Quotes of the Day

“I hate that bitch.” — Lesley Murphy, the Washington, D.C. political consultant who was sent home last night on ABC’s “The Bachelor” after ultimately deciding not to tell the Bachelor that she was falling in love with him. She was talking about the villainous Tierra LiCausi, an emotional woman who was sent home last night because she couldn’t stop crying and fighting with the other women in competition for Sean Lowe‘s love.

“Living large at 42, Joe.” — Politico Executive Editor Jim VandeHei on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this morning. His birthday is today. Amazing, he got a rather low-key mention in Politico Playbook, curiously coming in just after Robert Griffin III and USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page. What the hell, third?

SOTU guest suggestions

“Waiting for a Dem to invite a homeless penguin b/c of climate change and Republican to invite a destitute coal exec b/c of EPA to SOTU.” — BuzzFeed Washington Bureau Chief John Stanton.

Politico Playbook publish time: 7:40 a.m.

NPR freelancer sick of unruly toddlers

“Oh lady who sets her toddlers free in the lobby every day, we may have words.” — NPR freelancer Lizzie O’Leary, who recently opened up to Cosmo mag about her painful bout with endometriosis and why she left CNN — obviously she can’t go on the air on Vicodin. In the story, she mentioned her intellectual prowess. The quote: “I got the amazing chance to be a CNN correspondent, but my body just wasn’t capable of doing that. But it’s also been this very strange gift. For so long, I defined myself as a journalist, and in the time when I’ve been sick, I’ve learned to define myself as a daughter and a sister and a girlfriend and an intellectual.”

Catholic newsflash for the media

“Dear Media — just because a group has ‘Catholic’ in its name does not mean it speaks for Catholics. i.e. Catholics United.” — John Kartch, spokesman to Americans for Tax Reform Prez Grover Norquist.

The Observer

“I believe Maria Cantwell got a new haircut (or at least is styling a little differently) and I like the side bang.” — Roll Call‘s Meredith Shiner on the Democratic senator from Washington state.

Media writer fully expects CBS to blow him off

“The Erik Wemple Blog has reached out to CBS News for perspective on all of this. We expect absolutely no response.” — The conclusion of WaPo Erik Wemple‘s story on CBS Major Garrett‘s unexpected explosion of “shirty” profanity Monday. Garrett, CBS’s Chief White House Correspondent, hasn’t yet responded to the torrent of eager reporters. But he did say this: “Monday before SOTU is always slow. Pity. I was speaking to @JOSreports. He knows why. I hear S#%* is REALLY hitting the fan in Damascus.”

Important Q to Ponder from the R media: “Is surgical removal of @Toure‘s lips from @BarackObama‘s posterior covered by ObamaCare? #justcurious.” — Newsbuster‘s Ken Shepherd. Touré c0-hosts MSNBC’s “The Cycle.”

Which Washington reporter just went on book leave?

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Reporters attending the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte this week might as well have to walk through concrete with their hands tied behind their backs and stuffed into a trunk to get wherever they need to go. This afternoon attending a John F. Kennedy Library Panel could prove to be trickier than one might imagine.

This just in from the media contact:

“Prior to this afternoon’s forum [at 4 p.m], I wanted to check in one final time regarding press details for today’s event: • To enter One Bank of America Center (1BAC), please use the entrance at College Street and 5th Street.  I’ve attached a map for your reference. • All guests must proceed through a magnetometer for a security screening. • Doors will open at 3:00pm. Please try arrive at least 20 minutes early to allow time to pass through the security checkpoint.”

A magnetometer, huh?

Trusty Wikipedia tells us that a magnetometer measures the strength or direction of magnetic fields. They are different from metal detectors and can measure metal of larger depth such as cars, and have been used to locate submarines, sunken ships and toxic waste drums. So journos, if you plan to go to this, leave your submarines at home and try not to ram your waste drums through the door.

On the panel: NBC MTP host David Gregory, NYT political reporter Matt Bai, Political Strategist Maria Cardona, Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.

Quotes of the Day

Annie and Ezra’s honeymoon breakdown

“To welcome US tourists, hotel in Hanoi is serving pancakes with corn syrup and playing Jack Johnson.” — Slate‘s (soon to be NYT) Annie Lowrey succumbs to the addictive lure of Twitter during her honeymoon with WaPo‘s Ezzy Klein, who at least retweets her. While Annie at least wrote about the trip. Klein, meanwhile, tweeted about the Eurodeal piece by Sarah Kliff, who writes for his Wonkbook Blog. How romantic.

Tschida continues quest to get rid of House demons

As we already know, ABC7 reporter Stephen Tschida‘s household gadgets keep turning on by themselves. An update: “Another technician here to find out why TV’s keep coming on in middle of night. Shook his head and just asked about the history of house!”

HuffPost‘s Sam Stein gets blitzed

“Guess what i did last night? i ‘boozed up’ some sources… in addition to boozing up myself. BUSTED.” (Take that James O’Keefe.)

A “new” idea from “Politico”

“Tomorrow we launch our newest email newsletter! It tracks the latest news in the timber & logging industry; we’re calling it ‘Morning Wood.’” — FakeJimVandeHei.

An Amtrak ticket agent recently said this to NYT‘s Matt Bai: ‘If you had any common sense, you’d have heard me the first time.” If you missed the story earlier in the week by Politico‘s Patrick Gavin on why D.C. journos/pundits can’t stand the Acela,  read here.

Unnecessary Tweet of the Day

“I want an adorably tiny pet. Example: teacup pig. Or a hedgehog.” — Roll Call feature writer Jessica Estepa.

Quotes of the Day

Whose Lips?

Question of the hour…“Is Martin Bashir ever coming back? Or are we just going to have rotating weeks of Ezra Klein and [Jonathan] Capehart at 3 p.m. on MSNBC?” — Politico‘s Jennifer Epstein in a Tuesday tweet.

Journo sees bloodshed in Syria

“Just once I’d like to get through a day without seeing another dead child in Syria. I think I’ve seen four today. One is too much. Ever.” — NPR’s Andy Carvin in a Tuesday tweet.

HuffPost Hill snaps at Politico scribe

“No shit,” wrote HuffPost Hill (Editor: Eliot Nelson) in a reactionary RT of Politico‘s Byron Tau‘s message: “Matt Bai says Pawlenty failed to articulate a compelling reason for his candidate.” Read Bai’s piece here.

Buttry is butt of own joke

And now, JRC Employee and former TBD Community Engagement Director Steve Buttry gets a laugh at his own expense… “Who booked a flight this early? Me? Where do I complain about that?” By the way, he’s at Omaha Eppley Airfield, which he embarrassingly checked into on foursquare.

Journos on the run

“Morning run thru beautiful Dubuque–past a giant statue of ‘American Gothic’” — Politico‘s Glenn Thrush in a Tuesday tweet.

“Went running this am for the first time in 2 years, forgot how great it makes me feel. Machines at the gym just don’t compare.” — The Washington Examiner‘s Freeman Klopott in a Tuesday tweet.

The Media Critic

“Amazing how people cannot quote properly. Perry didn’t say ‘almost treasonous’ — quote was “almost treacherous … treasonous.” — Human Events’ Tony Lee in a Tuesday tweet. He points out that lefty ThinkProgress got the quote wrong by leaving out treacherous…see here. He adds that CNN’s Peter Hamby was among the few to get it right.

Apparently the neanderthals over at the Washington Examiner Circulation Department don’t comprehend the phrase, “no means no.” They apparently think “no” means yes, please come over and hang out all over my lawn. And have a picnic while you’re at it.

We’ve written about this matter before. In one case, NYT Magazine writer Matt Bai complained about receiving the paper against his will at two different homes in the D.C. area for years. In another, Media Matters communications employee Tyrone Gayle had a exasperating weekend of the Examiner trying to force itself on him by landing daily on his doorstep.”No one likes you,” he said pointedly. A little harsh. But this is what forced entry elicits: unbridled rage.

Now a woman named “Sue” on a Cleveland Park Yahoo! group is complaining that her entire block is being littered with copies of the paper. We’re withholding her surname for safety purposes. “The unwanted Examiner newspaper is back: copies littered my block on Sunday. I recycled mine and the ones delivered to out-of town neighbors, and called the customer service number this morning. (It’s on the bag: 866-733-7323)

“A bit of good news: I got a human right away. A second bit of good news: first, the customer service rep said each neighbor had to call. But I reminded her that these were like signs saying ‘Hi, Burglar, I’m away’ and she agreed to check. Sure enough, each of those neighbors had ‘stopped’ The Examiner in the past. She sighed and said ‘I’ll send out the stop order again.’”

Another weekend. Another media type gets assaulted by the Washington Examiner. The scars may not be visible, but inside is what counts.

Tyrone Gayle, a communications associate for Media Matters, writes on Twitter: “Dear Washington Examiner, please stop dropping off your poor excuse for a publication on my doorstep. Nobody likes you. Sincerely, All of DC”

Is Gayle a newspaper bully? If so, he’s not alone. Like NYT Magazine political writer Matt Bai, Gayle received the paper at his home despite never subscribing to the publication.While Bai’s steam of hate has had a chance to build from years of getting the paper against his will, Gayle’s mere days of receiving the publication has left him acutely aggravated.

“I live in Columbia Heights, and have gotten it two days too many now,” Gayle told FishbowlDC. “I leave it on my porch, hoping the delivery guy will get the message.”

This is war. NYT Magazine political writer Matt Bai is at odds with the Washington Examiner. Or more specifically, with the publication’s Circulation Department, which refuses to take no for an answer.

Call this a case of forced delivery. Bai says he has no desire to read the newspaper that has been relentlessly delivered for many, many years to his Bethesda home and before that, his Northwest D.C. home. Not once has Bai signed up to receive the Examiner, but like a lost puppy, it keeps showing up on his doorstep. Despite verbal protests, week after week he wakes up to it.

“You can keep dropping the @dcexaminer at my door, but you can’t make me read it. Or bring it inside, for that matter,” Bai wrote on Twitter this past Sunday.

Last month we reported the news of the Examiner‘s unwelcome advances on homes in Adams Morgan. A resident wrote on the Adams Morgan Listserv that the newspaper was trashing the neighborhood. At the time Editor Stephen Smith told FBDC, “Our circulation staff does its best to quickly handle complaints such as this.”

We asked Bai more about his conundrum. Has he ever subscribed to the newspaper? His reply was a curt: “Certainly not.” He later explained, “I’ve called several times. It stops for a bit, then restarts. I’m sure they have to give advertisers a certain number.”

Bai refers to the newspaper as a “thing.” He explained that he has tried to make it stop. “There’s a number on the bag that’s supposed to stop delivery,” he said. “It worked for a while, but then the thing starts showing up again.”

QUOTES of the DAY

D.C. blogger chills out in Caribbean

“Last full day and night in http://www.mustique-island.com/ then back to cold and real life!”–Washington/LA “Pamela’s Punch” blogger Pamela Sorensen in a Monday tweet. She’s traveling in Mustique, an island in the southern Caribbean.

More importantly: Coburn’s beard is gone

“Am very disappointed Sen. Coburn decided to shave. Come on senator! The facial hair caucus needs more members.” — NBC’s Chuck Todd in a Monday morning tweet on Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

Less importantly: Coburn ‘disgusted’ by media

“I’ve pretty well been disgusted by all the media, right and left, after this episode,” Sen. Coburn declared Sunday on NBC’s MTP.

Networks and outlets compete for preconception

“..Americans increasingly customize their information, picking up radically different perspectives from whichever sources they trust – Fox News or MSNBC, Newsmax or Huffington Post. There is very little shared experience in the nation now; there are only competing versions of the experience, consumed in such a way as to confirm whatever preconception you already have, rather than to make you reflect on them.”– NYT writer Matt Bai in a Sunday “Week in Review” piece.

Not sex, Twitter followers

“Just joined the Mile High Club…by which I mean thank you to my 5280th follower.” — TPM‘s Brian Beutler in a suggestive weekend tweet.

Buttry gets anal

“Even I am not anal enough to fix the typo in my last tweet when it was the night before (but still anal enough to let you know I noticed).” — TBD‘s Community Engagement Director Steve Buttry in a sequence of words we’re sure he intended due to his surname. The stinging mistake? “Excellent piece on violence, not viokent rhetoric.” (Considering the sensitive nature of his weekend — “I just had blood drawn and spat into a tube to contribute DNC for a genetics study” he wrote, citing leukemia and MDS in loved ones as the reason — we hope things went as well as possible.)

Blind quote…

“And Pareene? What a d–k…” — A longtime D.C. journo remarking on Salon’s Alex Pareene after we published this item late last week.

Reporter contemplates tattoo

“I wonder what kind of tattoo I should get now that my story assignment has been changed to the DC Tattoo Expo.” — ABC7 Reporter Mike Conneen in a weekend tweet. Conneen told FishbowlDC that he never wound up with one. “I’m still tattoo-free,” he DM’ed me. “But I did get a free bottle of sea salt nasal spray. …Apparently it has some connection to sea salt moisturizer and other products for new tattoos.”

WaPo’s correction of a correction

“Classic: WashPost correction today says that the paper misspelled the Washington Capitals as the ‘Capitols’ in a previous correction.” — U.S. News & World Report‘s Paul Bedard in a Monday morning tweet.

Scribe meets Roller Derby

“First time I’ve ever been to a roller derby. This is pretty cool, though I have no idea what’s going on or who’s scoring.” — NJ “The Hotline’s” Executive Editor Reid Wilson in a weekend tweet.

Journo’s fantasy is shattered

“Just was FB friended by someone named Lani Anderson. For a sec, I thought it was Loni Anderson, and that my boyhood dream had come true.” — former TBD GM and digital consultant Jim Brady in a recent tweet. (This one fell through the cracks. It’s from last week.)

NBC reporter claims he handled White House snack drawer

“Hey @savannahguthrie @chucktodd @athenajones let the record reflect that on 1-15-11 @ 1641 viq did replenish the snack drawer in WH booth” — NBC’s Mike Viqueira in a weekend tweet.

The Sweet’N Low Police

“Well-dressed old woman trying to steal sweet’n low at my local deli. ‘They fell!’ she says, when caught. They didn’t fall.” — Digital Producer for CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” Steve Krakauer in a weekend tweet.

Tschida is so ‘DOPE’

“Photographer keeps calling me DOPE! but kinda weird. Think it’s a term of endearment. Seems to be enjoying himself. laughing a LOT!” — ABC7′s wild train rider Stephen Tschida in a tweet from last Friday. 

Weird coincidence

“‘Restaurant critics pay in cash,’ the stranger next to me at lunch tells her friends — just as I’m peeling off twenties for my meal.” — WaPo‘s Food Critic Tom Seitsema in a Friday tweet.

Unnecessary Tweet of the Day

“Buying thinner socks so I don’t have to go home and change. #tbdnight” — (M. Rumsey i.e. xmattiusx) in a weekend tweet. (A shining example of why local journalism is working so well.)

Say hello to National Journal’s Bara Vaida.

Vaida writes about lobbying and advocacy for NJ and helped to spearhead the creation of Under The Influence.

She’s been hard at work recently on NJ’s State of Lobbying issue, which hits stands this Friday, March 20th.

What does your morning reading list include? The Washington Post (the actual paper… my favorite way to read news) and then my Google Reader which pulls everything else I need into one place on my computer.

What single person has played the biggest role or has had the biggest influence on your career? I’ve been lucky to have had a number of mentors but the person who stands out is my English professor in college. She encouraged me to get into journalism.

How many suits do you own? Four work suits, three ski suits. I have my priorities straight.

What is the name of your cell phone ring? iPhone’s standard.

How many emails do you receive a day? How many do you answer? Probably about 200 emails and I answer 50-75 of them.

Where do you power-lunch? My desk mostly, but some of my favorite places to meet sources: Tosca, Bangkok Joe’s and coffee at the many Starbucks across town.

What’s your favorite or go-to drink? A glass of red wine.

Who is your favorite active journalist? I have many but I enjoy Bethany McLean, an excellent business reporter with Vanity Fair and Matt Bai with The New York Times Magazine.

What subject line in an email grabs your attention? Anything that says “lobbyist” or “K Street.”

What section of the Sunday Washington Post do you read first? Opinion

If you ran a doctor’s office or a bank, what cable station would you have on in your waiting room or lobby? The Food Network.

What kind of dog should the Obamas get and what should they name their new pet? A chow chow mix (because they look like living teddy bears and mixes are nicer than purebreds) I would never presume to tell anyone what to name their dog.

Who would you most enjoy seeing parodied on SNL? Rahm Emmanuel versus Rush Limbaugh celebrity Jeopardy could be a funny skit.

Leno or Letterman? Stewart or Colbert? Letterman and Stewart.

Taking a cue from The Chris Matthews Show here, tell us something we don’t know… I’m totally nuts for my dog, Barkley — a chow-chow mix.

Good morning Washington.

Got a blind item, interesting link, funny note, comment, birthday, anniversary or anything of the sort for Morning Reading List? Drop us a line or let us know in the tips box below.

We’ve got your morning mix of media Muesli after the jump…

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