMer,” Lee chimed in. Cillizza didn’t respond, but why should that matter to Lee? Palin’s biggest fan boy continued:

• WTF do u want Palin to do? Not call y’all/GOP [establishment] out on groupThink, packMentality, spoonFed, cocktailCircuitSpin/bullying? Child, please.
• Sorry the 5 GOP consultants y’all pass around to “report” on conservatives like I would on gymnastics don’t defend her. Tea Party does.
• Sorry if criticism was too harsh. Hope u can let it roll off your back. Palin can’t call her GOP [establishment] office so she has to defend herself.
• Just remember, [Cillizza] accused Palin/tea party without any evidence of being responsible for Giffords shooting. Won’t be forgotten. Capeash?

Lee couldn’t point to any specific time Cillizza accused Palin or the Tea Party of being responsible for the Gabby Giffords shooting. In fact, in a column last year Cillizza wrote that “many on the left unfairly blamed Palin for somehow inciting the gunman.”

But there was a dash of irony: “In a funny/pathetic development, [Cillizza] has blocked me after 5 mild tweets after he said Palin can’t take criticism,” Lee tweeted, with the hashtag #pobrecita (Spanish for “poor thing”).

We asked Cillizza if he blocked Lee because of the criticism, and why not engage in an argument like his colleagues, professional arguers Greg Sargent and Jennifer Rubin. Cillizza never responded, which is usually the case unless he wants something or wants Politics & Pints trivia night info published.

Lee, on the other hand, had a lot to say. “He blocked me because the truth hurts,” Lee said. “People like [Cillizza] mistake conventional wisdom for intelligence like people in D.C. often mistake activity for achievement… Palin can’t win when The Fix (pun intended) is in against her.”

As to why Cillizza didn’t argue back instead of blocking, Lee said, “People like [Cillizza] are MSM bullies who gang up on people like Palin because it’s cool to do so in their elite media circles.” He added, “When he got figuratively punched in the nose and called out, his first instinct — like with all bullies — was to to run away (or block).”