Politico‘s Dylan Byers is rather kind to himself when describing his cantankerous relationship with NYT‘s Nate Silver. This is how he characterized reaching out to Silver for a post published Thursday. As you can see below, Byers framed it rather timidly, saying that Silver has not been a fan of his blog or of Politico. Not to put too fine a point on it — oh, but why not? — but not only has Silver not been playing kissing games with Byers, but he has, in fact, called him a “terrible journalist.” The bad blood between them, in part, is over this item, in which Byers questioned whether Silver would be a one-term celeb if his election predictions were wrong.

“POLITICO reached out to Silver to ask how much of an effect he believed his data and analysis had on voters in 2012, if any. Silver, who has been a critic of this blog and of POLITICO in the past, did not respond.”

We like that Byers reached out to someone who hates his guts. But we think Byers’ line should’ve gone something like this: “Silver, who loathes every cell in my body and would probably like to rip out every hair follicle in my goatee, did not respond.”

Today we naturally pair up TNR Editor Franklin Foer and NYT‘s Nate Silver.

By Eddie Scarry and Betsy Rothstein

The New Republic celebrated its relaunch last night at Bibiana Restaurant where politicos and journalists from print and TV mingled with bigwigs like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.J.) and Americans for Tax Reform Prez Grover Norquist over hors d’oeuvres and an open bar. The highlight of the evening: Answering the question, “Who is Franklin Foer?”

Meanwhile, we spoke to Publisher and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, who was all smiles and relaxed. “I’m feeling super exited, energized,” he said, as we cornered him at the bar. “It’s a big moment for us.” Asked if he’s been sleeping, he replied, “I will sleep tonight.”

At around 7:30 p.m. FishbowlDC approached a man with glasses who we mistook for NYT‘s Nate Silver. We were all ready to ask if he was excited to be in the same room as Politico‘s Dylan Byers, who during the presidential election questioned whether Silver was a “one-term celebrity.”

The mystery man in question had a laugh with two other male attendees before denying that he was Silver. Except then he said he was Silver. Then said he wasn’t. Then someone else said he was. Finally, he identified himself as Franklin Foer, editor of TNR (pictured above). But by that point, we didn’t believe that either.

After consulting Google images, it was revealed that he was indeed Foer. It was our mistake, though Foer did acknowledge that he shares “some Semitic features” with Silver.

In a party speech, Hughes said the challenge ahead is to “produce a magazine 20 times a year that is as good” as the relaunch issue, which features an interview with President Obama. He called the TNR team “the best in the business” and said he wants the magazine to “become financially sustainable in the coming years.” In a moment that drew audible awes from the crowd, he admitted, “The day that Frank Foer agreed to come back to TNR was one of the best days of my life.”

Who showed up? See more pictures. Read more

Slogan for ’90 Harkin campaign I was privileged to work on was Courage of His Convictions. Right then, right now. He was a mentor to many.

— David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) January 26, 2013

President Obama‘s outgoing strategist and advisor David Plouffe recently made his smashing debut on Twitter. So far, 10 tweets and thousands of immediate followers. But among those tweets, he manages to do what Washington does well, which is to inject yourself into a big news story. In this case, the story was Sen. Tom Harkin‘s (D-Iowa) announcement to retire. It’s not nearly as grotesque as others sound when they do it.

Plouffe does admit he is in need of “serious detox” from his former job. This morning he writes, “1st day post WH. Minor ice closes/delays schools. First instinct is to think if announcements on the level. Need serious detox.”

The former advisor has just 35 followers and 8,515 followers. Which journalists are among the handpicked 35? They include NYT‘s Nate Silver, Washington Bureau Chief David Leonhardt, National Political Correspondent Jeff Zeleny, Politico‘s Jonathan Martin (this could get interesting with Martin’s teenage girl tweeting style), CBS Political Director John Dickerson, NBC “MTP” host David Gregory, WSJ tech columnist Walt Mossberg, WaPo‘s Capital Weather Gang, and NBC Political Director Chuck Todd.

Sometimes a simple “no comment” is the way to go. Or even blatantly  ignoring requests for comment can provide the illusion that nothing bad is happening. But in Politico Dylan Byers‘ case, not responding to Out magazine on NYT‘s Nate Silver‘s charge that he’s a “terrible journalist” had the effect of something you never want: deafening silence.

Byers has never explained the assertion he boldly shared during the presidential race that Silver was a “one-term celebrity” as his headline blared. And in today’s story in Out, in which Silver is named their “Person of the Year” he takes Byers down about 25 notches. (Not to worry too much though. Byers still ranks high in Mediaite‘s book. In a scramble to do a quick BuzzFeed imitation, they named him among the top media journalists in the U.S.)

An excerpt from Out… Read more

Say hello to Benjy Sarlin, who covers politics for Talking Points Memo, where he is readjusting to life after the 2012 election.

His colleague, Evan McMorris-Santoro, says this about Benjy: “Benjy is a Twitter virtuoso. He needs to stop making me look bad by being so good at hashtagery.” But another colleague, Igor Bobic, jokes on Twitter that he’s a “total dick.” (At least we think he’s kidding.)

Previously Benjy reported on national politics for The Daily Beast, where he was Washington correspondent. Born and raised in New York City, he covered city politics for the New York Sun until its untimely death (though, it’s still in shambles with the occasional zombie editorial). To be truthful, we’re still don’t think we’ve gotten to the core of Benjy Sarlin. But we do know a lot of seemingly useless details.  He has an unhealthy attachment to barbecue and Twitter. “Twitter is like my Kryptonite, both the source of my reporting strength and its biggest weakness,” he tells me in an email exchange. “I get annoyed when I see stupid stuff floating around and if you’ve seen something silly pop up in one person’s feed, you’re about to see it everywhere, only worse. It’s fun engaging with people over these little dust ups, but I think I’m irrationally invested.” On the subject of astrology: “I don’t believe in astrology, but I’m willing to be convinced if Nate Silver posts some kind of chart.” Strange hobbies: He insists he is an accomplished juggler. Fine dining: He wants to dine with George Washington (if he could, that is).

Perhaps one of those most interesting things about Benjy is his name and its weird spelling. “My name is almost uniformly misspelled thanks mostly to those dog movies in the 1980s, even by friends and family,” he explains. “‘Benjy’ was the name of my dad’s closest childhood friend, so that’s how I ended up with the particular spelling. My folks are Jewish and you’re not supposed to name someone after a living person, but at the time I was born the original Benjy was in the Hare Krishne and had changed his name to — I believe — Paramananda Das. Since then, he’s left the Hare Krishne and gone back to his old name, so I’m actually not sure if it’s kosher for me to stick with Benjy. Maybe I’ll change my byline to Paramananda Sarlin?”

If you were a carbonated beverage, which would you be? 

I’d like to think of myself as pre-Schumer Four Loko, but I’m really not hardcore enough to justify it. Let’s go with root beer.

How often do you Google yourself? 

Phsaw, I got alerts for that.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever said to an editor/boss (or vice versa)?

My first day as an intern out of college, my only task was to set up a device to record a phone interview between an editor and Joe Wilson. I blew it and the whole thing was lost. To the editor it was probably the most minor daily annoyance, but to me I had just screwed up the only real world task I’d ever been assigned about as badly as possible. I was all nerves for a week after that.

Who is your favorite working journalist and why? 

Present TPM company excluded (and really, they are the best), I’m a big fan of Molly Ball at The Atlantic. It’s hard to find good campaign reporting that has a broad national scope but also involves talking to actual voters and she’s amazing at tying the two together. Voters have interesting things to say, really!

Do you have a favorite word? 

“Gluttony” is an incredible feat of English language. Say it out loud — gluttony. It sounds exactly like what it means. Aliens could land tomorrow and understand “gluttony” the first time they heard it.

Who would you rather have dinner with – CNN’s Candy Crowley, ABC’s Martha Raddatz or Fox News’ Megyn Kelly? Tell us why.

Funny enough, I was on the same plane as Candy Crowley on the way back from the final presidential debate last month. We had a coffee while we waited to board and she could not be nicer. I’d just spent the last week talking to Republicans in Florida who were incensed over her mid-debate Benghazi fact check and passed on a couple of choice quotes. I was extremely impressed with the way she handled both the debate itself and the backlash afterwards. She took the complaints against her seriously enough to defend her performance but she had enough perspective to not make herself the story and enough wisdom to know everyone would just move on to the next outrage in a few days time. Which is a long way of saying that I’d be glad to get dinner.

Much more on Benjy after the jump…

Read more

Before getting down to the serious business of discussing the fiscal cliff, RNC Spokesman Sean Spicer and DNC Spokesman Brad Woodhouse showed up on MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown” this morning to show off their newly shorned locks.

Over the weekend, the odd couple turned up on ABC’s “This Week” to have their heads shaved by ABC’s Jonathan Karl for a good cause: St. Baldricks, an organization which raises money to cure childhood cancer. Spicer made a presidential campaign bet with Woodhouse and lost. Ultimately both agreed to shave their heads to donate funds.

“That’s a scary sight,” cracked Woodhouse as he watched a replay of ABC “This Week” segment in which Karl shaved them. “I’m never making a bet without consulting Nate Silver,” Spicer chimed in.

Host Chuck Todd couldn’t resist razzing them. “It’s a good thing you’re both already married,” he said, examining their new look.

Woodhouse shot back, “They shave celebrity heads. They would shave yours, I’m sure. I have clippers in the car.” Todd quickly moved on to the fiscal cliff.

The final results of the popular vote aren’t in yet, although Obama’s chances are looking pretty good. Nate Silver says he’s ‘likely’ to win, so we’ll take his word for it. But for a while, things were looking up for Romney and Donald Trump was ranting away, bringing up the inevitable Electoral College vote debate.

Before Tuesday’s election, Mo Rocca, correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning and star of the PBS documentary Electoral Dysfunction, spoke to Mediabistro for its So What Do You Do? column and pondered what would happen if Romney won the popular vote: “When that happens, the Electoral College won’t just be suspended; it will blow up in a fiery ball. Republicans are not going to stand for it, and Democrats already got burned. So, finally, there will be unity in this country and people will say we’ve got to junk this thing. The Electoral College has totally outlived its usefulness.”

Read the full interview in So What Do You Do, Mo Rocca, CBS Correspondent and Cooking Channel Host?

On Wednesday morning’s “Morning Joe” program, Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod made an on-air bet that he would shave off the mustache he has worn for 40 years if President Obama lost Minnesota, Michigan or Pennsylvania. According to HuffPost, Axelrod said, “”I will come on ‘Morning Joe’ and I will shave off my mustache of 40 years if we lose any of those three states.”

That might be a dangerous strategy. Maybe a voter who was planning on voting for Obama will switch his or her vote JUST to see the freakshow that hides under that hair on upper lip. Host Joe Scarborough joined in and said that if Obama won all those states, he’d grow a mustache.

The show resulted in mustache demands right here in Washington… Read more

(A Sprinkling of Things we Think you Ought to Know…)

Is John King disappearing?!– Two days in a row now CNN’s John King is missing from our Google alerts. Typically the real John King appears in at least one of the results. Instead, here are the “John King”s who have turned up and we’ll be honest, they’re not all sounding so hot.

1. Former Director of Jail Authority Operations John King of Charleston, W.Va: This King was arrested Tuesday night on suspicions of drunk driving. It marked his third arrest related to driving while intoxicated within the last two years. In April 2011, King was found parked in his driveway with his car still running. His blood alcohol content level was .239. In February, he was arrested after almost driving into several parked cars. His BAC was .191. It’s illegal to operate a vehicle in any states with a BAC of .08.

2. Aviation educator John King: This King has been selected by the National Aeronautic Association to receive the Brewer Trophy for Aviation Education this fall. The award is meant to acknowledge the “passion and dedication in making aviation knowledge more accessible to pilots worldwide by combining elegant technology with clear, fun teaching featuring courseware that simplifies complex concepts for students,” according to a really poorly written NAA release.

3. School Board candidate John King of Indiana: This King is running to unseat an incumbent on the school board in Jasper, Ind. But it turns out he might be a white supremacist. King was once involved with a website called savewhitepeople.com and even cut a video for them. From TriStateHomepage.com:

The video begins with an introduction from King. “I’m John King from the White Voice at savewhitepeople.com. I’m here to talk to you on the subject of global white genocide.” Following King’s opening dialogue, the video transitions into photos, some gruesome, of Caucasian people who King claims were injured by people of different races. Then he goes through graphs and numbers explaining why he believes the white race is rapidly declining and at risk of extinction.

“I am not against anybody. I’m just talking about a ecological scientific problem that exists worldwide,” says King, who compares white genocide to whales in danger of extinction.

Nate Silver shares his media diet– In an interview with AdWeek Nate Silver, who runs NYT‘s “FiveThirtyEight” election blog, said he consumes a wide variety of news sources. “If you’re keeping yourself in the bubble and only looking at your own data or only watching the TV that fits your agenda then it gets boring,” he said. “I think reading broadly, but skeptically. That’s key. You have to try to avoid the temptation to jump on the bandwagon with political news, especially on Twitter where things go viral every couple of hours. In a campaign you don’t have game-changing events every single day. Most of these small viral things burn out. So it’s kind of about waiting those things out but not blinding yourself to the news.”

“Leave Britney Alone” guy visits D.C.– Back in 2007 Chris Crocker gained a little notoriety when a YouTube video he created went viral. In the video, Crocker, eyes smeared with black makeup, hysterically cries to the camera, “LEAVE BRITNEY [SPEARS] ALONE!” It came at a time when Spears having something of a public meltdown. We found Crocker was in Washington at a bar in Dupont Circle. Earlier in the day he had visited the White House. Crocker wouldn’t let us question him at the bar. The gentleman who was with him (he identified himself as Crocker’s manager) said it would be best for Crocker to do the interview when he hasn’t been drinking. So we caught up him today and learned more. He’s in town promoting a documentary about himself, titled “Me @ the Zoo.” The Hirschhorn museum is hosting a public showing of the film tonight at 7:45 p.m. Below is a picture Crocker tweeted yesterday: “In the White House briefing room,” he wrote. Crocker told FBDC that he went on a private tour of the White House and described it as “surreal.” Asked about his D.C. experience as a whole, he said, “It’s a beautiful city.” But he didn’t know what to expect considering what he’d heard. “I actually used to have a tranny friend who lived in D.C. and she used to tell me how the park had needles,” he said, referring to McPherson Square.