If you’re looking for the video on Politico’s website featuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) Chief of Staff Josh Holmes, then good luck.

Roll Call’s Meredith Shiner, a former staff writer at Politico, reported that as of Thursday, the video had been removed from the advertising page of the Rosslyn, Va. news outlet’s website at the request of McConnell’s office.

As the piece explains, the video may have violated Senate Ethics Rules, which prohibit senators and the staffs from using their “official congressional capacity” to endorse outside entities. This would not prevent Holmes (pictured at left) from endorsing Politico as an avid reader, but it does apply to the use of his chief of staff title.

From Roll Call:

“The video, posted earlier this week under the ‘audience’ tab of Politico’s advertising page, features Josh Holmes and identifies him with the title: “Chief of Staff, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, KY.” Holmes spends the first half of the video explaining his job, with shots taken inside McConnell’s office, and the second half of the video explaining why he reads the Washington publication. The video ends with the top staffer saying, “I’m Josh Holmes and I’m a Politico.”

A shortened version of the video can be found here on Vimeo.

The full video was removed from the advertising page but can be found on a different Politico page, by itself, which Roll Call found “via a live Politico link.” Politico Editor-in-Chief John Harris was asked by FBDC to comment on the situation, but is on the road and unable to respond so he passed the request along to Sara Olson, Politico‘s VP of Marketing.

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By Betsy Rothstein, Peter Ogburn and Eddie Scarry

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a blur this year as stars, journalists, nerdy political types — and Psy — rubbed elbows. Well, not Psy, he was busy smoking. But the rest of ‘em fawned and frolicked around the Washington Hilton oohing and ahhing at one another’s evening wear. People watching was admittedly pretty phenomenal. As evidenced by the shrieks coming from young, female bystanders salivating at the mere sight of a star. Each time an actor or well-known journalist walked by, they screamed and barked things out at them like faux paparazzi. In a moment of hilarity, one journalist, who shall remain nameless, was heard biting a security employee’s head off as they kept constantly trying to herd and push a small smattering of people waiting by the door from one end to the other. “I have two tickets, I have a right to be here and I’m not moving,” the person snapped in a display of spectacular irritation. Security immediately backed right down and eased away. And the lesson is? Yelling wins! (By the way, pictured above: actress Kate Walsh.)

4:35 p.m. Betsy tells Eddie she need 15 more minutes. He replies, “Are you trying to squeeze in a size 8 dress again?”

5:42 p.m. Eddie is running slightly behind because he has no idea how to tie a bow-tie and he couldn’t get the Tucker Carlson consult. As usual, Carlson skipped out of town for the WHCD. We learned later in the evening that he’s in New Orleans riding Go Karts with Daily Caller Publisher Neil Patel.

6:13 p.m. Settling in at the lobby of the Washington Hilton for some major people watching. MC Hammer sighting. Girls screaming, “WOO HOO! WOO HOO!”

6:14 p.m. TIME‘s Zeke Miller enters in a wrinkly blazer.

6:15 p.m. DJ at Atlantic party may have Tourette’s. Ticking and chirping, etc…

6:16 p.m. Fox News Correspondent Peter Doocy sighting. This guy is too tall and everywhere this weekend.

6:17 p.m. Washington Examiner Nikki Schwab sighting. Her hair is in curls this evening. Very pleasant interaction.

6:18 p.m. Woman walks into the Hilton wearing a kimono.

6:19 p.m. It’s Kathleen Turner. The gaggle of girls in the lobby: “Kathleen we love you!!!”

6:20 p.m. Amy Poehler walks by. “Ahh ahh we love you Amy!”

6:21 p.m. CBS’ Gayle King has entered the hotel in a stunner of a kelly green gown by Vicky Tiel.

6:22 p.m. A rando woman who won’t stop yapping is saying to her friends, “I’m walking around the house going, does this match?”

6:23  p.m. The NPR greeter awaiting NPR party guests in the front of the hotel looks like he should be at the airport. He’s a vision of nerdy perfection.

6:24 p.m. Washington Examiner‘s Byron York walks into the hotel and promptly walks down the wrong set of stairs.

6: 25 p.m. It’s Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera! He’s all smiles for anyone who approaches. Up close his mustache is nothing short of thick and amazing.

6:27 p.m. A Jon Huntsman sighting. He walks in with a lovely blonde (presumably his wife) on his arm.

6:28 p.m. We get reprimanded for the second time for standing in the “wrong” place. Is there a right place? Who knows?

6:30 p.m. Holy shit. It’s Nicole Kidman. Bradley Cooper follows shortly thereafter.

6: 32 p.m. House Maj. Leader Eric Cantor is hanging out by the entrance.

6:35 p.m. Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis drawing major stares in the lobby. Wilde’s flowing chocolate brown dress is unbelievable beautiful.

6:37 p.m. A young woman walking with CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley has ample cleavage.

6:40 p.m. Sightings: White House Press Sec. Jay Carney. Chicago Sun Times‘ Clarence Page. Kathleen Sebelius. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

6:41 p.m. Dave Weigel, a big FishbowlDC fan, has been spotted. Later he’ll watch us like a hawk even though we’re not snapping his picture tonight or bothering him whatsoever.

6:45 p.m. The kid from Glee! is here. Wasn’t he at Tammy’s?

6:50 p.m. Publicist and Hollywood on the Potomac blogger Janet Donovan spotted in the bar line at the Atlantic, CBS, NJ pre-party. Janet insists this is her last year doing this. “I’ve been doing this since 1971,” she says wearily. “Enough is enough.”

6:55 p.m. Bob Schieffer holding court at the CBS party. Worlds colliding. Glee! kid spotted talking to Mother Jones Bureau Chief David Corn. WTF?

6:59 p.m. CBS news anchor and producer Julie Chen stands out in bright pink dress that may have been the second best frock of the evening. Olivia Wilde’s gown was hard to beat.

7 p.m. Andy Cohen from Bravo is here. He has some schmutz on his blazer.

7: 05 p.m. Overheard: “He’s very brave here coming with his ugly wife.”

7:06 p.m. Reince Priebus sighting. Later he’ll be a dumb joke in Conan’s monologue.

7:16 p.m. Ed Helms telling his girlfriend that people come here “for the food.”

7:17 p.m. Psy‘s handlers are a bunch of asses. “No, we did red carpet interviews. We’re not doing any more.” Regarding Psy and pictures, guest says, “This isn’t Korea. This is America.”

7:18 p.m. Peter cuts U.S. Treasury Sec. Jack Lew in a line. Way to go Peter!

7:19 p.m. CNBC’s Jim Cramer is yelling. Read more

After less than a year, Charlie Mahtesian‘s own blog at Politico has closed down shop and headed into that great Internet afterlife in the sky.

As of Monday, both Mahtesian’s blog and the “On Congress” blog have disappeared from Politico‘s homepage and its blogs vertical. “Don’t worry – we’re still as committed as ever to covering every twist and turn in campaigns and elections,” reads a final Friday post by Mahtesian on his former blog. The post notes that Mahtesian will continue his work at Politico but it will appear on the front page.

Dan Berman also wrote one final post on the On Congress blog in the form of a poem: “We broke news on this page we hosted, but now on the homepage all stories will be posted,” it says.

When Mahtesian’s blog launched in April last year, it was done so with the type of holiness and fanfare generally reserved for the pope and and sometimes Dennis Rodman… Read more

Turns out the rumors of the past year and a half are true.

Politico‘s Executive Editor Jim VandeHei is getting the hell outta there and heading to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” He has wanted to make his exit for awhile and TV is where he set his sights. MSNBC took notice after seeing the video that VandeHei narrated about how he breathed the very breath of life into Politico and how it has taken the journalism world — and the world — by storm. Some may have noticed VandeHei’s extensive appearance on “Morning Joe” last Thursday while regularly hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough were on vacation.

VandeHei will slowly phase into Willie Geist‘s third-tier co-host role as Geist concentrates on the “TODAY Show.”

Politico had no comment at this time. Editor-in-Chief John Harris was heard wailing in the Politico newsroom. James Hohmann, a reporter, was spotted handing him tissues. Mike Allen, practically VandeHei’s brother, could not be found. Sources say he has fled to Argentina to drown himself in a thick, juicy steak and red wine.

Politico Publisher Robert Allbritton, when reached at his mansion… Read more

A new three-minute video produced by Politico touts the publication’s “early success” and its plan for the future. Full of Politico bluster, it’s part of a new “brand and advertising” site the publication launched this week, according to Mike Allen‘s Playbook.

Supported by a soundtrack comparable to the background music in Coca-Cola’s anti-obesity ad, the video is narrated entirely by Executive Editor Jim VandeHei and features image after image of the Politico newsroom and photographic vistas of the Washington area. He talks about the complacency of Washington media and reporters getting lost in the weeds, and how this field is more challenging than ever. He says publications must adapt, but many have not because it’s all so uncomfortable to change. All envelop the reasons he wanted to start Politico and why he badly wants it to succeed.

“We launched at the end of January [2007],” VandeHei says in the video. “By the end of May we were co-hosting a presidential debate and people were talking about Politico like it was a brand that you’d be familiar with. We were four months old!” Wow!

It goes on with VandeHei explaining how exceptional Politico has been in aggressively covering politics, how the publication has been willing to adapt to changes in media and how it’s going to continue to do so heading into uncertain times for news media.

The larger “about” page for Politico has been updated with… Read more

The Daily Standard‘s Managing Editor Michael van der Galien is quick on his feet. This afternoon he screengrabbed a Politico headline just before they were able to snatch it down. The headline was atop an AP story about two U.S. troops losing their lives in Afghanistan.

Someone over in Rosslyn, Va. may be in a hell of a lot of trouble this afternoon.

Politico has added a note to the copy.

“Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story included unrelated text that was inadvertently written into the headline field. The text was not connected to the story but part of a separate conversation. We regret the error.”

Politico Editor-in-Chief John Harris told FishbowlDC: “Just to emphasize: the extraneous text that went in the headline was both inadvertent and comply unrelated to the story. This was a completely separate conversation taking place on another open program, and a fragment from that conversation went in the headline field.”

Book? What book?

This appears to be the attitude of Politico, who hasn’t written word one on the new book out by former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who served time in the big house for his criminal dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Just think of it as their own quite f–k you to Ney.

No doubt the book, Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill., wasn’t a joy ride for Politico, so it’ll be surprising if Politico reporters show up to Ney’s book party tonight at the Monocle. After all, Ney devotes an entire chapter to skewering Politico‘s own John Bresnahan, a longtime Washington political reporter covering Capitol Hill. Which is probably why you didn’t see excerpts of it in this morning’s Playbook.

Even so, you’d think they’d print the criticisms and strong accusations Ney had for House Maj. Leader John Boehner, painting him as a heavy drinker and someone who allegedly promised him funding if he dropped out of his congressional race, which he did. Boehner’s office has, of course, denied the charges and accusations in Ney’s book.

Nope. To Politico, Ney is a has been. Why bother? Except that Politico always bothers with tell-all tomes. Not this time.

UPDATE: Politico finally got around to writing about Ney’s book on March 8. Uncharacteristically late for them, indeed. But to their credit, they do mention the Bresnahan chapter. In the story, Patrick Gavin quotes Editor-in-Chief John Harris as saying, “John’s reputation for toughness and journalistic integrity is universally known and respected by his colleagues at POLITICO, at competing news organizations, and among lawmakers and staffers in both parties on Capitol Hill.” It’s unclear why Harris didn’t say this two days earlier when asked about the scathing chapter on Bresnahan.

Former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who served time in federal prison for his involvement in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, is out with a new book, Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill. In it, he rips the cover off the alleged bad boy behavior of longtime Capitol Hill reporter John Bresnahan, now a reporter for Politico. Ney’s references about him stem from when he was previously a reporter for Roll Call.

In Chapter 26 of the 377-page tell-all, Ney makes Bresnahan out to be unethical and bullying. “The only way to describe Bresnahan is to utilize the name given to him behind his back and widely used by staff, even by friendly staff, and that was ‘troll,’” Ney wrote. “He is a muckraking reporter, and it was said that he would only attempt a positive story if forced as a means of getting to the mud. Bresnahan had no limits and no problem with threatening or destroying anyone in his path. He was considered a ‘bottom feeder’ who eventually ended up at Politico, a political journalism organization.”

If he was a “bottom feeder,” it is abundantly clear from the chapter, titled “The Press Á La Abramoff,” that Bresnahan was one that Ney personally feared. Nearly the entire chapter focuses on him, bordering on obsession. In several graphs, Ney describes an incident in which he says Bresnahan was angered that Ney’s office had failed to give him a big scoop about their legal fund. He spoke of an email that Bresnahan wrote to his then-flack, Brian Walsh, former spokesman for the NRSC, which allegedly said he was going to “fuck Mr. Ney.” Ney wrote, “This sent chills down my spine.”

An interesting factoid: According to Ney, Abramoff’s plan was going to buy the Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, and make Bresnahan editor. Point being, the purchase would give Abramoff more power.  “I, as well as others at the time, feared the vicious, corrupt Bresnahan,” Ney wrote.

In other weirdness, Ney writes of poker games in which hundreds and thousands of dollars were spent, with Bresnahan being among the players with Abramoff associate Tony Rudy, and then-Delay aide Mike Scanlon, House staffers and lobbyists. Ney wrote that it was “speculated” that lobbyists purposely folded to “feed money to Bresnahan.” In 2005, Ney wrote, he lost hands to avoid getting bad press, saying he’d rather lose than piss “John” off. Sure enough, Bresnahan allegedly showed up at Ney’s office to collect his $200.

Politico has declined to comment.

Nicknames are often jabs. And it was a clear and condescending one when Tom Scocca, writing for Gawker, repeatedly referred to “The Politico” in a post taking down a recent story by Politico‘s Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei.

An excerpt from Scocca’s piece, titled “The Politico Is Mad That The White House Does And Doesn’t Talk To The Politico”:

“The Politico, America’s worst media outlet, has a big story today about what’s wrong with the White House’s relationship with the political media, such as The Politico. According to Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, President Obama disdains, freezes out, and circumvents the representatives of the Fourth Estate, including reporters from The Politico, rather than opening himself up to their serious questions. ‘This is an arguably dangerous development,’ The Politico explains”

The final count for “The Politico”: 19 times in the piece.

Politico‘s Ben White didn’t miss it. “The Gawker is an amusing little gossip smut site,” he tweeted Wednesday. “But I can’t say I’ve ever read a single item with any real social value on The Gawker.”

Like Politico, Gawker is simply “Gawker.” No “The.” But unlike Politico, Gawker never was “The Gawker.” It’s always been “Gawker.”

Back in 2007, when Politico was founded, it actually was “The Politico.” The old Politico print issue layout seen top-right is still on the Wikipedia page about Politico.

This 2007 AP photo of Politico‘s original newsroom banner also demonstrates… Read more

Karin Tanabe‘s novel The List, heavily based on her experience as a reporter at Politico, publishes Tuesday. She spent the last year in Dubai working for ITP Publishing, a British magazine company.

As of this week, Tanabe’s back in Washington, working on her next fictional book. Today, she completed the Fishbowl5.

1. Why write a type of kiss-and-tell book about Politico in fiction format? And how much of the main character is based on you?

I worked in journalism for a decade, but I was always a journalist who wanted to end up a fiction writer, it just took a little while. I definitely looked to my experiences at Politico for inspiration for The List but newsroom life without a heavy dose of fiction would make a bit of a dull read. Politico is an eerily quiet newsroom and I didn’t want to write a quiet book!

As for Adrienne Brown, my main character, her job as a Style reporter was very much based on mine as a CLICK reporter for Politico and her struggles between ethics and ambition were based on my experiences, but the similarities fizzle from there. When I wrote her character, I pictured a young, stylish woman coming from the glamorous world of New York fashion magazines and I thought about what working as a Washington journalist in new media would be like for her. How would she react to the power culture of D.C? Would she become one of these people who lives and breathes her job? For me, though I did go to Politico from a magazine background, I knew D.C. and the wonk culture very well, so Politico wasn’t a shock to the system.

2. Do you think your book will upset Jim VandeHei or John Harris or anyone else at Politico? What do you think the writers there will think after reading?

I don’t think it will upset VandeHei, Harris or other Politico editors and reporters, honestly. The mile-a-minute culture of Politico is not something the higher-ups have ever tried to keep a secret, nor do they attempt to fight the stereotypes about the office. I think their model works for them and if people don’t agree with it, so be it. Do they lose some good reporters and editors because they don’t fit the Politico mold? I think they have, but Politico attracts some of the brightest and hardest working journalists around and I definitely became a better writer and journalist when I worked there.

In the newsroom I present in The List, I write about sexism, favoritism and plenty of other hot button topics. Was all that inspired by Politico? I’ll leave it to readers to decide.

3. The main character thinks about sex a lot. Is she a complete freak in the sheets?… Read more