Emily Miller‘s new gossip column, “Emily’s Post” launched on PoliticsDaily.com today. Miller, who’s held gigs with ABC, NBC, for Condoleeza Rice, Tom DeLay, Rick Lazio and Colin Powell addresses her past in the press as well as the ongoing drama surrounding her reputation as a “woman scorned” in the Jack Abramoff scandal in her debut column.

“Having been fodder for every gossip column in town, starting today I’m turning the tables — and becoming one D.C. gossip columnist who fully gets what it’s like to be on the receiving end,” Miller says in her premier post.

Check out “Emily’s Post” here.

Good morning FishbowlDC! Got a blind item, interesting link, funny note, comment, birthday, anniversary or anything of the sort for Morning Reading List? Drop us a line.

Yesterday’s featured desk was Christina Bellantoni‘s new office at TPM. Ken Hanner is the only FBDC reader to guess it correctly. Today we have Uncle Sam spotted by a reader panhandling for $12 trillion in Dupont yesterday.

What we know and what we’re reading this Wednesday morning…

TV | ONLINE | NEWS NOTES | WEST WING REPORTAGE | AWARDS & EVENTS

TV

Tom DeLay has quit “Dancing with the Stars.”

David Letterman‘s apology episode brought in huge ratings.

In that spirit, Mediaite brings us “Top Ten On-Air Apologies.”

Tonight on “Countdown,” Keith Olbermann will present a Special Comment for the full hour on the need for and meaning of health care reform in the United States, “Health Care Reform: The Fight Against Death.”

CBS’ Dave Price joined the Morning Media Menu earlier today to discuss how he’s going to get across the country on only 50 bucks.

WaPo: Jay Leno‘s sinking ratings are causing pain for the NBC stations that air his new show — with at least one striking exception: Washington’s WRC-TV.

Evening news ratings here.

ONLINE

AP is considering selling stories to online customers earlier for a fee.

NEWS NOTES

Fox News’ Shepard Smith is the only newser to make AskMen’s 40 most influential men list. He’s #31– topping the list at #1 is fictional Don Draper from “Mad Men,” beating out even President Obama.

Rush Limbaugh has officially put in a bid for the St. Louis Rams.

HuffPost: NY Post editor Sandra Guzman, who spoke out against a controversial cartoon the paper ran comparing the author of the president’s stimulus package to a dead chimpanzee, has been fired from her job, the paper confirmed.

WEST WING REPORTAGE

Politico‘s Mike Allen reported yesterday that David Axelrod met with Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes in NY two weeks ago during the President’s visit to the UN. “The two discussed news coverage and the relationship between the organizations. An FNC spokesperson tells POLITICO that Ailes and Axelrod had a “cordial conversation” over coffee…”

Time‘s Michael Scherer further reports, Axelrod said in an email, “I’ve known Roger for a long time. …We chatted from time to time during the campaign. I was going to be in NY, so we got together for a cup of coffee.”

AWARDS & EVENTS

NJ‘s James Kitfield and Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. have been recognized by Military Reporters & Editors for their coverage of the U.S. military and national security during 2008.

NPC is hosting a political reporting workshop Saturday, October 17th. Keynote speaker is USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page. Dets and registration info here.

HAT TIPS: mediabistro, TVNewser, Politico, NJ‘s Wake-Up Call and Last Call!

FamousDC caught up with “Dances with Stars DeLay” for a Famous Five interview. Here’s what he had to say when FDC asked Delay if he agreed to the show in order to lose weight.

DeLay’s got our quote of the day:

“That was just a pleasant side effect. I did it to have fun, but now the competitive spirit has kicked in. I’ve been training really hard and already dropped more than twenty pounds, so at the least, maybe I’ll be “The Biggest Loser”. But who watches NBC anyway?”

Embedded video from CNN Video

• Above, on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” yesterday, Howard Kurtz discussed, among other topics, President Obama’s five-Sunday-show-blitz with WaPo‘s Chris Cillizza, conservative commentator Amy Holmes and St. Petersburg Times‘ Eric Deggans.

• More from Kurtz in WaPo‘s Media Notes “Saturation Sunday“: “”Anytime is a good time to interview the president,” says “Meet the Press” host David Gregory. “We’re here to get news,” says “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer. But sharing the same guest — even the world’s top newsmaker — makes it harder for them to distinguish their programs.”

• Baltimore Sun‘s David Zurawik‘s Z on TV “President Obama: A weak Sunday TV blitz”

• NYT‘s Alessandra Stanley‘s The TV Watch “For President, Five Programs, One Message”

• NYPost‘s Charles Hurt “On-the-air prez seems like endless ‘infomercial’“: “During his first eight months in office, President Obama has sat down for three times as many television interviews as his most recent two predecessors combined.”

• Mediaite: “How Rude! President Obama’s Favorite Four-Letter Word To Describe The Media”

• Also from Mediaite: “Obama’s Magical Media Tour: Who Had The Best Interview?” (Spoiler: Steve Krakauer says CNN’s John King.)

• WSJ‘s Peggy Noonan called President Obama’s Sunday show blitz “boorish” in a roundtable discussion on ABC’s “This Week.” “He’s doing it because he can,” the former speechwriter told host George Stephanopoulos. “The media environment allows a modern leader to be something subtly damaging, and that is boorish. They get their face in your face every day all the time. It’s boorish and it makes people not lean toward you but lean away from you, no matter what the merits of the issue.” (h/t HuffPost)

• A few lighter moments on the Sunday talk show circuit… just before Tom DeLay‘s debut tonight on “Dancing with the Stars,” Gregory asked House Minority Leader John Boehner whether he has a future on that show. Boehner replied, “I’ll pass.” And on CNN, “State of the Union” anchor King played a clip of James Carville getting spoofed on Thursday’s SNL. Weekend Update called the CNN Democratic strategist “skeletor,” and his wife, CNN Republican strategist Mary Matalin came to his defense- “I love this look.”

• Also, this Sunday CNN aired a response to Fox News’ print ad in newspapers Friday. CNN’s response ad says “Fox News, Distorting not Reporting.” Check out Fox News’ print ad and CNN’s video ad (via Media Matters) after the jump…

Read more

The Greater Washington Fashion Chamber of Commerce toasts Kiki Ryan’s new position with Politico at the Silver Spring home of Jessica Hoy on Sunday.

Good morning FishbowlDC! Got a blind item, interesting link, funny note, comment, birthday, anniversary or anything of the sort for Morning Reading List? Drop us a line.

Happy Birthday to Kiki Ryan, on her first day at Politico with Click! What know and what we’re reading this Monday morning…

NEWSPAPERS | TV | ONLINE | MAGAZINES | BOOKS | NEWS NOTES | WEST WING REPORTAGE

NEWSPAPERS

WaPo interviews Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

WaPo ombudsman Andrew Alexander examines the paper’s ACORN coverage after they were flooded with angry callers prompted by Fox News’ Glenn Beck. “It’s tempting to dismiss such gimmicks. Fox News, joined by right-leaning talk radio and bloggers, often hypes stories to apocalyptic proportions while casting competitors as too liberal or too lazy to report the truth. But they’re also occasionally pumping legitimate stories. I thought that was the case with ACORN…”

TV

Tom DeLay makes his debut on “Dancing with the Stars” this fine evening.

“So you’re trying to ambush the ambusher?” Friday at the Values Voter Summit, a ThinkProgress.org staffer caught up with FNC producer Jesse Watters, known for his ambush interviews which end up on “The O’Reilly Factor.” TVNewser has the video.

NYT‘s Brian Stelter caught up with CBS’ Katie Couric, who says she’s staying in the anchor chair, and also will start hosting a weekly interview webcast on CBSNews.com, beginning tomorrow. Her first guest will be Glenn Beck.

The night after he hosts the President, David Letterman will have a second President, when Bill Clinton joins him on “The Late Show” Tuesday. Obama tapes “The Late Show” today around 4pm.

ONLINE

A study by the University of Maryland reveals, shockingly, that the vast majority of politicians’ tweets are about themselves.

MAGAZINES

Bloomberg has submitted its bid for BusinessWeek mag.

Esquire named its 75 Best People in the World- journos whos make the cut include Fox News’ Shepard Smith, CBS’ Lara Logan, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan, NBC’s Lester Holt and Rupert Murdoch.

NEWS NOTES

Journos are losing jobs at three times the rate of average workers.

WaPo: The Federal Communications Commission’s proposal of new rules to prevent companies such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deliberately blocking or slowing certain Web traffic is expected to advance with three votes out of the five-member agency, according to sources.

Reliable Source noticed a documentary film crew following Van Jones this weekend.

WEST WING REPORTAGE

The pool reported yesterday that NYT‘s Tom Friedman played a round of golf with President Obama yesterday, prompting all sorts of “the green is flat” jokes in our Twitterverse.

IN MEMORIAM

WaPo: Irving Kristol, 89, a forceful essayist, editor and university professor who became the leading architect of neoconservatism, which he called a political and intellectual movement for disaffected ex-liberals, like himself, who had been “mugged by reality,” died Friday.

HAT TIPS: mediabistro, TVNewser, Daniel Lippman

Not to be outdone by the WaPo‘s Dana Milbank, TWT‘s Joe Curl weighed in on his loss in the “Biggest Rebel” category.

“This was no travesty, no mockery, no sham. Once a true rebel starts winning contests in the category, it’s the beginning of the end. James Dean? Dead. Jimi Hendrix? Dead. Neidermeyer? Dead. Tom DeLay? For all intents and purposes, dead,” Curl said.

“The true rebel doesn’t wear a skull cap or mirror sunglasses (sorry John Stanton, if that is your real name). Instead, he mows the grass in shorts — but wearing black socks. He drinks white wine — but from the bottle. And he always – always – calls the other side to include in a story, unless that doesn’t work so well in his piece or requires any sort of effort.”

What we almost missed today…

• Above, meet Tom DeLay‘s “Dancing With The Stars” partner. Who’s the bigger star?

Jon Stewart on health care: “Why is this so hard? Why can’t you guys just stay on message? Remember the Bush team? Little bit of discipline, little bit of repetition. They sold us a WAR nobody wanted and nobody needed… Salesmanship! THOSE GUYS could sell ice cubes to Eskimos.”

And after the jump… Tom Delay was on ABC’s “GMA” earlier today to talk “Dancing with the Stars.” “Conservatives can let their hair down and open their collar and put on some dancing shoes and get out there on the floor just like the rest of us,” he said. Video via Politico.

Read more

• So you think you can dance, Tom Delay? Actually, yes he can, according to someone who knows- Emily Miller on Politics Daily.

• How’s Fox News during the Obama administration? Pretty darn good, AP reports.

• WaPo‘s Howard Kurtz disagrees with Dan Rather; says a presidential commission is not needed to save newspapers in today’s Media Notes column.

You had to think Jake Tapper was joking when he tweeted this morning that Tom Delay was joining the cast of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

Until the press release hit FBDC’s inbox.

“The Hammer” (Tapper’s nickname, not ours) will join “Dancing with the Stars” in its ninth season and the former House majority leader will make his debut in the premiere Sept. 21st. Set your Tivo.

Playbook additionally reports: “DeLay has known all summer and has been working out with a trainer. He starts rehearsals with his dance partner next week.”