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. continued…

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Washington Examiner

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. continued…

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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… continued…

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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. continued…

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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… continued…

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“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… continued…

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Julia Louis-Dreyfuss

The cast from HBO’s upcoming series “Veep” were in town yesterday to promote the political comedy with a screening at the U.S Institute of Peace.

It was mostly peaceful, but packed which made for dicey moments on the red carpet.

“Veep” focuses on a clueless vice president, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, and her bumbling staff.

FBDC asked the show’s starring actors about their thoughts on the D.C. culture and what parts of it were amplified in the series.

“The closer you are to the popular kids, the more powerful people feel,” said Tony Hale, who plays a personal aide to the Vice President. “[It's] just like high school. There’s a lot of high school happening in both here and L.A.”

Timothy Simons took special note of Washington’s crappy sense of style. “There’s a fashion sense from 10 years previous,” said the actor who plays the White House Liaison to Dreyfuss’ character. “A general sense that nobody has time to ever buy new clothes. So I think it’s like the clothes you have in college, you just hope that those fit you until you’re 35. And at that point you would have time to shop for new clothes.”

Simons said he prepared for his role by reading “D.C. Interns,” a popular blog about interns in Washington. He said the blog taught him about about “calling interns out on wearing their intern badges” at inappropriate places.

Matt Walsh plays the Communications Director in “Veep.” He told us the first thing he learned about the D.C press corps in preparing for his role is that “the best play in any crisis or any gaffe is to not say anything [else] and to smile your way through it.” Smaller blogs break the stories now, he said, “so you really have to watch every word that you say. You can never be off camera. You’re never off the record.”

NYT's Frank Rich

Sarah Palin is famous for her media mishaps when she was the Republican vice presidential candidate. We asked Dreyfuss if she did any media prep for the show. She said she spent more time trying to “pull back the layers of politics” than news media, but that “it really is extraordinary now how every move a politician makes is documented. And one false step and they’re screwed.”

Space on the red carpet was tight (and even tighter with the five-person crew ABC’s Amy Walter and Yahoo! News‘ David Chalain had in tow) but went smoothly enough.

The actual screening was like an oversold flight. More tickets than seats were handed out and many attendees were left standing.

“Veep” officially premiers April 22.

Notables:

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash (sans John King); Politico‘s Jonathan Martin; Mother Jones‘ (and alleged public tantrum thrower) David Corn; New York magazine’s Frank Rich; HOH’s Warren Rojas; MPAA Director Chris Dodd; The Hill‘s Judy Kurtz (aka Howeesha); The Washington Examiner‘s Nikki Schwab and Jenny Rogers; Glittarazzi‘s Ali Lewis and Greg Blakey.

Quotable:

“They just want him to get off.”– An apparently perturbed videographer remarking on the news that George Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder.

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First, Rogers lays this story on us about the comedian Sinbad. It’s been YEARS since anyone said that name “Sinbad” without asking the question, “Whatever happened to Sinbad?” Yeas & Nays has the answer for you. The answer is that he — gasp! — went to the Leukemia Ball in D.C. this past weekend and was under-dressed. Just how under-dressed was he? The headline: “Sinbad wears sneakers to Leukemia Ball.” This somehow passes for gossip in Washington.

Keeping with the “I Love the 90′s” theme of Yeas and Nays, Schwab drops two stories on us about rapper Coolio. First, she tells us about a Coolio sighting at the club, Eden. Apparently, they were hosting a “Saved by the 90′s” rave.

But, Schwab, so awed by the rapper, brings us yet ANOTHER Coolio story. This one to tell us that his rider involved top shelf liquor and Kentucky Fried Chicken. We, too, have found ourselves full of Grey Goose and McRibs on more than one occasion. But really, who cares?

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TBD’s

Rogers, who recently announced she was leaving the confines of the TBD Titanic to join Washington Examiner’s Yeas and Nays column, begins her day with the gals at the gym in a kickboxing class. Rogers writes that she struggles to keep up with Sandman, “who gave birth 10 months ago.” I don’t mean to downplay the miracle of childbirth, but it doesn’t exactly keep you on bed-rest for 10 months. She had a baby almost a year ago. She didn’t have a leg amputated last week. When the workout is over, Sandman “slips into a blue second-skin of a dress and thigh-high black stiletto boots (to cover the “giant shiner” on her shin, she explains).” Rogers doesn’t bother following up on that nugget, because she must feel compelled to protect us from the horror of producing any actually interesting details in the piece.

After the gym, the ladies dash to the salon to get their hair done. As Sandman is getting styled, Rogers writes, “She covers her eyes with her hands as her stylist spritzes her Little Mermaid-esque waves.” I think the phrase “Little Mermaid-esque waves” is “Stab-myself-in-the-eye-with-a-blunt-object-while-children-cry-and-women-weep-and-men-gnash-their-teeth-as-they-watch-in-horror” in terms of bad writing. As the day moves along, we follow the ladies to a book party they’re handling at the W Hotel. Before the event kicks off, we get to hear about Sandman’s exchange with her 10-month-old son, Owen.

Sandman takes a minute to FaceTime with her husband and baby on her phone. “Hi Owen!” she coos. “Hey Owen, clap for Mommy? Want to clap?” She claps. “Now he’s eating the phone,” she says with delight, to no one in particular. “All I can see is Owen’s mouth on the camera.”

We can only imagine this must be what it’s like to have a video chat with Washingtonian’s Garrett Graff. Sandman’s husband, by the way, is UrbanDaddy’s D.C. Editor Jeff Dufour.

Side note…

continued…

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Last week the Washington Examiner announced the departure of Yeas & Nays columnist Katy Adams. Yesterday they announced the hire of Jenny Rogers of the distinguished TBD. In her Twitter avatar, she’s inexplicably dressed up as Cinderella. Nothing everything weird about that. She joins Nikki Schwab on the gossip desk.

Though Rogers’ new boss, Stephen Smith, introduced her with an ominous mistake in her internal memo, we’d like to think of it as a premonition of good things to come. He wrote that Jenny graduated from Rhodes College in Florida. That would be Memphis. Smith quickly issued a correction, lamenting that he’d lost street cred in the newsroom. “Rhodes College is in Memphis, not Florida,” he wrote. “Editors can’t get their facts right.” We can only hope this whisper of self-deprecating humor means the column will pick up.

As a culture writer, she learned absolutely nothing a tremendous amount at TBD. In her bio she writes, “As TBD’s most tech-challenged reporter, I’m proud to announce my conversion to Twitter. I hope to understand how to use my smart phone by 2011.” To get an idea of what we might expect from Jenny, we checked out her recent exposé on cupcakes. The headline: “Cupcakes will never go away.” She refers to the cupcakes as “little guys” and brashly tells those who are down on cupcakes to f&@k off: “Well tough cookies, haters. The cupcake trend is no trend.”

Jenny’s tastes vacillate between “The Wire” and “The Bachelor.” She draws, paints and is apparently a pretty mean ping pong player. We’ve already encountered the sharp-tongued Jenny when she bashed FishbowlDC’s Peter Ogburn over a certain Daily Caller reporter’s skimpy TV attire. See the warfare here.

See the internal memo…

continued…

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Hitchens.

“Had pleasure of meeting Christopher Hitchens at a dinner party. He told great stories, holding the fullest glass of wine I’ve ever seen.” — NPR’s Ben Bergman, a producer for “Morning Edition” in Los Angeles.

“Hitchens, someone I greatly admired, then no longer admired, had the honor to argue w/, bitterly. All said, he lived a very big life. RIP.” — TPM Editor-in-Chief Josh Marshall.

“It’s selfish, but always dreamed of one day being the kind of person about whom Hitchens would say, ‘That guy’s all right.’” — Former White House speechwriter Jon Lovett.

“Hitch is dead. Glad I’m at a bar. I think he’d be glad his fans are at a bar.” — WCP‘s Ben Freed.

***

Regrets.

“My fat ass is wishing I still had leftovers from Matchbox… Another time I suppose.” Washington Business Journal designer Timothy Wong.

What long, boring story does Washingtonian suggest that you read on your commute home? “A #longread for your commute home: As Dulles hits 50, it’s time to look back.” See the story here.

Journo Hate Mail

“Apparently Fishbowl would rather @MichelleFields wear a burqa when reporting. Appalling post.” — The esteemed Jenny Rogers from the esteemed TBD. Read here. And yes, all clothing worn on TV generally must meet Peter Ogburn‘s standards. Jenny wrote Ogburn on Twitter, saying, “Her retweeting a compliment isn’t nearly as weird as your post was. You’re just not going to win this one.” Did someone say winning? Fields retweeted some 46 compliments about herself after a recent appearance on FNC’s “Red Eye.” Idiocy isn’t required in everyday journalism, Jenny.

From the GOP Presidential Debate…

“Ron Paul probably has no clue what the Gchat noise is from.” — NJ‘s Ethan Klapper.

“Bachmann’s eyelashes? Used to be Ron Paul’s eyebrows. #iowadebate.” — NY Mag’s John Heilemann.

“When candidates go over time, should have Gilbert Gottfried yell ‘Just shut up. Please’. I mean, he can’t be busy right? #iowadebate.” — WaPo‘s Chris Cillizza, who scarfed down Oreos while watching last night’s debate.

“Michele Bachmann needs to fire her make-up person.” …”Lighting on Megyn Kelly is horrible.” — The Daily Caller‘s Michelle Fields, an obvious beauty expert.

“Perry just mentioned ‘getting it on’ with President Obama. Uhhh, awkward. #iowadebate.” — The Hill‘s Howiella Kurtz (a.k.a. Judy Kurtz).

“Brett Baier: And a topic that has not be raised in any of the debates so far: bestiality.” — The Daily Caller‘s Jamie Weinstein in a reference from a White House briefing Thursday in which ABC’s Jake Tapper complained about not being called on in the proper order.  Weinstein was inspired by Baier’s pre-commercial tease. He said when they come back they’d have a question yet to be brought up at any of the debates.

“Is Newt a just bit more condescending to women? Or is he an equal opportunities patroniser?” — Times of London reporter Nico Hines.

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