Naturally, several people on Twitter assumed this was O’Leary announcing that she was with child. This would have been big news considering that, not long ago, O’Leary spoke to Cosmo about her battle with endometriosis, which puts a damper on baby-making. The congratulatory tweets started coming in. Bloomberg’s Ryan Sutton tweeted, “ZOMG congrats! counting the days until your offspring annihilate(s) the competition on teen jeopardy!” WaPo’s Jim Tankersley responded, “!!!!!! that’s great news.” WSJ’s Victoria McGrane kept up the overuse of exclamations by tweeting, “CONGRATS!!!!!!!!”

So, what’s the problem? continued…

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Rome unveils a new Pope

“CNBC seems unprepared for #pope coverage. They don’t have anyone translating what he’s saying.” — WSJ‘s Victoria McGrane.

“Remember when we were all watching the chimney and waiting for the reveal of the new pope? #nostaliga” — Politico‘s David Chalian.

“So, another Pope who thinks contraceptives are evil. Good luck with that.” — Blogger and pundit Craig Crawford.

“How did the Pope name himself so fast? Do all cardinals have a papal name short list ready?” — TNR‘s Julia Ioffe.

“The House Science subcommittee hearing on energy subsidies has now been delayed for 45 minutes. I blame the Vatican.” — SNL Energy power and policy reporter Corbin Hiar.

“For the record, I yelled ‘POPE SMOKE’ in my newsroom < 1 minute before we saw the smoke. So, yeah, I’ve got some powers. – NJ‘s Elahe Izadi.

“With the pope jokes winding down, Twitter will return to its bread and butter of poop jokes.” Yahoo! Sports Big League Stew Contributor Dave Brown.

Steak: It’s what’s for dinner at midnight

“It’s absolutely silly to grill steaks at midnight, said no smart person ever.” — The Daily Caller‘s soon to be Daily Mail‘s David Martosko. (Except maybe a cardiologist?)

Reporter hopes Kissinger yells at her

“So, last time I spoke to Henry Kissinger he yelled at me. Fingers crossed tonight will be two for two #dreams.” — Roll Call‘s Neda Semnani who had an encounter with him at the Nixon Centennial a few months back.

Journo Love

The Atlantic‘s Molly Ball: “I hope everyone appreciates the greatness of @sarahlyall. Everything she writes is fantastic.”

NYT‘s London-based correspondent Sarah Lyall: “What an extremely nice thing to say! Thank you.”

Politico Playbook Publish Time: 7:23 a.m.

Erick Erickson trash talks MSNBC

“MSNBC shocked the new Pope is Catholic.” — FNC Contributor and RedState Editor Erick Erickson.

Quote Taken Way Out of Context

“Everything is terrible.” — BuzzFeed‘s Rebecca Berg.

Important Q to Ponder: Can we ever get enough of Marty Rudolph? continued…

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Hookerpalooza: So many hookers, so little time 

Monday at 11:36 p.m.: “The Washington Post piece today on Menendez and the Dominican hookers was completely, utterly wrong. Our story coming soon.” — The Daily Caller‘s Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson. 11:40 p.m.: “WaPo might have saved itself the embarrassment if they’d bothered to call us before running their stupid piece.” 12:46 a.m.: “Turns out the Washington Post got the wrong hooker: [Read here].” After going mute for 48 hours after WaPo ran a story saying one of the hookers was paid off, Breitbart‘s Matthew Boyle, who likes to brag that he broke the original hooker-Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) story for his former employer, The Daily Caller, finally piped up this morning at 12:49 a.m.: “Washington Post mixes up prostitutes. You got the wrong girl, guys.” Nevada political journalist Jon Ralston sums the whole thing up well: “Seriously, folks, what could go wrong if an “escort” was your main source?”

A journo’s dinner: “Just one of those days where 6pm Cheetos from White House vending machine is first meal of the day.” — AP‘s Josh Lederman.

Gossip columnist or therapist?

“I’m starting to think that people are using the HOH tip line to save time and money on therapy and journals.” — Roll Call HOH writer Neda Semnani.

WANTED: Fact checker: “WWR seeks to hire a researcher/fact checker for a six-month project. Work remotely from anywhere. Send resumes to westwingrpt@gmail.com” — Paul Brandus of West Wing Reports.

Oversharing Sherri

“Leaving house late again – does it ever feel like you try 2B organized but sometimes all goes awry? Where the heck is his backpack & my wig!” — ABC “The View’s” Sherri Shepherd.

Pundit urges cold beer

“The city of New Orleans Is under a boil water advisory. Another excuse to drink cold beer.” — Democratic pundit on CNN and ABC Donna Brazile.

Important news nugget of the day…“Brodie Jenner is joining the Kardashians next season. (Remember his reality show “Bromance?”)” — FBDC and TheBlaze‘s Eddie Scarry.

And now a word from BuzzFeed D.C. Bureau Chief John Stanton: “NO WASHINGTON POST IT CAN’T BE CALLED SNOWQUESTER”

Politico Playbook Publish Time: 8:25 a.m.

Convo Between a Reporter and a Researcher

Politico‘s Steve Friess: “Entertaining twitter debate betw [WaPo's Greg Sargent] & [NJ's Ron Fournier] right now. Summary: GOP bad. No, everyone is. No, just GOP.”

Logan Dobson, research analyst for The Tarrance Group, a GOP Polling firm: “Steve Friess, it’s possible we have different definitions of entertaining.”

Writing tip, important Q and more…

continued…

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BIRTHDAY GIRL: “Bom dia Rio. Thanks sun for coming out today on my birthday eve.” — USA Today travel writer Nancy Trejos.

Ouch!

“Maybe if Holly Petraeus spent a little less time at the CPFB…….” — Free Beacon‘s Michael Goldfarb.

Right-wing writer concedes one nice thing about Obama

“The one — ONE — thing I agree with Barack Obama on is that Homeland is the best show on TV.” — TWT senior ppinion writer Emily Miller.

From a very nerdy Dept. of Bragiculture…

“Cool moment. Ran into Sen. Leahy just now at DCA. We talked about Phish. He said his son knows Trey. He’s a Dead guy but loves Phish, too.” — National Review Online‘s Robert Costa.

Reporter makes desperate plea for coffee

“One million preteen kids just boarded my metro car. Save me. #havenothadenufcoffeeforthis” — WSJ bank reg reporter Victoria McGrane.

The Ass Kisser

“Very interesting piece here by @DylanBiers.” — Commentary‘s John Podhoretz. (Last week the pair was bickering until PodWhore realized Byers wasn’t actually insulting him. Now they’re in love. )

Scribe says other woman’s hubby is alleged douchebag

“You’re a pretentious douchebag if Dear Abby isn’t good enough for your problems and you have to seek out the NY Times ‘Ethicist’ columnist.” — The Daily Caller TV writer Jeff Poor. (The Ethicist received a letter frighteningly similar to the situation swirling around Paula Broadwell, alleged mistress to General David Petraeus.)

And this from a facetious Politico reporter… “Dear Ethicist: I work in an information security-related field but am considering writing explicit and career-destroying emails. Help me?” — Politico‘s Alexander Burns.

The Complimenter

“The 2013 Calendar sent out to all its print subscribers reminds me of what an amazing photographer team @washingtonpost has on its rolls.” — WSJ‘s Raju Narisetti, formerly of WaPo.

NPR’s Andy Carvin works on final edit of his book in Istanbul, a publicist weighs in on latest sex scandal to rock D.C., a CNN Contributor has a problem with his hip flexor and two straight journos have a gay convo… continued…

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As Politico Editor-in-Chief John Harris explains it, Martin writing the piece for WSJ involved standard operating procedure. “We don’t  typically do standard book reviews of the sort Jonathan wrote for the Wall Street Journal,” Harris wrote FishbowlDC. “Those guys had specifically solicited him to do this review and, following our policy for outside assignments, he asked for permission and in this case we gave it. I thought it was a very well-turned review of the Rubio books and I’ll confess to a momentary pang of ‘maybe we should have done this’ but in any event I’m glad he did it. My understanding is he read the Rubio books on his honeymoon—the last of the great romantics.”

But something worthy to note: Politico has lost several prominent reporters to WSJ. One was White House Correspondent Carol Lee in February of 2011. The other, media writer Keach Hagey in March, 2012. In the spring of 2010, Victoria McGrane left Politico and went to Dow Jones. By September she was — you guessed it — at WSJ. Also in 2010: Patrick O’Connor left Politico for Bloomberg. He, too, eventually wound up at WSJ.

Read Martin’s WSJ review here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“The Banana is the perfectly named fruit.” — former CNNer Larry King. Can Piers make him an assistant or something?

Journo comes across dead body

“En route to Louis Armstrong park for treme brass band and we see a dead body on a lot.” — Roll Call‘s John Stanton at Jazz Fest in New Orleans.

Attention grabber

“National Zoo to live-tweet artificial insemination of panda.” — Drudge Report.

“Like dc to want her barefoot and pregnant” — WaPo’s Jennifer Rubin in reaction to WaPo writing a story on the panda possibly being replaced if it doesn’t get pregnant. To the above Drudge tweet, Rubin remarked, “Perfect assignment 4 Anthony Weiner.”

“For 340 new followers I’d have live-tweeted my vasectomy.” — Consultant, NBC Washington Contributor Chuck Thies.

Since when did HuffPost become a cheap knockoff of Maury Povich and Tyra? In a Monday tweet they ask: “Did you reinvent your life after a personal trauma? #breakover Tell us about it.”

Eavesdrop Café

“At cafe eavesdropping on a guy getting performance review. I think his boss should be fired. This is painful.” — NPR’s Sonari Glinton.

Oh, you got Uggie too?!

“Lisa Lerer, you got a picture with the artist dog too!??!?!?! you won the weekend I think.” WSJ‘s Victoria McGrane to Bloomberg’s Lisa Lerer. And this from Barron‘s Washington Editor James McTague: “Cannot believe that my pix with the dog from the film “the Actor” has not become a Twitter sensation. Must be the dog.”

A shoe-in for an invite to next year’s pre-WHCD garden party: “This tweet’s for @haddadmedia #letsfindacure” — CBS’s Christine Delargy.

Blogger recounts therapy appt.

“Best part of therapy today was my therapist stopped to hunt down & kill a fly that was disturbing my peace. #youknowyouhaveproblemswhen” — blogger Pamela Sorensen who writes Pamela’s Punch.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

WEINERMANIA STRIKES WASHINGTON

“You know who would be hysterical on this Congressman Weiner business? Congressman Weiner.” — Slate‘s John Dickerson in a Wednesday tweet.

“Amazing that Anthony Weiner has dislodged Sarah Palin from the cable universe. That’s one powerful Weiner.” — WSJ White House Reporter Jonathan Weisman in a Wednesday tweet.

“Couldn’t Weiner put on some gray shorts, get to the same, uh, level, and then take a photo and compare?” — Politico‘s Jennifer Epstein in a Wednesday tweet.

“75% of the things said to me today would be characterized as sexual harassment had ‘Weinergate’ not made it ‘acceptable.’ — Politico‘s Meredith Shiner in a Wednesday tweet.

“Ok, so Rep. Weiner can’t answer with certitude…what about magnitude?” — D.C. Attorney Donald Edmond in a Wednesday tweet.

“Are these your underpants?” — CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview with Weiner.

“Anthony Weiner made about six penis jokes while talking to reporters, standing outside the House floor. He has NO RESPECT for the office.” – TWT Opinion Writer Emily Miller in a Wednesday tweet.

“And if this latest photo controversy ends with the CIA showing pictures of Congressman Weiner‘s crotch to members of the Senate’s military and intelligence committees, we quit.” — Wednesday night edition of HuffPost Hill.

“For once, ‘boxers or briefs?’ would be relevant.” — Slate‘s Christopher Beam in a Wednesday tweet.

“Since Rep. Weiner ‘can’t say with certitude’ if that’s his junk or not, does that mean some poor sap might be Weiner’s ‘wiener doppelgänger’” — Derek Hunter, conservative writer and radio host who helped found The Daily Caller, in a Wednesday tweet.

“So will all of this mean that, once the dust settles, Rep. Anthony Weiner is going to become … a sex symbol?!?” — Politico‘s Patrick Gavin in a Wednesday tweet.

“The one thing Anthony Weiner might be thankful for: SNL is off for the summer.” — MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett in a Wednesday tweet.

“I can’t imagine a #weinergate scenario that is actually worse than what is happening for Rep. Weiner.” –  The Daily Caller‘s Jonathan Strong in a Wednesday night tweet.

Savannah prepares to say goodbye to Chuck

“Can’t believe it – only two more days w @chucktodd on @dailyrundown. We’ll see you for a packed show at 9a.” — NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in a Thursday morning tweet. She’s leaving “The Daily Rundown” with co-host Chuck Todd to move to the third hour of the “TODAY” show.

Look who’s jealous of Weiner!

“Rep. Weiner has increased his twitter followers by 11k. A pic that ‘started out’ of me in briefs will be tweeted shortly.” — Mediaite‘s Dan Abrams in a Wednesday night tweet.

Incest Desk Alert

“Kurt Bardella just sent me a press release: ‘Darrell Issa to Elizabeth Warren: Clear your calendar’” — WSJ‘s Victoria McGrane in a Wednesday tweet. HuffPost Hill writes: “Feel like I fell through a worm hole.” (h/t to HuffPost Hill for this item.) In explanation: Bardella is the former and fired flack to Rep. Issa (R-Calif.).

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Noteworthy: HuffPost Hill‘s Eliot Nelson mentioned the move in his dispatch Wednesday evening, saying, “Eat it, Politico.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This Friday from 8:45 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., the first of the ongoing series, co-sponsored by Politico, focuses on financial regulatory reform. Topics: the role of the Federal Reserve; managing systemic risk and moral hazard; credit rating agencies; and financial consumer protection.

Moderator: Martin Kady, Congressional Bureau Chief, Politico
Victoria McGrane, Reporter, Dow Jones Newswires (formerly with Politico)
Kathleen Day, Center for Responsible Lending
Steve Verdier, Sr. VP/Director of Congressional Relations,
Independent Community Bankers Association

Continental breakfast will be served. The cost to attend is nothing. Those who wish to attend must sign up here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Lerer is the fifth scribe to leave Politico in recent weeks. The list includes: Patrick O’Conner (Bloomberg News), Victoria McGrane (Dow Jones Newswires), Pia Catton (WSJ) and Michael Calderone (Yahoo News).

(In case anyone thinks I’m joking, it’s April 2, so April Fools’ Day is over.)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Congratulations to Calderone!

The scribe had no comment for FishbowlDC by press time, but if he weighs is on the matter, we’ll be sure to bring it to you.

“He is expected to leave Politico within a matter of weeks to join Yahoo News’ original content project, overseen by blogging editor Andrew Golis,” the site reports. “Chris Lehmann and “Cajun Boy” Brett Michael Dykes also recently joined the project. Calderone, who joined Politico from the New York Observer, has the rare distinction of being named both one of Keith Olbermann’s “Worst
Persons in the World” and one of Bill O’Reilly’s “pinheads.”

Calderone is among a number of journalists leaving the publication as of late that includes Pia Catton, Patrick O’Connor and Victoria McGrane.

Read the full story here.

UPDATE See internal memo from VandeHarris after the jump…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

I am very pleased to announce that Dina Cappiello will be joining CQ to cover energy policy for Paul Hendrie’s team. Dina brings nearly eight years of solid experience covering the energy and environment beat in Texas and New York. Since 2002, Dina has written groundbreaking stories for the Houston Chronicle from its home office. One series prompted independent testing of air quality near some of the nation’s largest industrial plants. She has a demonstrated record of aggressive, thoughtful and creative beat coverage, writing a blog, columns and producing a weekly science page atop her daily and enterprise work. For three years, she covered the energy and environment beat for the Times Union in Albany. Her work has won the notice of judges in several national journalism contests and won at least six major local awards. Dina earned three graduate degrees from Columbia University, a dual degree in Environmental Science and Journalism and another in Secondary Science Education. Dina got her undergraduate degree in biology from Georgetown University. Please welcome her when she joins our team on Oct. 29.

And…

I am very pleased to announce that Gordon Witkin, an assistant managing editor at U.S. News & World Report, will join CQ as Social Policy Editor on Oct 22.

Gordon brings three decades of journalism experience that includes twenty years of pursuing a mix of street-and-policy-level reporting on urban affairs, the Midwest, crime and law enforcement. He moved into the editing ranks in 1998 as the magazine’s Assistant Managing Editor and Chief of Correspondents, a position that put him in charge of seven national bureaus and a network of 200 stringers worldwide. He co-edited two special issues of U.S. News, including one examining the aftermath of 9/11. Since 2003, Gordon has been Assistant Managing Editor for the Nation & the World, a job that put him in charge of editing the magazine’s flagship news section with its attendant team of reporters and stringers.

Gordon is an organized and insightful editor with solid management skill. He is a gifted writer and his work has earned him acclaim. He is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and plays the saxophone in a rhythm and blues band called Nobody’s Business. A native of Harrison, N. Y., he now lives in Bethesda with his wife, Stacy Ettinger, and their two boys, Nathan, 9, and Aaron, 7. I know you will join me in giving him a warm welcome upon his arrival next month.

And…

I am sorry to report that after a little more than a year as a member of our Economics & Finance reporting team, Victoria McGrane will be leaving our staff on Oct. 5 to become a financial services reporter at Politico. Vicki came to Congressional Quarterly as our Senate floor votes reporter in early 2006. She joined Jodi Schneider’s team as trade reporter six months later. We thank Vicki for her work in revitalizing our coverage of trade issues, broadening the focus from trade-related legislation to issues including China currency battles and foreign investment in the United States. Last spring, Vicki won a National Press Foundation fellowship to pursue her reporting in China. Vicki demonstrated her insight and in-depth reporting skills as she wrote In Focus features on CFIUS and the fallout from Sarbanes-Oxley. Her fine CQ Weekly cover story in May looked at the insurance industry in the wake of Katrina and the battle between the industry and Mississippi lawmakers. We’ll miss Vicki’s contributions to our publications, but we wish her the best of luck in her new position.

And Dan Fowler is leaving the Washington Examiner to join Congressional Quarterly where he will cover Homeland Security issues. His last day will be October 11.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Capitol Hill subway riders were in for surprise Tuesday, when the doors on the Senate train wouldn’t open upon arriving at the Capitol platform.

In what resembled a mini Senate version of “Rescue 911″ sans host William Shatner’s narration, fellow rider Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) sprung into action, instructing fellow subway riders how to open the two sets of car doors. “He took control of the situation,” says Bob Stevenson, the one-time spokesman to former Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) who was stuck in the middle subway car with Coleman.

But, the knight in shining armor — or rather, suit — wasn’t finished. Coleman helped pry open the other two car doors helping stranded riders get out of the car and on their merry way.

One of those riders? FishbowlDC hears it was CQ’s Victoria McGrane.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.