Earlier in the week we reported that The Daily Caller Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson has been bopping around town on his wife’s Vespa. We later heard from Daily Caller Publisher Neil Patel: “Here it is. It’s a little more feminine than the one you posted. Also, just so you know that we have a well-balanced office, this is my Ford F250 pickup truck.  I can fit Tucker’s Scooter in the back.”

The Daily Caller‘s Publisher Neil Patel makes the announcement this morning that Aaron Finely is leaving Politico to join The Daily Caller as V.P. of Sales. Finley had been with Politico for five years. He joined just after the launch. Politico insiders aren’t acting fazed by this move. They used words like “rank and file sales guy” and understand his desire for more money and more of a leadership role. Finley’s title at Politico was “National Advertising Director.”

See Patel’s memo…

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The Daily Caller celebrates two years on the planet this week — what, no birthday shout-out in Politico‘s Playbook (h/t When Hell Freezes Over)?

It was January 2010 when The Daily Caller first burst on the scene. Like any start-up, they’ve lost people, gained people, snagged people back after they’ve lost them, and things are constantly changing. The DC is comprised of a wild, raucous bunch who don’t function well on rules — they have a keg in their ping pong room, they subsist on energy drinks and Marlboro Reds, they tweet their asses off, they go shooting in West Virginia, and they once had a reporter jump up on a desk and pull his pants down (no names on this one but you know who you are). And needless to say, they once threw their fearless fully-clothed leader, Tucker Carlson, into a swimming pool at the palatial mansion of Publisher Neil Patel.

There have been hard times, too. A firing with an ugly aftermath. Reporters leaving on bad terms. Ongoing fighting with Politico. Ill will with now BuzzFeed Political Editor Ben Smith — Carlson once wrote him, “The Daily Caller is ‘struggling’? What a ludicrous hack job, and stupid. Fuck you.” When asked about it, the editor replied, “I meant it with all sincerity.” Relations with Smith are still icy. Bringing on a Managing Editor with a rap sheet as long as the Nile — and having to explain it.

The Animal House rep comes through loud and clear in the colorful release sent out for the occasion by the brand new Hollywood-bred publicist Nicole Roeberg. In it, Carlson says, “We sent more reporters to Iowa and New Hampshire this month than all but a handful of long-established newspapers. We’re covering a lot of news, and we’re enjoying the hell out of it.”

Key Statistics (from the release):

·       Number of news stories filed on January 11, 2010: 18
·       Number of news stories filed on January 10, 2012: 33
·       Total number of unique visitors to DailyCaller.com since January 11, 2010: 36,2545,472
·       Number of opinion contributors to The Daily Caller: 1,568

Other noteworthy stats:

·       Number of beer kegs consumed from the office kegerator: 48
·       Number of boxes of Nicorette consumed: 3,823 (all by Tucker, except for 2 consumed by Neil)
·       Number of empty Mountain Dew bottles in the office at any given time: 26
·       Number of knees broken: 1

Happy Birthday to The Daily Caller!  As always, DC scribes, we’re only a click away so write us and spill your secrets.

Goodbye Hollywood. Hello, Washington.

Nicole Roeberg, a public relations and government affairs veteran with a fancy resume, has joined the staff as Director of Communications and Public Affairs. She’ll begin on Jan. 3.

In the newly created position, Roeberg will report directly to founders Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel and “be responsible for promoting the profile of the Daily Caller, booking reporters for media appearances and strengthening readership.”

Roeberg’s Twitter account reveals a woman who likes to check in and say where she is — be it the Congressional baseball game, Reagan Airport, My Sushi or Bourbon Steak. Or this: “I just unlocked the ‘I’m on a boat badge’ on foursquare.”

The canned quotes from the release: “I’m thrilled to be joining the staff of the Daily Caller,” said Roeberg. “Tucker and Neil have built an increasingly influential news site and I’m proud that they have entrusted me to help shape the image as we take the site to the next level.” Carlson added, “We’re grateful to get someone as impressive and experienced as Nicole to tell our story.”

Roeberg returns to Washington after a six-year stint in entertainment communications in Los Angeles where she most recently worked as a publicist at Prime Public Relations in Los Angeles, representing clients such as Graham King (producer of “The Departed”) and David Ellison (producer of “True Grit” and the upcoming “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”). She also represented screenwriter Aaron Sorkin in his publicity campaign for “The Social Network,” which earned him an Oscar, Golden Globe and Writers Guild Award in 2011.

Prior to joining Prime, Roeberg worked in corporate communications at The Endeavor Agency (now William Morris Endeavor Entertainment) where she worked closely with WME co-CEO Ari Emanuel. Before moving to LA, Roeberg spent five years in government affairs in Washington, where she was Director of Federal Affairs at the American Insurance Association.

Roeberg began her career working with GOP consultant Mike Murphy at Murphy Pintak Gautier Hudome.

On Monday The Daily Caller loaded up the cannon and blasted Politico for it’s cozy ties to MSNBC. The charge: liberal bias. Politico reacted to the ugliness by going into a self-induced coma, staying mute on all of it. Even Fake Jim VandeHei responded on Twitter by asking, “What’s The Daily Caller?”

But by late Monday the rumor mill was whirling: Politico was coming after the publication with what was expected to be a hit piece on Executive Editor David Martosko, who came to the publication in July with no journalism experience and a long rap sheet.

Anticipation heightened. On Tuesday the piece by Politico‘s Keach Hagey emerged and it was…nice. It questioned Martosko’s truthiness in an overall condescending tone one might expect from a Goliath publication analyzing a smaller one “with growing pains,” but it also praised the two-year-old outlet — repeatedly and even allowed Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson to take a jab at Politico. She wrote, “To this day, Carlson won’t call the site conservative, only quipping, ‘I would say we are probably more conservative than POLITICO.’” The story concluded on a lighthearted note from a former Daily Caller reporter that seemed to save Martosko, a recovering alcoholic, if, in fact, he needs saving. Jeff Winkler, who left in August, told Hagey, “The only complaint I have against Martosko was his sunny disposition. His friendliness drove me to the bottle.”

To be sure, there was heavy chatter about the story at Carlson’s book party for Jack Abramoff last night. Just one Politico reporter, Patrick Gavin, attended.  Reaction was largely surprise that the story wasn’t scathing and disappointment that Politico didn’t have any real juice on them. “Weak” was among the words used. They wanted a worthy battle and instead got hit with Nerf balls. At least one party guest believes this is tactic — that Politico will eventually return fire with fire. It could come sooner than anyone thinks. Daily Caller Publisher Neil Patel went on Fox & Friends this morning to discuss what he believes are Politico‘s liberal leanings with host Steve Doocy, whom MSNBC’s Ed Schultz refers to as “Douchey.”

Back at the Abramoff party, there was heated discussion on which reporters cracked under Hagey and helped with her story. Many guesses. But no one would fess up, not even Roll Call‘s Jonathan Strong, who declined to comment for Hagey’s story and insisted in Carlson’s living room that he was not among the moles.

Read the full piece here.

So much for dispelling that frat house image.

Last Thursday night The Daily Caller (a.k.a Lambda Lambda Lambda) held its summer party at the upscale home of Publisher Neil Patel and things got a little loosey goosey. And for The Daily Caller that’s not saying a lot because life there under the rule of a self-proclaimed Libertarian Editor tends to be sans rules as is. The party boasted a pie eating contest. There was also the inevitable tossing Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson into the pool. A party. A pool. An editor. Unruly, rebellious, jokester reporters. This was, in a word: INEVITABLE.

Late Wednesday a Daily Caller contributing reporter named Scoops Delacroix wrote a story on it. We had good intel on who “Scoops” was, so we asked Jeff Winkler, a full-time scribe, about his alleged piece describing the pool party. “Shaggy said it best: It wasn’t me,” he said. “But whoever this Scoops Delacroix character is, he’s got talent. Wouldn’t be surprised if one day he finds his own Deeper Throat.” He added, “That’s my official comment for you amoral and relentlessly vicious reporters.”

An excerpt: During the media mega-conglomerate’s pool party at Publisher Neil Patel’s
palatial mansion, Carlson was surrounded by several long-suffering staff
members and escorted from his berth near the dinner table to an undisclosed
location in the middle of the pool.

Employees who wrestled Carlson in the pool included Winkler (or ThatWinkler as his Twitter account says), Managing Editor Joe Kildea and business employee Brian Danza. This was mere moments after Danza lost a pie eating contest to an intern. Carlson was apparently a good sport about the whole thing — meaning he didn’t injure anyone, fire anyone or drown in the process. He’s also evidently a good swimmer. “Tucker makes Michael Phelps look like an amateur,” said Daily Caller Spokesman Kurt Bardella, who declined to comment on whether Carlson read the story about the party before it got published.

An FBDC reader wondered whether there was really a market for journalists writing about their workplaces in this manner. “Why would I want to read this? Why promote this? Is there a market for this?” But more importantly, what does this do for the publication’s image? (LAMBDA! LAMBDA! LAMBDA!)

The story made the rounds and a splash, so perhaps there’s the answer.

Note: Above left is a wet Tucker post dip taking a photograph with interns.

For the second year in a row that he has been Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Caller, Tucker Carlson, is fleeing town for the big evening of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Last year, as we reported last April, he left town as did then-reporter Jon Ward. They didn’t flee together. We’re just making the point that the publication’s White House reporter didn’t deem it important enough to attend. Publisher Neil Patel also didn’t attend.

This year Tucker is headed to Europe — he won’t say where, but no, he hasn’t been invited to the Royal Wedding.

The Interwebz are abuzz with news that the Daily Caller has hired Ginni Thomas.  The Tea Party activist, anti-health care reform lobbyist, and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will serve as a special correspondent for the Caller.

In a Business Wire story this morning, Daily Caller publisher Neil Patel said, “Ginni is always upbeat, she has an unbelievable amount of energy and enthusiasm and she knows our political system as well as anyone in Washington. We could not imagine a better person to take on this role.”

But others are wondering if all that energy is really enough to work as a journalist. And most are coming to the conclusion that no, it probably isn’t.

Slate‘s Dave Weigel writes about Ginni Thomas’ “misadventures” and career changes over the past year or so and says “she prefers to ignore requests and then snipe [journalists] from some safe vantage point about how unfair they are to her.”

Jennifer Epstein and Ken Vogel at Politico report: “Thomas comes to the Daily Caller job without any journalism experience, though in a speech last year she did encourage supporters to stop following traditional media and to instead turn to cable news, the Internet and her own website to find information. Blasting people with ‘an extreme point of view’ who have ‘burrowed into the media, our churches, schools and publishing houses,’ she suggested listening to conservative talkers Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin instead.” Vogel wondered on Twitter: “Given her difficulty holding a job, how long before Ginni Thomas quits @DailyCaller” before linking to Weigel’s piece.

Salon‘s Alex Pareene headlines his post: “Tucker Carlson hires Ginni Thomas to interview people, for some reason” and refers to Thomas as a “paranoid conservative activist.” Pareene’s “not convinced she can string together coherent sentences. She’s a paranoid weirdo who seems more than slightly dumb.” No mincing of words there.

The Daily Beast joked that “even detractors are greeting her hire with an admission that she’s willing to make the tough phone calls, a skill that should hold her in good stead in journalism,” referring to an odd phone call Thomas made to Anita Hill in October, requesting an apology for sexual abuse allegations Hill made about Clarence Thomas during his Senate confirmation hearings more than 20 years ago.

Daily Caller staffers and about a trillion (exaggerating slightly) other people piled into Top of the Hill last night at the Pour House on Capitol Hill. The reason for the party (as if the Daily Caller really ever needs a reason) was to welcome new members of Congress and their aides to Washington. Topics of conversation included how crowded the room was, Congress stuff and political musings, the fantastic open bar, and Daily Caller spokeswoman Becca Glover Watkins‘ birthday (which, as FBDC noted earlier, is today).

As is the case with any good party, people got fairly drunk. A pleasant, fun kind of drunk. Editor-in-chief Tucker Carlson took notice, and also addressed how crowded the Top of the Hill had become. “I’m not try to encourage people to drink, but there’s a lot of alcohol downstairs as well,” he said.

A number of congressmen were in attendance, but we spotted one  freshmen for sure: Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.).

Also at the party: Publisher Neil Patel, executive editor Megan Mulligan, Mary Katharine Ham, reporters Jon Ward, Chris Moody, Jonathan Strong, Jeff Winkler, and Mike Riggs (the “Daily Baller” wasn’t doing anything too crazy though), and online editors Julia McClatchy, Chad Brady, and Pat McMahon (who demanded to be mentioned “or else”); Fox News’ Shannon Bream and her husband Sheldon; ABC News’ Ann Compton, her husband, Dr. Bill Hughes, and her daughter, the Atlantic‘s Annie Hughes; Chris Bodenner, also of the Atlantic; WaPo‘s Katherine Zaleski; Washington City Paper‘s Mike Madden; Chris McGreal of The Guardian; C-SPAN’s Howard Mortman; Dan Hirschhorn of Politico; CNN’s Brianna Keilar; Washington Examiner “Yeas and Nays” columnist Nikki Schwab; Christina Wilkie and A.B. Stoddard of The Hill; Moe Tkacik; Kurt Bardella, spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa and the bain of Daily Beast‘s Howard Kurtz‘s existence; Speaker of the House John Boehner‘s spokesman Michael Steel; Tony Blankley, Executive Vice President at Edelman; and NYP‘s Charlie Hurt.

Lots of love among Daily Caller staffers. Reporter Jeff Winkler goes in for a kiss with online editor Pat McMahon. Spokeswoman Becca Glover seems to enjoy it.

WCP‘s Mike Madden, however, didn’t enjoy it. (We don’t know that he was watching the kiss, but it’s entirely possible.)

Photos courtesy of Wonkette‘s Elizabeth Glover.

The cast of characters at Monday night’s Daily Caller second official keg party was nothing short of colorful. For one thing, this wild-haired intern from Reason Magazine, Armin Rosen, showed up and life as we know it will never be the same. For another, even without the original guest of honor, GOP consultant Roger Stone, the celebration of new hire Mary Katharine Ham, turned out a jammed hallway full of journalists and guests and a keg sponsored by Miller-Coors. Stone had to be in New York to coach gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino. “This is how it should be,” remarked Daily Caller V.P. of Sales Alex Treadway, raving that Ham is sure to be a publication star.

The Wild Haired intern, meanwhile, was opening up. “Please don’t ruin my career,” Rosen repeatedly begged FishbowlDC throughout an evening that felt like something between a summer camp outing, a blog convention and a trip to the circus. Before fleeing the party, the intern’s boss, Matt Welch, Reason‘s Editor-in-Chief, asked me to babysit Wild Hair and make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. (Note to Editors: We’ll be glad to babysit your reporters, but a) really? b) it’s questionable FBDC policy, and c) we wouldn’t dream of stopping a journalist from partaking in any form of stupid activity he or she so desires.)

Soon enough, the intern’s clear Doppelganger emerged: the Geico caveman. He explained the simplicity of his hair upkeep. “It’s easy, I don’t comb it – ever,” he said. “All you have to do is get into a sublime state of not caring and you get this hair.”

Party banter ranged from Washington’s uptight nature and the Brett Favre sexting scandal to House GOP leaders and Twitter follower counts. “People in Washington are boring as f—k,” remarked Daily Caller’s Mike Riggs. And yet, those here could hardly be considered boring – Less Government’s Seton Motley, when Wild Hair was pointed out, pulled out a shirtless picture of himself (perhaps from the 80s) with wavy blondish hair cascading to his waist.

Riggs swore he wasn’t “on anything” Monday night except beer. We believed him (mostly) until he knelt down on one knee and bestowed solemn praise to another partygoer, The Exiled’s Mark Ames, while chanting, “Oh my f—king God. Oh my f—king God.” Washington City Paper’s Moe Tkacik, who came to the party with Ames, suggested that some in Washington might have Asperberger’s Syndrome. She’s a recent transplant to Washington and hire to WCP. (If you haven’t seen her work, it’s a must).

Others in the crowd: Daily Caller spokeswoman Becca Glover Watkins, Publisher Neil Patel, Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson, the Washington Examiner’s J.P. Freire, The Hill’s Christina Wilkie and Wonkette’s Elizabeth Glover. Also from Wonkette was the newly hired Morning Editor, Riley Waggaman, who looks like something out of a Harry Potter movie with blond hair, glasses and a bright turquoise button-down. Already partied and gone were The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack and TWT’s Eli Lake. McCormack, referring to Riggs’s recent shrooming escapade, tweeted about the party, saying he “felt a little funny after eating some Halloween candy but a purple monkey just flew in the room and told me candy is not laced.”

Many Daily Caller reporters were on hand to kick the keg. The included Alex Pappas, Jeff Winkler, Jonathan Strong, Chris Moody, Matthew Boyle, a part-timer, and a mystery staffer from a Democratic lawmaker’s office who didn’t want to be identified. (An office rule forbids office staffers from being Google-able alongside the boss’s name.) More in the crowd: TWT’s Ben Birnbaum, CNS’s Nicholas Ballasy, The Atlantic’s Chris Good and Daily Caller’s new blog consultant Klaus Marre.

It’s time to check on Wild Hair…

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