Quotes of the Day

I’ve long wondered how FishbowlMatt might look if he adopted the obviously fashion conscious serial killer look of DCRTV’s resident journo-thief Dave Hughes. Here are the incredible results. And no, Matt didn’t go to the Grooming Lounge for this. We’re calling it “Contemplative Bearded Matt.” (Photoshop credit to QGA’s Meghan Smith.)

Tschida’s doc recommends shingles vaccine

“Mixed signals: doctor said I look 28…. really. Then recommended a shingles vaccine. Says shingles are really hard on senior citizens.” — ABC7 reporter Stephen Tschida.

Unnecessary Tweet of the Day

“Guy in car next to me is swearing [sic] a sweatband on his arm. And he doesn’t look like he is headed to a workout.” — WaPo‘s Chris Cillizza.

Emily Wants to Get Her Gun

“Gun people- I’m looking for a gun store near DC with rentals and range to narrow down choices to buy. Any ideas? #EmilysGUN” — TWT‘s Emily Miller.

Finney and Williams Crack on Ratigan

Regulars on MSNBC’s The Dylan Ratigan Show had some fun at the host’s expense Thursday afternoon after his cell phone rang while on air. He coolly shut the phone off and joked that Congress must be calling. Soon enough, MSNBC Political Analyst Karen Finney came on air with her cell phone. “Hold on Dylan, I’m on my cell phone, sorry,” she said, chuckling. At which point Lobbyist Jimmy Williams busts out laughing. He was also holding onto his cell phone on air, pretending to talk. Finney explained, “Jimmy and I just wanted to have some fun.”

Parsing words: Don’t let door hit you in a$$ on way out

“Last night, I accepted the resignation of my Chief of Staff, Bud Otis.  I didn’t ask for it. I agreed with Bud that the flurry of separate news articles about his recent activities made it impossible for him to continue to serve me and the residents of the Sixth District of Maryland effectively.” — Statement of Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) about accepting resignation tendered by his Chief of Staff.

Convo between Kermit and Blitz

On Thursday Kermit the Frog entered The Situation Room to discuss God only knows what. Whatever it was, Wolf made it clear Kermit can come back whenever he pleases.

Kermit the Frog: “Thank you Wolf. There’s a situation I think we should discuss.”

Wolf Blitzer: “Let’s discuss that situation.”

Sighting on Capitol Hill: Larry Craig

“Former Sen. Larry Craig spotted in the Capitol, tells me he’s meeting with lawmakers to discuss mining issues.” — Politico‘s Manu Raju of the former GOP Senator arrested after he allegedly tried to pick up a cop in a Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport bathroom.

Newt says Herman needs to be prayerful

“My advice to Herman having lived through a lot of different experiences is he has to stop and open up his heart and he has to think very prayerfully about what he owes his own family and what he owes his own future.” — GOP Presidential Hopeful Newt “I’ve only had three marriages” Gingrich in an interview with ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper. The interview will air on “GMA” on Friday morning.

Photo L to R: Rick Klein, Robin Sproul, Richard Kaplan, Ross Levinsohn, Jonathan Karl, Amy Walter, Joe Ruffolo.

If you didn’t make it up to the rooftop of 101 Constitution Ave for Yahoo! News’ swanky soiree on Wednesday night, here’s a quick recap of what you missed:  Thrown by event extraordinaire Philip Dufour, the party was held in large part to welcome new DC bureau chief David Chalian.  In addition, the newsgroup used the opportunity to kick off their 2012 campaign coverage plans and to raise a glass to their partnership with ABC News.

Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo! EVP of the Americas  (and American University alum),  spoke about Yahoo! News’ expanding editorial coverage and presence in Washington to a crowd that included many familiar faces from ABC’s DC bureau:  Ann Compton, Jonathan Karl, Rick Klein, Polson Kanneth, Richard Kaplan, Amy Walter and Robin Sproul.  Also in attendance were WaPo‘s Dana Milbank, Neil Patel of the Daily Caller, NJ’s Chris Frates, Jane Mayer from the New Yorker, CNN’s Dan Lothian and Alex Mooney, Politico’s Marty Kady and Keach Hagey, Judy Kurtz of The Hill, NBC’s Adam Verdugo, MSNBC’s Karen Finney, CQ Roll Call’s Mark Walters and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

Mary Kathryn Covert, Glenn Ballard, Michael Steel, Brianna Keilar

The Kalorama manse of lobbyist Juleanna Glover played host to The Week‘s first annual Academy Awards party last night.  Complete with Oscar-shaped cookies, popcorn and tuxedo-clad servers passing trays of Junior Mints, Milk Duds and Redvines, the event was a perfect balance of festive glitz and a casual night at the movies.

Despite the all-star lineup of party hosts (Ron Bonjean, Tammy Haddad, Juleanna Glover and Karen Finney), the fete was not over-attended, offering around 100 guests a relaxed atmosphere to mix, mingle and eat their weight in miniature grilled cheese sandwiches* (see: me).  Spotted taking in the festivities were FD’s Mary Kathryn Covert and Michael Steel, CNN’s Brianna Keilar, Sam Dealey of Qorvis, Sarah Bonjean, Janet Donovan, NRSC’s Brian Walsh,  Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times, soon-to-be USA Today‘s Jackie Kucinich, Doug Heye, The Hill‘s Emily Goodin, Mark Paustenbach, Glenn Ballard, Pepper Watkins, Jay Newton-Small, Jeremy Bash of the CIA, Barbara Martin, Becca Glover Watkins, Kimball Stroud, Washington Life‘s Kevin Chaffee, WaPo‘s Jonathan Capehart, Daily Caller’s Megan Mulligan,  UrbanDaddy’s Jeff Dufour and an uber-preggers Jayne Sandman.

L: Ron Bonjean and Jackie Kucinich R: Popcorn served in The Week funnels

L: Tammy Haddad with Lynn Sweet R: FishbowlDC entourage

The Week has recruited an all-star team of Washington party hosts to help with their first annual “Oscar Viewing Party.”  Tammy Haddad, Ron Bonjean, Juleanna Glover and Karen Finney will join The Week at Glover’s Kalorama manse on Sunday, February 27, 2011 for a toast to the Academy.  A sneak peek at the invitation offered hints of “red carpet arrivals” and suggested “festive attire.”

If the hosts’ past performances are any indication of attendance, this party is going to be packed.  By “festive,” we hope they mean tank tops and board shorts because it’s going to be caliente in there.

It’s day four of DogBowl 2010. We have several more spectacularly cute canine contestants to show you from scribes, media types and flacks around town. We know some of your dogs are getting rambunctious about wanting into the contest. Especially some pooch named Alvin. We’ll accommodate them. In the meantime, a long walk in the woods won’t hurt.

Time is running out. We believe that today is the final day of submissions. Send them to FishbowlDC@mediabistro.com or directly to FishbowlBetsy@gmail.com.

Carolyn McLean Robbins, a luxury lifestyle reporter covering AOL Travel, wrote in to promote her pup, but also to trash talk another contestant bearing the same name as her dog: “I saw the cutest dog post today and had to nominate Deacon. Mostly because he’s wayyy cuter than that OTHER Deacon on the list but also because I don’t think that any of the other dogs on here can say that they write their own blog.” Meet Deacon #2 below.

> Update #1: Time‘s Jay Newton-Small insists she has “THE coolest pooch  in town.” Meet Bella below. Photo credit: Time‘s Deputy Photography Editor Paul Moakley.

> Update #2: Brandon MacGillis, Comm officer for Pew Environment Group, thinks his French Bulldog Samantha is the winner. Meet Samantha below.

> Update #3: AP Producer Lila Ibrahim is the proud mom of Bassets George and Leroy. She says this is the photograph that will “clinch the competition.” We’ll see… Meet George and Leroy below.

> Update #4: Anna Edney with Bloomberg introduces us to her beloved Shaggy, a German Shepherd. “He’s so cute, I figured I’d enter him even though he passed away of a brain tumor at 6 last year. He was the love of my life.”

In Memory of Shaggy…

> Update #5: AP Television Senior Producer Tracy Brown writes in: “Couldn’t  have you thinking that Ibrahim is the only one at AP Television who has dogs (even if what they do should be done behind closed doors …)  Take a peek at my crazy Labradoodle Charlie and I’m sure you’ll find he has a charm of his own.  He does have a tendency to want to look people in the eye.” Meet Charlie below.

> Update #6: Readers, we have a long day ahead of us of pooches. Here comes Tchotchke from D.C. Photog Stacy Viera.  She says we can use the dog picture for the purposes of the contest only. He’s cute and all, but we weren’t going to sell him or anything. Meet Tchotchke below.

> Update #7: Meet Ike. His owner is Tammy Gordon, a food blooger who writes FloridaGirlinDC who lives in Cleveland Park neighborhood of D.C. She insists Ike is the winner of DogBowl 2010.

> Update #8: TBD Community Host Lisa Rowan says her dog is top dog “because I feel that Sgt. Friday here beats everyone in the size category.”

> Update #9: MSNBC Political Analyst and Democratic pundit Karen Finney says, “Let’s end the debate here and now.  My dog Mabel is THE cutest ever.” Meet Mabel.

> Update #10: We’ve made Alvin wait long enough. He’s apparently now angry, and we don’t want him getting rabid on us. His owner, Andy White, a New Media Strategist for Bully Pulpit Interactive/AKPD. White says Alvin (below) is listening to speeches at the recent Rally to Restore Sanity.

> Update #11: Watch out. A fierce competitor is upon us. Meet Abby. She belongs to Laura Cavender, who doesn’t quite fit the FishbowlDC profile but we’re letting it slide. Cavender is Comm. Director at U. Penn. She says Penn’s Prez is Chair of President Obama‘s Bioethics Commission. Fine, close enough.

QUOTES of the DAY

And one, and two, and one and two…Come on ladies, here’s a Halloween costume to burn into memory. It’s FishbowlDC’s and QGA’s Matt Dornic preparing to sweat to the oldies like only Richard Simmons can.

The work wife

“MSNBC this morning with my TV wife — Karen Finney to talk politics. Between 8:30 and 9.” — Comcast‘s Robert Traynham in a weekend Facebook update. Finney is a left-wing pundit.

Watch out. It’s angry Meghan McCain

“Dear Tucker Carlson and your website nobody reads – interviewing my “breasts fake twitter account” goes with this weeks sexism theme…” — The Daily Beast columnist and Dirty, Sexy, Politics author Meghan McCain, in a weekend tweet after The Daily Caller’s Alec Jacobs interviewed McCain’s bosom-based alter Twitter ego, McCainBoobette in a story that ran Friday.

Tapper clears things up

“I generally don’t offer political opinions. Not about who should win on Tuesday or decisions made by my employer.” — ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper in a weekend tweet after getting flak from watchers incensed by ABC’s invitation to BigGovernment.com’s Andrew Breitbart to appear (either digitally or otherwise) in Tuesday’s election coverage.

Scribe opts out of rally; C-SPAN will do

“Lots of sign waving people walking past my house en route to Stewart/Colbert rally. Tempted to go, but watching it on CSPAN sounds better.” — The Daily Caller‘s Alex Pappas in a weekend tweet.

Editor strives for balance in rush of hipsters

“The hipster force is strong on Capitol Hill today. Feel like I should do something yuppie-ish to balance it out.” — NJ “The Hotline’s” Executive Editor Reid Wilson in a weekend tweet.

Chicago chill

“Chilly in Chicago this morning. Just the way I like it.” — CBS White House radio reporter Mark Knoller in a weekend tweet. He traveled with POTUS to Chicago.

Fall flames

“First fire of the season. And in the fireplace!” — Slate and CBS’s John Dickerson in a weekend tweet.

They may be political opposites, but at American University Wednesday night, MSNBC  political analyst and former communications director of the DNC Karen Finney and public relations exec and GOP strategist Kevin Madden agreed the youth vote is always up for grabs. This, despite media coverage that young voters are less likely to vote this time around and have changed their political leanings out of disappointment.

“State by state, youth voting numbers are increasing,” Finney said. “Democrats and Republicans are learning how to find young people — traditional methods do not work. We have to go online to find them and that’s what we’re doing.”

Finney and Madden were panelists for AU’s American Forum, an hour-long interactive audio program with a live town-hall audience. The event, live streamed on the WashingtonPost.com’s Post Politics page and broadcast on Federal News Radio, allowed AU’s students – ranked most politically active in the nation by Princeton Review – to challenge Finney and Madden about the real motivation behind the Tea Party and the 2010 midterm elections.

“Young people had a very low view of Congress — 67 percent felt we needed a third party,” said  moderator and AU professor Jane Hall, citing analysis of young voters conducted by AU students  in CBS political analyst and renowned pollster Dotty Lynch‘s class. Analysis was released during the forum.

“Young people, old people, alive people, dead people — everyone hates Congress now,” said Madden, also former press secretary to Gov. Mitt Romney‘s presidential campaign and former press secretary to House Minority Leader John Boehner.

When presented with a question from the live Tweet wall …

Read more

MSNBC Political Analyst and former DNC Communications Director Karen Finney has started blogging for U.S News & World Report. She joins other recent arrivals such as Matthew Dallek , a visiting scholar at the D.C.-based Bipartisan Policy Center, and public affairs consultant Ron Bonjean.

Finney’s Wednesday post had the headline: How Democrats Can Answer Angry Voters

Read the entire post here.

Courtovich took this pic of Gaucho decorations.

Jim Courtovich, managing partner of Kearsarge Global Advisers, hosted his annual Gaucho party Saturday night. And he delivered with a great menu (pineapple martinis and chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches were crowd pleaser), late night party (Bob Schieffer’s midnight appearance) and a stellar guest list…

Savannah Guthrie, Betsy Fischer, Jonathan Martin, Jessica Yellin, Matt Cooper, Tammy Haddad, Jeff Zeleny, Julie Mason, John Harwood, Karen Finney, Anne Kornblut, Kasie Hunt, Erin McPike, Sasha Issenberg, Kiki Ryan, Christine Delargy, Rick Klein, Mark Murray, Abby Livingston, Michael Falcone, Ashley Parker, Libby Leist, Amie Parnes, Jay Newton Small, Lizzie O’Leary, Athena Jones, Sunlen Miller and Phil Elliott were just some of the media-types in attendance.

Politico‘s Mike Allen and NYT‘s Mark Leibovich also just missed each other at the party.

Also: Austan Goolsbee, Stephanie Cutter, Juleanna Glover, Christina Sevilla, Michael Feldman, Jill Zuckman and Sasha Johnson.

Jennifer Sergent, formerly with Scripps Howard, is reporting on her “DC by Design” blog today that journalists and pundits are to take a star turn in the trailer by Sex and the City set decorator Ondine Karady (above).

Karady wants to spruce up DC, and is shopping around a reality show called “Designing D.C.” (Shockingly, Karady believes D.C. lacks style.)

An excerpt from Sergent’s story:
Ondine gave me the video with the condition that I couldn’t post it directly, but I am allowed to describe it. Ondine, who is married to New York Times reporter James Rutenberg, obviously knows many high-profile journalists and pundits in town.

Those said to make regular appearances on the show: Ned Martel, a WaPo editor, Democratic consultant Karen Finney. Those who appear in the trailer: Nina Easton, Washington Bureau Chief for Fortune Magazine and FNC commentator and her husband, political strategist Russ Schriefer. She goes into their home to help with redecorating.

Other possible projects: find a dog house for President Obama; find a chair for V.P. Joe Biden.

Read the full story here.