First Lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign is getting such a big fat (unavoidable pun) burst of ink these days that it’s dangerously becoming comparative press wise to Bo the dog and the Salahis — some people are really tiring of hearing about it. (I admit to writing on all of the above subjects.)

Over the weekend there was yet another story on the First Lady’s anti-obesity campaign. In a story by Chicago Sun Times D.C. Bureau Chief and Politics Daily Columnist Lynn Sweet, she includes this critique from Obama on her mother’s broccoli:

FOOTNOTE: Mrs. Obama dished on how her mother, Marian Robinson, prepared broccoli when she was a kid.

“Let me tell you something. My mother didn’t know how to cook broccoli,” Mrs. Obama said. “It was watery and mushy, and that’s what we thought broccoli was. We thought you could eat it with a spoon and cut it with a knife. And I know a lot of parents out there cooking broccoli like that. It makes it hard to like broccoli if that’s how you’re cooking it.”

Roll Call’s Emily Heil and MSNBC’s Ken Strickland.

A slew of journalists gathered at the Tabard Inn last night to raise a glass to Terence Samuel and his new book “The Upper House,” a behind-the-scenes journey with the Senate’s ’06 freshmen class.

Present were Senator Jon Tester and Senator Amy Klobuchar who both recounted amusing stories from working with “Terry.” Klobuchar, who once took Samuels to a butter carving contest in Minnesota was shocked by everything that she had shared and “had forgotten until the articles and book came out.”

Spotted at the event were Roll Call’s Emily Heil, Chicago Sun Times’ Lynn Sweet, David Corn of Mother Jones, WaPo’s Mary Ann Akers, Garance Franke-Ruta and Perry Bacon, Newsweek’s Mike Isikoff, MSNBC’s Ken Strickland, Glenn Simpson, Evan Perez and Mike Crittenden from the WSJ, Tim Burger and CBS’ Christine Delargy.

L: Sen. Amy Klobuchar R: Terence Samuel

Alex Wagner starts her White House reporting gig at Politics Daily this week. She even jumped right in and appeared on Sunday’s online all-women “Woman UP” show hosted by Editor-in-Chief Melinda Henneberger.

On Monday, Henneberger explained, Politics Daily’s Lynn Sweet (D.C. Bureau Chief of Chicago Sun-Times who writes PD’s Daily Flotus column) “showed her around and made the other kids promise to play nice.”

Wagner’s past: She was Executive Director of Not on Our Watch, a global advocacy and grant making organization focused on stopping gross violations of human rights. The organization is led by the actors George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. (“The guys were my bosses,” she says. “Clooney and I did a trip to the Darfur border (along with Ann Curry from NBC and Nick Kristof from the NYT) and Damon and I did a trip to the Zimbabwe border – both last year.”) She was Editor in Chief of The Fader magazine in New York City, where she won several awards for the magazine’s coverage of burgeoning cultural movements in Brazil, China and South Africa. The magazine is devoted to promoting new musical artists. She spent four years at the magazine. Before The Fader, she was the cultural correspondent for the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC.

She once worked for a lifestyle magazine called Bikini.

Wagner has appeared on CNN, the BBC, MTV and VH-I and has been featured in the NYT, WSJ and WaPo.

As for her first week, she remarked to FishbowlDC: “Reporting from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue might possibly match Burma, Sudan and Zimbabwe in terms of sheer chaos and intensity. Only the sandwich options are a lot better.”

To watch her in a video on The Fader, go here.

The Week held their annual Opinion Awards last night at the W Hotel. This year’s event recognized WaPo wunderkind Ezra Klein, TNR’s Jonathan Chait and The Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Rob Rogers.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel kicked off the night with a little humor, calling the award “the most significant thing to happen to Ezra [Klein] since his bar mitzvah last week.”

“Morning Joe” hosts and the evening’s emcees Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski showed their love with a shout out to MSNBC’s David Shuster who is currently suspended from his job for an indefinite amount of time. Shuster and wife, Bloomberg’s Julianna Goldman later dodged questions about the suspension from Examiner’s Tara Palmeri, claiming a stomach ache.

In addition to the emcees and honorees, journalists packed the house last night. FishbowlDC spotted NBC’s Savannah Guthrie and Andrea Mitchell, CNN’s Dana Bash, Ed Henry and Jessica Yellin, Politico’s Patrick Gavin, Mike Allen and Anne Schroeder Mullins, CBS’ Christine Delargy, Tammy Haddad, Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson, WBJ’s Jen Nycz-Conner, Daily Caller’s Tucker Carlson, WaPo’s Amy Argetsinger and Jonathan Capehart, MSNBC’s Louis Burgdorf, Slate’s John Dickerson, Politics Daily’s Lynn Sweet, Yahoo’s Michael Calderone and Daily Beast’s Tina Brown and Ronnie Cho.

Also in attendance were Brad Dayspring, Hilary Rosen, Matt Cooper, Ben Bradlee, Sally Quinn, Juleanna Glover, as well as “Washington’s own George Clooney,” Kevin Madden (as described by several guests).

To wrap up the evening, The Week Editor-at-Large Sir Harold Evans moderated a panel debate between Senator Amy Klobuchar(D-MN) Governor Ed Rendell (D-PA), Rep.Eric Cantor (R-VA), and Republican strategist Steve Schmidt.

Examiner’s Tara Palmeri, WBJ’s Jen Nycz-Conner and award recipient, editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers.

Politics Daily’s Lynn Sweet typing away on the floor of the W Hotel, outside The Week’s Opinion Awards?

More on the event later today.

Last night, Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute and Fiscal Times Founder Peter G. Peterson feted the launch of The Fiscal Times with a cocktail soiree at the Newseum.

Joining Fiscal Times EIC Jackie Leo and DC editor Eric Pianin were media power players like NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Mark Whitaker, Examiner’s J.P. Freire, HuffPo’s Peter Cherukuri, ABC’s Emily Lenzner and Rick Klein, The Hill’s Christina Wilkie, Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson and Al Hunt, Politics Daily & Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet and Norah McAlvanah.

Also spotted mingling and partaking in the open bar were Dan and Meg Reilly, Amos Snead, Ron Bonjean, Michael Steel and media party circuit fixtures Politico’s Kiki Ryan, Tim Burger and CBS News’ Christine Delargy.

Check out the Fiscal Times here.

Fiscal Times’ Eric Pianin.

This is a sampling of time stamps (at least as they appear on news alerts or on individual Web sites) for the news of White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers stepping down.

Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun Times website: !2:26 p.m. White House Press Secretary Desiree Rogers to Step Down

Crain’s Chicago Business: 12:48: Desiree Rogers to Step Down From White House Job

The Hill: 1:47 p.m. Desiree Rogers Stepping Down as WH Social Secretary

Politico news alert: 2:01 p.m. Desiree Rogers to Resign

CBS News blog: 2:20 p.m. Desiree Rogers to Step Down

WaPo: News Alert: Desiree Rogers to Step Down at End of Month
2:26 p.m. EST Friday, February 26, 2010

MSNBC: 2:26 p.m. Desiree Rogers to Step Down

USA Today: 2:35 White House Social Secretary Steps Down

NY Daily News: 2:43 Obama’s Social Queen Quits

FNC’s Row 2 Seat 4 blog: 2:47 p.m. Breaking: White House Social Secretary to Depart Next Month

HuffPost: 3:03 p.m. Desiree Rogers STEPPING DOWN Next Month

Vanity Fair’s VF Daily blog: 3:19 p.m. White House Social Secretary Steps Down

NYT blog, The Caucus: 3:26 p.m. White House Social Secretary Resigns

Times are a-changin’ for the Gridiron Club. For the first time in its 124-year history, the Gridiron lifted its “off the record” rule at a dinner and allowed tweeting, CNN reported first (and tweeted).

USA Today‘s Susan Page, CNN’s John King, Time‘s Karen Tumulty, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times and Politics Daily’s Lynn Sweet and one of the Gridiron’s newest members Slate and CBS’ (and avid Tweeter) John Dickerson– just some of the journos at last night’s dinner whose Tweets we were following.

Sarah Palin- who was in town for a book signing- and Rep. Barney Frank were the winter dinner’s Republican and Democratic speakers, respectively.

Palin, who attended with husband Todd, poked fun at herself:

@mitchellreports: Surrounded by newsmen and women -Palin joked she likes being in dc – can see the russian embassy from her hotel room

@lynnsweet: Sarah Palin said she was at the Gridiron journo dinner ” to put a face to all those newspapers I do read.”

@ktumulty: Palin tells #gridiron that if situations had been reversed, biden would be writing memoir called “going rogaine”

@ktumulty: Palin tells #gridiron that in dc “I went out for a jog. Or as newsweek calls it–a photo shoot.”

@susanpage: More #palin at #gridiron: said she was addressing “leading journalists and intellectuals, or as I put it, a death panel.”

And some Frank highlights:

@susanpage: At #gridiron, Barney frank proposes reality tv show for palin-McCain: “John & Sarah minus 8.” says his show would be “king of queens.”

@mitchellreports: Barney doest tweet – says “maybe I lack intellectual curiousity bcuz I’m not that interested in what claire mccaskill had for lunch

And the closer…

@johnkingcnn: Governor Palin joins Gridiron Chorus for dinner final song, a twist on 12 Days of Christmas.

The Gridiron dinners are closed to the media- and club leaders say last night’s tweeting was just an experiment for now.

EARLIER on FBDC… Tonight: Journos’ Gridiron Dinner with Palin and Rep. Frank

RELATED… AP: Palin pokes fun at herself at journalists’ dinner

Notes from a briefing room press insider…

Afghanistan TBA: In the first day back in the Brady briefing room in two weeks, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs fielded a lot of lingering questions on the Afghan troop decision timeline. Another Sit Room meeting is scheduled for 1.5 hours this evening, and while RG has already ruled out an announcement this week, no further meetings are scheduled. (Yet.) As CBS’s Chip Reid pushed on the “dithering” criticism and whether the WH felt pressured by the angst of U.S. allies, RG flipped the questioning tables to drill Reid on his sources for such a sentiment. Reid said he thought RG should be familiar with such criticism, and an almost Who’s-on-First-like back-and-forth ensued, with RG eventually joking, “We could play the Jeopardy! version of this.” When Reid posed an unrelated follow-up on a critical analysis by Leslie Gelb — shared by “other analysts” — on POTUS’s recent Asia jaunt, RG jabbed, “We’re going to play this game again?”

Quotable: RG, on the odds that health care will make its way through the Senate and reconciliation process before January to meet the WH “deadline”: “You guys are better odds makers than me.” (He also noted that “that’s our hope” and it “continues to be our goal” — which seem like less hearty words than when previously asked this question.)

A True Team of Rivals: After Fox’s Wendell Goler slipped on citing the new WH counsel Bob Bauer, instead referencing Gary Bauer as the new top West Wing lawyer, RG deadpanned, “That might be some news.” (Sure would have helped an otherwise slow, rainy day….)

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“By the People” may be a documentary on the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, but the real break-out star of last night’s HBO premiere is Ronnie Cho.

DC media types like Chris Matthews, Candy Crowley and Richard Wolffe, and Team Obama- David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs, David Plouffe- all make frequent appearances, but Cho, the former campaign staffer turned admin staffer, was filmed working early morning hours in his boxer shorts. Now that is dedication. He tells FBDC, “I did it for him, I did it for America.”

The film is by Amy Rice and Alicia Sams and produced in part by actors Edward Norton and Tate Donovan, who were both at last night’s DC screening.

“We always hoped to get the opportunity to show it,” Norton said in comments after the film aired. “I look around the room and think this is our government now,” he said to laughter.

It was standing room only at the Park at Fourteenth– the White House’s Tommy Vietor, Jon Favreau and Obama’s Iowa political director Mike Blake were there, as well as NYT‘s Jeff Zeleny and Chicago Sun-Times Lynn Sweet, who were all featured in the HBO documentary.

“Shower scene is coming up,” Vietor joked, maybe one too many times. “That line is getting old” was friends’ response.

Photos continue after the jump…

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