This is your brain. This is your brain on Salon.

“Reading that Salon article was like killing brain cells without the benefit of alcohol.” — Conservative radio correspondent Dana Loesch.

Maybe a slight exaggeration?

“He makes things difficult for me when he does things like trespassing.” — Jenny Sanford, former loving (?) wife of former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) to the AP in this story. Not that she shouldn’t be irate about the cheating and the lying, but he couple has four sons together. Just maybe that had to do with his “trespassing.”

Political operator feels mixed on new specs

“I can see really well with my new glasses that arrived today…just not wild about how they look on me. Oh well, at least I can see.” — GOProud founder Jimmy LaSalvia (the actual glasses are pictured above).

Politico Playbook Publish Time: 8:47 a.m.

Advice columnist counsels aides who want to leave Capitol Hill

“Leave on the best terms possible. All your current co-workers — from the crazy one you complain about to Hill Navigator to the one who eats tuna for lunch at a desk 4 inches from your own — will become valuable contacts once you turn in your keys and BlackBerry.” — Roll Call’s “Hill Navigator” writer Rebecca Gale. Read the full column here.

Important Q to Ponder: “Why do TV news anchors say ‘lower extremities’ instead of ‘legs’?” — TWT senior opinion writer Emily Miller.

Writer thinks PETA has questionable priorities

“PETA just announced cows are being abused on a farm. So when Boston, N. Korea, Gosnell and the economy are taken care of, there’s that.” — @HistoricOswald‘s Peter Savodnik, author of The Interloper to be published later this year and formerly a reporter for The Hill.

Journo awed by Thatcher funeral

“There are few things as haunting & beautiful as the voices of boys’ choir in a cathedral funeral service. #Thatcher.” — Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham. The funeral aired on CSPAN2 this morning.

Could you care less about this?

“Pet peeve: when people say ‘could care less’ instead of ‘couldn’t care less.’ — Fox News Senate Producer Kara Rowland.

Hollywood on the Potomac interviews NBC’s Tom Brokaw on the Riacin incident.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Journo feels guilty about potty time: #1 or #2?

“Just used the bathroom and felt guilty about it. #filiblizzard #RandPaul.” — The Hill‘s Feature Editor Emily Goodin.

Senator’s filibuster alters reporter’s TV watching habits

“I don’t usually turn on C-SPAN for evening entertainment when I get home, but curiosity has gotten the best of me tonight.” — FNC’s Shannon Bream.

Speaking of the filibustering senator…

“Louie Gohmert brings Halls cough drops and a giant ass Kit Kat bar to Rand Paul on the floor.” — BuzzFeed Washington Bureau Chief John Stanton.

Uh oh.

“Could you dorks please stop telling what Rand Paul is eating? Mkay? Thanks.” — Politico‘s Ben White. (We’re not trying to start anything, but did White just call Stanton a dork?)

Incest Desk: “Congrats to my talented wife @BetsyMTP on becoming senior ep at MTP!” — Politico‘s Jonathan Martin pointing to — what a shocker — a story on Politico‘s media blog. Wonder how they got the news!

The Stakeout

“What have I been doing the last two and half hours? Standing outside across the street from Obama’s meeting with some Senate Republicans.” — Politico‘s Ginger Gibson.

Advice…“Most bosses have their ugly sides, and it’s the staffers’ role to hide that from the world.” — Roll Call’s new advice columnist Rebecca Gale tells Capitol Hill aide who works for a “yeller” that he or she should stay quiet about the boss’s temper. Read the whole saga here.

Politico Playbook Publish Time: 9 a.m.

Tucker Carlson mocks “losers” on Twitter

“‘I’m not seeking their approval,’ he says of detractors. ‘Why should I care if a bunch of losers on Twitter don’t like it?” — The Daily Caller‘s Tucker Carlson in a story this week by WaPo‘s new faux ombudsman Paul Farhi, who prefaced the above, writing, “In the face of withering criticism of his site’s reporting, Carlson is unbowed.” Farhi focused his largely easygoing story on Carlson and The Daily Caller and did not interview WaPo reporters on their reporting regarding the Sen. Bob Menendez hooker debacle that went down between The Daily Caller and WaPo this week. Read the full story here.

National Review‘s Jonah Goldberg on fatherhood… continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In a new weekly advice column in Roll Call this week, a reader who allegedly works in a Capitol Hill congressional office is disturbed because the “drunk with power” chief of staff is purportedly boinking the lawmaker. The column, called Hill Navigator, is penned by the newly published author and staff writer, Rebecca Gale. Startlingly, Gale’s advice to the employee was…get the hell out as quickly as possible. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Roll Call writer and author Rebecca Gale and author Justin McLachlan will appear at Busboys & Poets to discuss their novels. Gale’s is called Trying; McLachlan has written Time Up and This Time Around. The discussion on storytelling will be moderated by Roll Call‘s David Hawkings. Boxfire Press is sponsoring the event.

The Q & A is scheduled for Jan. 30. at 7 p.m.

The location: 5th and K St. NW.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

CQ Roll Call‘s Rebecca Gale celebrated the official launch of her new novel Trying at The Science Club last night. Though the venue was a bit cozy and broiling (i.e. perfect for a hot yoga class), plenty of Gale’s newsroom colleagues and friends showed up to offer support.

Asked if there was one journalist Gale would want to read her book, she named co-worker Neda Semnani. “She gives great book reviews,” Gale said, adding that Semnani, who co-writes the Heard on the Hill gossip column, would offer an “honest assessment” of the book.

Gale also named her former boss Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va) as someone who should read it. “He would love it,” she said. (That’s somewhat intriguing, considering the book is a love story involving government secrets. Hmm…)

There were plenty of finger foods and bevys at the soiree, much of which was unidentifiable at first glance. But the best part was the tiny cupcakes, decorated with little edible versions of Gale’s book.

The cupcakes, we’re told, were enjoyed by CQ Roll Call Publisher Peter Anthony‘s two young boys, who were told upon entering by Anthony to “stand right here” against a wall… continued…

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CQ Roll Call

Dezenhall Resources, CQ Roll Call and BoxFire are throwing the soirée. BoxFire Press is publishing the novel about a Washington couple named Mandy and Cal. Cal has a job full of secret government projects that he can’t share with Mandy. And Mandy hopes he’s the one, but thinks she needs to save him from his addictive line of work. Noteworthy: Gale is a former press secretary for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). She has been around Washington and the book is based loosely on her experiences.

Just a note to would-be party stragglers: He who thinks he can just pop in for free cocktails should think again.

Check out the book on Amazon here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

CQ Roll Call

Team –

I’m happy to announce that Rebecca Gale, who’s been working as director of publicity and has handled our media relations, will be working in editorial, beginning immediately. Rebecca will serve as a contributing editor and will be working on Roll Call, helping out on the opinion section and working on other projects as needed. In fact, she’s currently writing a piece for Roll Call as we speak. She’s sitting in a cubicle near Dave Rapp’s office, so stop by and say hi.

Susan

See what Gale had to say about the move… continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

1. Emily Pierce: Roll Call Senate Editor

Why she’ll get it: A great editor and well-liked by reporters. She came up through the ranks and has been in the newsroom for about a decade. Can anyone remember Roll Call having a female at the helm? Would be a nice touch.

Why she won’t: She lacks experience as a upper level manager. “Although she’s fantastic I doubt they’d go for her,” one spy remarked.

2. Jason Dick: Roll Call House Editor; he has formally applied for the job.

3. David Hawkings: Editor of the CQ Roll Call Daily Briefing

4. Paul Singer:”I wish Roll Call nothing but the best of luck and I’m not talking to anybody about a job there,” Singer said, when we posed questions on the matter.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Leaked to FishbowlDC: a picture of the new nameplate for Roll Call that come November will combine Roll Call and and CQ Today and an internal memo laying out more details about it. The NYT broke the news Sunday night that on Nov. 13 Roll Call and CQ Today will officially combine their print operations into Roll Call. CQ Today stories will continue to appear online, but not under that name specifically; it will no longer be in print and online it will be cq.com, CQ Weekly.

While it isn’t clear whether the name plate will be used for both the online and print versions, the internal memo says it is for “RollCall.com” and publicist Rebecca Gale called it a “working draft only” for the upcoming print merger.

For several months we’ve been bringing you backgrounders on the inside meetings and process leading up to the merging of CQ and Roll Call as well as the more recent news of massive layoffs. Roll Call and CQ will continue to operate their respective online publications such as CQ Weekly and other features.

See the internal memo sent to staff that they wanted kept “under wraps” …

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

CQ Roll Call Publicist Rebecca Gale has a novel coming out. Don’t worry CQ Roll Caller‘s, it’s not an exposé about a Washington newsroom. The book’s working title is called Trying and is expected out in December. This is Gale’s first novel.

While the book isn’t about a Washington newsroom, it is a love story about a woman who falls for a government spy. Can their love survive his grueling all-consuming job?

We’re told the book is actually a a hybrid of romance and science-fiction. Gale submitted a short story for Red which was accepted, and then spoke to Boxfire Press about turning it into a novel.

The Description from Amazon: “Mandy thinks the most interesting thing about herself is her boyfriend, Cal. He makes her proud, not because he’s anything special, but because they’ve just taken the step of moving across the country and getting a grown-up apartment, the start to sharing what she hopes will be the rest of their lives. Cal, though, really moved for work, a government project he can’t tell Mandy about. So instead, they spend their time together wandering the city, work-secrets lofting between them as they sip cheap drinks during happy hour specials. Yeah, they have a simple, happy, big-city life, but it’s one Mandy loves. Or so she thinks. Cal’s secret job deals in classified information, knowledge so powerful and dangerous that the government has found a unique way to make sure no one person knows too much: it’s poisonous in large doses. Unfortunately for some, like Cal, it’s also addictive. The more Mandy learns about Cal’s work, the more she realizes how much of him she has already lost. Unless she can figure out how to save him, the same intellectual curiosity that made him so attractive when she was just a student and he was her professor is the same thing that might tear them apart forever.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

CQ Roll Call

Back in March news of the merger was heating up and internal meetings were happening in full force. Not with reporters, mind you. But with brass and the business end of things. A large blockbuster meeting with newsroom staff came later. At the time, the Roll Call mentality was that they are the hipper, cooler publication and CQ was the wonkier of the two. The current sentiment is most everyone just wants to make the best of it — whatever happens. So if the beauty was heavily flirting with the geek back in March, now he’s getting to third base.

Come convention time, Roll Call will appear in every delegate hotel in partnership with the NYT. In addition, a special CQ Weekly will be inside the delegate welcome bags on Sunday. The parties, however, sponsored by RIAA and Auto Alliance, will be hosted by both CQ and Roll Call.

“CQ Roll Call will publish a special edition of CQ Weekly, as well as a convention-edition Roll Call, distributed Monday through Thursday at both the Republican and Democratic conventions,” said CQ Roll Call Publicist Rebecca Gale. “The convention-edition of Roll Call will be a product of both the CQ and Roll Call newsrooms. David Hawkings‘ CQ Roll Call’s Daily Briefing newsletter will publish each afternoon.”

It is still unclear how the two pubs will fully merge in terms of day-to-day operation and editorial decisions. We’re told anyone who tells us they know for certain is being disingenuous as details are still under discussion and under wraps. Hence the high sensitivities. We are being told that editorial layoffs are unlikely.

The history of the merger is well cemented… continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Here’s something that should give people pause. Politico has swooped in and hired CQ Roll Call’s Senior V.P. of Advertising Mark Walters. Before CQ Roll Call Walters was Assoc. Publisher of online advertising for Newsweek. As of Thursday we hear Walters was telling people he was weighing more than one option before he opted to jump ship for Politico.

CQ Roll Call Spokeswoman Rebecca Gale told FishbowlDC: “Mark Walters will be missed. He took the advertising team by storm: bringing in quality sales people, expanding CQ Roll Call’s reach and exceeding expectations. No matter where Mark goes, he will use his talents well. In the meantime, the 8th floor of CQ Roll Call will be missing some of his New Jersey swagger.”

Both Politico and CQ Roll Call have issued their respective memos.

See them after the jump…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Roll Call HOH’s Neda Semnani and Publicist Rebecca Gale on Wednesday night at a packed Cava for the FamousDC/Roll Call happy hour.

A minor media request…

“Can y’all cut it with the Michelle Obama is pregnant crap? It’s the Weekly World News, not even a real media outlet!” — Washington Watch’s Roland Martin.

NJ‘s Wilson can relate to Perry’s bungle

“I forgot my lines in a production once. Most horrifying moment of my life.” — NJ “The Hotline’s” Reid Wilson in reaction to Rick Perry fumbling the debate this week.

Something to ponder…

“Before I get angry about someone covering up rape, I ask: ‘But is he good at teaching kids to throw and catch balls?” — Slate‘s Dave Weigel.

Unnecessary Tweet of the Day

“I have consumed more mint m&m’s in the past 3.5 days than is probably acceptable under the guise of ‘holiday spirit.’” – Roll Call‘s Meredith Shiner.

Presidential wisdom on the meaning of Santorum

“My son: It would be great if Santorum’s Google problem becomes SO well known they have to bleep his name on TV, even in a debate.” — WaPo‘s Gene Weingarten.

A Convo Between Two Journos (one of whom belches online)

CNN Senior National Editor Dave Schechter: “Be sure to eat at the nearby Beacon Drive-in. Burp.”

NJ‘s Major Garrett: “Heading there tonight. #gluttonyfirst”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Politico

With anonymous sourcing, anyone’s word can fly, especially behind-the-scenes experts who prefer to operate under the radar. But when should reporters trust the source who won’t be named and when should they exercise caution?

In this case, Roll Call did not back down. When asked for comment Roll Call Publicist Rebecca Gale remarked, “Roll Call stands by its story, David Drucker has relied on South Carolina political operatives for their analysis and insight, as explained and sourced in the article.”

Drucker reacted only on Twitter: “@JimDeMint’s spox take exception 2 my @MittRomney endorse story (I stand by it, fyi).”

Burns told FishbowlDC: “It’s not my job to critique David’s work, which I enjoy reading. His story drew fierce pushback from DeMint-world, and I reported that because I had previously linked to and quoted his piece. To be clear, I didn’t say that the story was a ‘fabrication’ – I would not want to speculate about another reporter’s sourcing and I see that he is standing by the report.”

Roll Call‘s headline: “DeMint May Endorse Romney.” Drucker reports that Romney is the “favorite” to receive DeMint’s endorsement. His sourcing? “Knowledgeable GOP sources.” More specifically, a “Republican with South Carolina ties” and a “GOP operative in the Palmetto State.” DeMint is quoted in Drucker’s story as saying he’s “real comfortable waiting.”

Burns ran a basic aggregate of the story at 7:16 a.m. By 9:20 a.m. he ran a second post saying that DeMint’s office was calling the endorsement a “fabrication.” Burns quotes DeMint Spokesman Wesley Denton, who told him, “That story is a fabrication made up of anonymous sources that obviously have no clue what Senator DeMint is thinking.”

Reporters know the built-in risks of quoting anonymous sources. Find out what a journalism expert has to say…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

CQ Roll Call

This Saturday she’s marrying longtime beau Warren Margolies in her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. Post wedding, the future bride and groom are off to St. Lucia for a week-long honeymoon.

She assures us that she has not turned into Bridezilla during the wedding planning stages. “I have worked hard to stay Zen,” she said.

We wish the couple, pictured here in a J. Crew-esq photograph, much happiness. We’ll look forward to bothering Gale when she returns from the nuptials. Note: Studio3z is responsible for the photography. Visit here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.