Ex-Politico staffer Karin Tanabe revealed last night that there will be a sequel to her fictional book The List. “There’s got to be a sequel,” she said at a party celebrating the publication of her first book.

Though The List is a kind of fictional tell-all about Tanabe’s tenure at Politico, several current staffers still showed up to offer congratulations. Former employees showed up as well, including Kendra Marr Chaikind, who was fired from the publication in 2011.

“I wrote it really fast in secrecy,” Tanabe said in a short speech to the room of 70-ish attendees. She started it in the summer of 2011 while still working at Politico. “I was terrified,” she said.

Tanabe acknowledged other Politico “survivors” in the room (some of whom could be heard trading jokes about Politico) and said her book is about “paying homage” to reporters working in today’s new media environment. Of new media, she said, “It’s easier to make your career but also break your career.”

At one point, what appeared to be the cast of D.C. Housewives swooped in and had their photo snapped by the photographer. Among the women (and wearing all sorts of furs and leathers) were… Read more

Wednesday morning was not a calm scene inside Politico‘s newsroom. While at least three members of the newsroom staff have lost their jobs as of late, due to, in some cases, merit and the natural course of restructuring post election, some rank and file reporters and even those in higher posts, are exhibiting a case of the jitters, wondering, are we next?

Fishbowl sources inside Politico informed us that at least three reporters and one editor were spotted cruising job listings on Wednesday morning, with many whispering and worrying about the recent job cuts. “They don’t seem to understand how this method of firing people and letting the rumor mill flourish is making a lot of people unsettled,” a Politico insider told us strictly on condition of anonymity. “A lot of fear. What’s worse, there’s a sense that the bosses LIKE the fear. Strange way to motivate a staff that has helped make you rich.”

But a Politico source in a leadership role tells us their fears are unfounded, that 2013 will be a year of growth and job security. What’s more, as we’ve reported, 30 positions on both the news and business side, are expected to be filled. And Editor-in-Chief John Harris confirms the sentiment.

“Politico has very robust plans for growth ahead of us in the new year and we expect everyone who is currently on our staff to be participating in a number of new initiatives that we will be undertaking in the new year,” Harris told FishbowlDC in a phone interview.

So should reporters just take a chill pill? To put this in some context, Politico recently parted ways with a small number of employees — Photographer Jay Westcott and Politico Pro technology writer Jess Kamen and others.  As it was explained to us by the Politico source in a leadership role… Read more

Over the weekend Politico colleagues Jay Westcott, a staff photographer, and Madeline Marshall, a web producer, revealed their breakup in the most public of ways: Facebook. The couple, who became engaged in June, called it quits over the weekend. Westcott, in particular, took to Facebook to reveal how upset he was and friends reached out to him in sympathy. It was the kind of thing that made you wince reading it.

Since Sunday, however, Westcott has stripped his Facebook account of all mentions of the split. It’s unclear whether he was ordered to do this by Politico management, or whether he chose to return the contents of his private life to some semblance of privacy all on his own.

We reached out to Politico Editor-in-Chief John Harris and Westcott for comment. Harris said he preferred not to weigh in on the personal matters of employees. We are learned, however, that behind the scenes Politico did not instruct Westcott to alter his Facebook page.

Politico‘s famously engaged couple called off their wedding over the weekend in a very public breakup on Facebook. The ordeal was so shocking that one of our tipsters got confused and thought the whole thing was a joke.

But no joke.

Jay Westcott, a staff photographer, and Madeline Marshall, a video producer, became engaged in June after dating for two years. At the time, the newsroom was all gushing sentiment for the couple. But over the weekend news of their breakup spread like wildfire as Marshall changed her Facebook status from “engaged” to “single.”

That’s when things got ugly.

After Marshall changed her status, Westcott commented: “That was easy for you.” She also changed her profile picture and Westcott remarked: “I took that. Take it down.”

Eventually Westcott seemed to regain his composure and declared, “I am devastated. I have to get off Facebook.”

But Facebook soon became an outpouring of sympathy, with friends telling him they’d be there for him for whatever he needs. Well, how about a car? He mentioned that he no longer has one since the couple shared it. He’s also stuck in an apartment 10 minutes from the Politico newsroom where he got down on one knee and proposed. “Stuck in the apartment we called home,” Westcott wrote.

One thing friends won’t be able to help with is returning the ring. Too late. “Wouldn’t you know it, I’m outside the return period to return the ring. #fml,” Westcott added.

Damn. So much for Mike Allen officiating the nuptials.

See the rest of the visuals…you don’t want to miss this.

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Maybe you’ve been blissfully hiding under a rock today and didn’t hear the news? A Politico couple got engaged this afternoon in the thick of deadlines in a hamlet called Rosslyn. It’s a first for the newsroom. As one reader put it, “What a romantic story….  Engaged in the swampiest journalism hole there is.”

But seriously…congratulations to the happy couple, photog Jay Westcott and video producer Madeline Marshall, on POLITICO’s first wedding proposal, a publicist wrote us. In Politico humor, they have officially WON THE AFTERNOON. And if you don’t believe us, you’ll see it proclaimed in Politico Playbook in the morning just after 5 a.m. if a certain author keeps to his regular schedule. Here, we’ll give him a head start.

SHOT: The couple has been together for two years. Jay was a guest speaker in the Madeline’s photography business class at Corcoran College of Art + Design, where she earned her BFA in photojournalism. CHASER: This afternoon she thought they were prepping for a video shoot.

The first blip we noticed about the engagement came from Politico livestream superstar Ginger Gibson who cracked the news on Twitter,  saying, “Well, that was a break from the normal day, there was just a proposal in the middle of the POLITICO newsroom.” To which CNN’s Lizzie O’Leary quickly asked, “What?! Who?!”

To the happy couple: We hope VandeHarris lets you take off for your honeymoon. And Jay, please don’t contemplate reading Marco Rubio books on your honeymoon like  a certain colleague (cough, cough Jonathan Martin). On a positive note, we do hope you’ll let Mike Allen officiate the nuptials.

With Jimmy Kimmel headlining the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this weekend, Politico‘s Patrick Gavin recently sat down with the late night talk show host in Los Angeles. The pub released a snippet of the interview today in which Gavin asked Kimmel to weigh in on Louis C.K. dropping out of the upcoming Radio & TV Correspondents’ dinner after FNC’s Greta Van Susteren threatened to boycott it. Van Susteren piped up against him because of comments he has made about women, specifically using the c-word when referring to former Veep hopeful Sarah Palin. She called him a “pig.” Was Kimmel worried?

Let’s just say there were a couple of bleeps in Kimmel’s thoughts on the matter. “I don’t really care, fuck them. I don’t give a shit!” he said. Coming up: the full interview gets released tomorrow. The interview was shot by Alex Trowbridge, who traveled to LA with Gavin and photog Jay Westcott.

Photo by Jay Westcott for Washingtonian.

NBC congressional correspondent Mike Viqueira pens this piece for Washingtonian mag this month on why he feels right at home on Capitol Hill– his family’s histroy in DC.

In the photograph above, he points out two of his great-uncles in a 1912 Lewis Hines photo in the basement of the Capitol. Viqueira writes that the presence of his relatives everyday at work gives him “a sense of perspective, of reassurance.”

So I have on my side generations of family to welcome and guide me, to calm me down or tip me off each day as I cover the Hill. Everywhere I turn, there’s another reminder of my heritage, another sepia-toned image to conjure. Walking daily through the Capitol’s rotunda, I imagine my grandfather playing as a boy in the dome, clambering up and down the steps that wind between the inner and outer shells, one of a gaggle of children running around the building on a whim. A visit across the street to the Library of Congress is reason to pause and listen for the echoes of my grandmother singing her Neapolitan favorites as she works on a cleaning crew.

Read Viqueira’s piece in the June issue or on Washingtonian‘s site here.