Asked to describe the idea behind “BuzzFeed Brews,” John Stanton says, “It’s like a first date. Get them a little drunk and relaxed so they can talk about things people don’t normally hear them talk about.”

Stanton is the Washington Bureau Chief for BuzzFeed and last night was the launch of the website’s new series wherein newsmakers are invited to sit before an audience and answer questions. And there’s free beer.

It’s essentially the same thing as Politico‘s Playbook Breakfast, “minus the stale bagels, plus the beer,” cracked BuzzFeed‘s Politics Editor McKay Coppins to FishbowlDC. (The site’s publicist Ashley McCollum boasts that she came up with that description.)

The first guest: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). For roughly 45 minutes Rubio answered questions from BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith about immigration, gay marriage and the future of the Republican Party. Of course, lengthy segments here and there were spent on why Rubio prefers Tupac over Biggie Smalls (“His lyrics are more insightful in my opinion.”) and whether he had to “think long and hard” before letting his son play recreational football. Stanton said that’s another thing distinguishing the Brews series from Playbook Breakfast, whose audience may not be interested in those things. Read more

Washington Examiner‘s Nikki Schwab is now on her third gossip partner in the two years since Tara Palmeri left for the New York Post. First there was Katy Adams. Next up: Jenny Rogers, formerly of TBD, who lasted a year. Now the Examiner has named a new co-columnist — it’s The Hill‘s Alicia Cohn, who contributed to that publication’s gossip column, “In the Know,” and managed content for the social media blog. We hear The Daily Caller‘s pretty aggressive Nick Ballasy was up for the job, but didn’t want to take orders from Schwab so he backed out.

It’s anyone’s guess what kind of co-columnist Cohn will be as her previous appeared in publications such as US WEEKLY and Human Events. She also interned for Christianity Today. She graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois, a Christian college where drinking, smoking, pornography and sex are taboo and where evolutionary biology is now accepted, but this wasn’t always true. Famous graduates include Billy Graham and former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. In 2003 the college eased its ban on dancing. They also let up on drinking and smoking for faculty and grad students only.

In an internal memo just out today, Editor Stephen Smith outlines three new reporters, including Cohn, and the promotion of another. Most of the new hires are recent grads whose experience consists of an array of internships. Read more

Now and again local D.C. paparazzo Mark Wilkins (aka Marky Mark on Twitter) can be seen tweaking Nikki Schwab, who writes the Washington Examiner‘s “Yeas and Nays” gossip column.

Wilkins was at it today. “FAIL FAIL FAIL – AGAIN Nikki Schwab wrote a piece saying the Children’s Inaugural Concert 2013 was NOT HAPPENING, WRONG,” he snapped today on Twitter. Schwab had written a report saying a concert planned for President Obama‘s re-inauguration wasn’t happening. The concert is reportedly on schedule to take place. (We were unable to locate Schwab’s report that the concert wasn’t happening. It may have been deleted.)

“Literacy fail. It is indeed happening,” a forthcoming Schwab replied to Wilkins.

Previously… Read more

Quotes of the Day

Madame Secretary can do whatever she pleases

“Guy @ state Dept LGBT event asks attendees to turn off phones, but ‘Madame Secretary, you’re welcome to text any time.’” — Politico‘s Jennifer Epstein.

Harvey Levin: Is the power of Kim Kardashian disgraceful?

“Do you think politics hit a new low when the US ambassador personally greets Kim K when she arrives in Kuwait? #tmzlive” — TMZ’s Harvey Levin.

Politico reporter dings NYT for poor scoopage

“I’ve worked at the New York Times so I’m unfortunately well aware of its tendency to treat other people’s scoops like they don’t exist.” — Politico‘s Ben White. The backstory: White was referring to the NYT following his scoop that Treasury’s Mary Miller had taken her name out of consideration for SEC chair without crediting him. White also wrote on Twitter: “Freaking UNREAL that NYT fails to credit me on the Mary Miller scoop. NYTimes: Contender for S.E.C. Chief Drops Out” and links to this NYT story. The NYT‘s excuse? They said they hadn’t seen it.

Senator bumps reporter, makes weird joke

“Orrin Hatch accidentally bumping reporter, joking ‘I just like to touch you,’ then blushing. ‘I’m a good Mormon boy!’” — Slate‘s Dave Weigel.

A faux Twitter fight

The fake fight was between HuffPost‘s Elise Foley and BuzzFeed‘s Andrew Kaczynksi.

Foley: I’m always so sad when I miss twitter fights.

Kaczynski: YOU SUCK

Foley: YOU SUCK MORE.

Beck advises how to win Obama in pee keepsake

“E-mail obamapeepee@glennbeck.com and put your bid for #ObamaInPeePee in the subject line WG” — Glenn Beck.

Question to ponder: “Has anybody asked Condi about Susan Rice? I.e., RICE ON RICE” – Roll Call‘s Steven Dennis.

A real HuffPost headline: “Man arrested for stealing goose, locking it in SUV while he played soccer”

Photog unleashes torrent of hate on Washington Examiner scribe, and HuffPost‘s Ethan Klapper encounters boisterous gentleman outside Metro. Read more

The co-writer of Washington Examiner‘s Yeas and Nays gossip column Jenny Rogers is heading over to Washington City Paper as its Assistant Managing Editor. WCP tweeted the news last night.

Rogers’ move comes after just 10 months with the Examiner. Isn’t that a little premature? Before the Examiner she worked for the Titanic TBD.

“We actually originally wanted to hire Jenny for this job more than a year ago, when she was at TBD, but we wound up not being able to fill the position at all due to budget constraints,” WCP Editor Mike Madden told FishbowlDC. “Her work at TBD was great — lively, creative, and smart coverage of whatever they threw her onto. I’ve read her Yeas and Nays stuff since she went to the Examiner and liked it, as well, and I’m very glad we’re able to hire her now.”

As for her current boss, the Examiner‘s Executive Editor Stephen Smith, he’s cordial about Rogers’ short-lived tenure at the paper. “I would have been surprised if Jenny had left to take a job similar to the one she had here,” he said, “but she had a chance to do something entirely different, assigning and editing pieces and writing some cover stories of her own.”

Compared to the vanilla swirl Yeas and Nays serves on a daily basis (ex. this story about a new carousel at the National Zoo), WCP gives Rogers an opportunity to go nuts, particularly when it comes to D.C.’s racist favorite councilman Marion Barry.

Rogers told us… Read more

During a book signing at the American Enterprise Institute Tuesday, Justice Antonin Scalia said the biggest public misconception about the Supreme Court comes from nightly newscasts.

“What we do is dull,” Scalia said, explaining that the “30-second takeouts” the public gets about the Court when watching the nightly news isn’t an accurate representation of what the justices do. For instance, he explained, they’re not spending most of their time debating the legitimacy of abortion or same-sex marriage. “We’re looking at dull stuff, like the bank code,” he said.

In a room packed full of lawyers, aspiring law students and news media, Scalia talked about his book Reading the Law and his “textualist” approach to interpreting the Constitution. Textualism is the idea that law should be applied using the original meaning of the words.

Not to be missed: A Q&A with the audience and a poignant interruption from Siri… Read more

The non-endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney by rapper Nicki Minaj was picked up by Washington’s famed gossip pages such as Washington Examiner‘s Yeas & Nays, Politico CLICK and The Hill‘s In the Know. So who wrote it best?

Some background: Last week a song by rapper Lil’ Wayne made its way online, featuring a verse by Minaj. “I’m a Republican voting for Mitt Romney/You lazy b*tches is f***ing up the economy,” Minaj raps. It was reported (with some skepticism) as an unlikely endorsement of Romney. President Obama was asked about the possible endorsement in a radio interview. “I’m not sure that’s actually what happened,,” Obama said. “She likes to play different characters.” Minaj wrote on Twitter that same day, “Thank you for understanding my creative humor & sarcasm Mr. President… *sends love & support*”

CLICK- Caitlin McDevitt had her writeup published first. She was not, however, the first reporter on her own site to break the news. She picked it up from her colleague Byron Tau who writes for the Politico 44 blog. The lede: “Nicki Minaj was being sarcastic when she rapped about voting for Mitt Romney, POLITICO 44 reports.”

Yeas & Nays- The Examiner‘s Jenny Rogers had her item on the story up three hours later. We like the conversational lede (“OK, so maybe Nicki Minaj didn’t endorse the Romney-Ryan ticket after all”).

In the Know- Last to the ball was The Hill’s writeup by Jonathan Easley. It was published nearly five hours after CLICK’s, one and a half after Yeas & Nays’. But there’s an extra bit of information on Minaj added to The Hill‘s writeup. We learn here that Minaj is “rumored to be a new judge on American Idol.” What’s more, when Easley tweeted out the link to his story, he included lyrics to the song “Monster” which also features Minaj. “Nicki Minaj finally puts Romney endorsement flap to bed,” Easley wrote. “Also, her money so tall that her body gotta climb it.” The tweet was retweeted 22 times and favorited twice. He tells us, however, that he’s not really a big fan. “The primary reason I know her stuff is because I’m a big Kanye West fan,” he said. “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one of my favorite albums, and Minaj absolutely killed it on that ‘Monster’ track.”

Winner: Easley’s lede could have used a little punch (“Rapper Nicki Minaj on Monday ended the dispute over whether she endorsed Mitt Romney in a song released last week”) but for demonstrating prowess on the subject of Minaj, we conclude that Easley wrote it best.

Quotes of the Day

Punditry warning: “Reminder to be wary of punditry. NBC/WSJ pollster Peter Hart: data shows ‘it’s been a good month electorally’ for Obama.” — NYT and CNBC’s John Harwood.

The Observer

“I love how random people just want to tell me what they think about politics all the time.” — Politico‘s Ginger Gibson.

Pulitzer Prize winner’s dog takes a dump

“My dog just had the biggest poop of her career.” — WaPo‘s Gene Weingarten. Unfortunately he didn’t offer any pictorial evidence.

Griping journo

“Fer Chrissakes. Are we going to work through every single member of Congress and ask whether they’re attending conventions?” — WaPo‘s left-leaning blogger Greg Sargent.

Convo Between Two Journos

Isn’t this cute? This morning’s conversation is between Politico‘s Dylan Byers (an expert, just ask him) and The Washington Examiners‘ Gossip Girl Jenny Rogers. Listen up journos. There’s lots to glean here. Not really, we just wanted to use that word.

Byers: This Huffington Post piece lifted all the relevant info from a Buzzfeed piece and provided no new reporting.

Rogers: Dylan, how is Huffpo different from any news organization that aggregates? Not trying to pick a fight, just wanting your opinion.

Byers: Jenny, Sure, most sites that aggregate either push the story forward w/ new reporting, or aggregate to incentivize clickthroughs.

Rogers: Dylan, I find most “new reporting” or “added value” or whatever is usually pretty flimsy. I think most news sites are guilty here.

Byers: Jenny, certainly they are not the only offenders.

Eddie Scarry contributed to this report.

We’re going three for three. Today Washington Examiner‘s Yeas & Nays brings us a vanilla creme brulée flavored interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on his new book involving the cast of Twilight. No, we don’t actually think the book is about vampires as suggested by some of Hayes’s online arch defenders. The title is: Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy.

Yeas & Nays transcriber Jenny Rogers practically lets Hayes write the item with one bland thought after another about how Hayes likes to sneak baseball talk into his book. That’s so sneaky Hazy! Rogers eventually asks what he does to protect himself when a sports hero disappoints. He tells her, “In order to protect my heart, at a certain point…I’m not necessarily hanging on every pitch.”

Pitch. Get it? Baseball?

When it comes to heroes, sports, American or otherwise, Hayes is brimming with compassion as evidenced recently on Memorial Day when he trashed dead veterans. He later apologized.

Read the full interview here.

Foreshadowing: Nikki in those tall — we’ll hand it to her — pretty heels. Even her sidekick co-writer, Jenny Rogers, stares at her colleague’s feet as if to say, “Girrrl, what the hell were you thinking?”

The Washington Examiner‘s gossip scribe Nikki Schwab was on ice this weekend. As we’ve been reporting, especially toward the writers at FBDC. At the weekend festivities we even implemented an ice thermometer rating system for her. At last night’s pre-parties to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, she greeted us with a cold snarl on her way into the NJ/Atlantic/CBS party, saying (more like sneering), “Hi guys.”

By the way, we’re giving her nine ice cubes for last night.

But perhaps funniest was when she arrived home that night and actually needed ice.

Bedtime. Would it be wrong if I iced my feet? #IHateHeels #WHCD

— Nikki Schwab (@NikkiSchwab) April 29, 2012