BREAKFAST AT ABC’s THIS WEEK: HuffPost-AOL Editor-in-Chief Arianna Huffington: “French toast, home fried potatoes, sausage patties and bacon in the ABC green room. Seriously?” Host George Stephanopoulos replied, “Sorry, Arianna, I ate all the Greek yogurt.”

On Margaret Thatcher’s passing

“Margaret Thatcher was the first politician I ever met. She was a wonderful person and a great leader.” — FNC Contributor and RedState Editor Erik Erickson.

“Obviously, everyone should relate Thatcher’s death to something in American politics, and then tweet it, because that is a Good Thing to Do.” — Politico‘s Tony Romm.

“Over-under on # of people who will write interesting columns about what Thatcher meant to them: 4″ — Politico‘s Alexander Burns.

Music editor ties the knot

“En route to the church to marry my best friend, @mabinty. #weddingday.” — WCP‘s Marcus Moore, who married Mabinty Koroma.

Violent dream talk.

“I’m killing people off in my dreams right and left this week. Sorry, everyone. I don’t like it either.” — Photographer and blogger Laurie White.

Weekend TV Watching

“This episode of Cops takes place in Portland. The squad car pulls over a naked man on a bike who is ‘protesting global warming.’” — Politico’s Byron Tau.

“Watching ‘Point Break’ with Alex Pappas. It’s his favorite movie.” — The Daily Caller’s Will Rahn regarding he and his colleague, Alex Pappas.

Tschida’s exotic vacation to southeast Asia

“Long airport layover, so sign up for ‘foot massage.’ 90-year-old man comes in says please take off trouser but please leave underwear on.” — ABC7′s Stephen Tschida. And unfortunately, upon returning home, Tschida falls ill: “Back from the jungle and all day long I go from chills to sweat. Sure hope it’s the D.C. weather and not dengue fever. But with my luck?”

Editor throws caution to wind

“Went to the P St. Whole Foods after 2pm because YOLO” — Foreign Policy magazine Managing Editor Blake Hounshell.

TV anchor admits culinary weakness and a reader panics that Politico Playbook has been nixed today. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Ginni Thomas, a contributor at The Daily Caller, was grouped with other conservative “clowns” yesterday in a daily morning tip sheet written by The DC Senior Editor Jamie Weinstein.

The item by Weinstein linked to a story by his colleague Will Rahn involving a letter drafted by several movement conservatives defending the conservative Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell. Republican consultant Jonathan Collegio reportedly referred to Bozell as a “hater” on a local D.C. radio program this week. To that, other conservatives along with radio host Mark Levin and Thomas drafted a letter calling for Collegio to be fired from his job at the American Crossroads Super PAC.

Weinstein called it “a clown letter that embarrasses clowns.” More from his tip sheet… continued…

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To the left is a photo of Nandi, who works with Emperor Vodka, which sponsored the soiree. “I’m just here for pictures,” she said, graciously posing for cameras. Nandi, whose arms are reminiscent of Angela Bassett‘s What’s Love Got to Do with It, said this was her first time working with Emperor. Fun first day on the job!

The Daily Caller hosted the party in its Farragut Square newsroom celebrating The Lizard King, an ebook written by their own Jamie Weinstein and Will Rahn.

“I have no good answer,” said Rahn when asked who should read his book. “It’s a transformative book,” he said (“transformational” also works). He compared it to reading the Bible. “Is this off the record?” Rahn asked at the conclusion of our interview.

Weinstein was a little more willing to talk about the book, though we get the impression he thought he was on TV. “Truth-seekers will like it,” Weinstein said. He emphasized that the book is actually a manuscript provided by a White House insider and that he and Rahn are simply the vessels through which the book is being delivered. “Once in a while, history falls upon you and I think it happened to us,” he said, adding that it “may be one of the most important books since [Fox News host] Sean Hannity’s book.”

The Daily Caller‘s bar was stocked with wine, soda, alcohol and a beer tap that poured Pabst Blue Ribbon. Edibles (vegetables and a few hors d’oeurves) were a little on the slim side.

As guests trickled in, a couple faces stood out in the crowd: Politico‘s Byron Tau and Tim Mak. The DC and Politico have been known to publicly quibble in the past. One Daily Caller staffer said the relationship between the two publications “on paper” is often not the case between individual reporters. He said there are several Politico employees he regularly drinks with. Both Tau and Mak chatted with The DC‘s Alex Pappas for a while, as well.

In the crowd we also spotted a distinguished gentleman with a badass eye patch. It turned out to be Will Rahn’s father, ex-husband to WSJ‘s Peggy Noonan.

The DC‘s editor Tucker Carlson was seen talking with RollCall‘s Jonathan Strong, a former Daily Caller reporter. Strong said work for him has been slow and “a little boring,” given he covers Congress, which is currently out of session.

Notables: The Daily Caller‘s Alex Treadway, Sarah Hoffman, Taylor Bigler, Jeff Poor, Caroline May, Brian Danza, Chris Bedford, Neil Munro, Pat McMahon, Nicole Roeberg, and Vince Coglianese; The Free Beacon‘s Adam Kredo and CJ Ciaramella; RollCall HOH‘s Neda Semani and Warren Rojas; Fox News contributor Jim Pinkerton; WaPo‘s Alexandra Petri; U.S. News‘ Steven Nelson; The Daily Beast‘s Eli Lake; and Donald Rumsfeld‘s former chief of staff Keith Urbahn. Conspicuously absent were Matthew Boyle and Martosko, who had kid duty. We rode the elevator with him down to the garage. He puffed away on what may have been an illegal cigar the whole way down and said Rahn and Weinstein would know he was there “in spirit.”

Quotable:

• “He’s a bit of a self promoter.”– Keith Urbahn on his former boss Donald Rumsfeld, who was Defense Secretary under former Prez George W. Bush. Urbahn spilled that Rummy is currently working on a new book. UPDATE: Urbahn writes in to tell us he was talking about his other former boss, The Daily Beast‘s David Frum.

• Asked about former and recently fired Daily Caller reporter Michelle Fields, Daily Caller Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson said, “I haven’t seen her much on TV lately. That ended for some reason.” Fields was not in attendance.

• “I don’t want to be written about.”– Steven Nelson, after FishbowlDC inquired about his job at U.S. News, which he only recently started.

• “I’m holding out for the chance that Matthew Boyle shows up.”– FBDC’s Peter Ogburn.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Late last night a FishbowlDC spy sent me this photograph of a journalist’s shoes from The Daily Caller‘s book party. The book is The Lizard King by Will Rahn and Jamie Weinstein. The shoes belong to neither author.

We’ll provide the hints. You guess the shoes. (Send to fishbowldc@mediabistro.com or to Betsy@mediabistro.com. We’ll do the big reveal later.)

Hint #1: He keeps all his receipts.

Hint #2: The town where he was raised has “Goose” in its name.

Hint #3: He does a mean Moonwalk.

Hint #4: When he first moved to D.C. in 2010, his car was stolen at the Branch Ave. Metro Station.

Hint #5: He is credited in the acknowledgement of Ann Coulter’s book, Demonic.

Hint #6: On rainy days he doesn’t like to venture outside.

Hint #7: He can scarf down enormous portions of nachos.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“I wouldn’t expect anything else from a Daily Caller party.” — partygoer at The Daily Caller‘s book party last night for Will Rahn and Jamie Weinstein for their new eBook, The Lizard King. They hired this woman above on behalf of Emperor Vodka. Naturally she showed up in a French maid outfit. As you can see, the publication’s infamous White House Correspondent Neil Munro wastes no time in chatting her up. More on the party later…

“The great thing about life is that sometimes after you take the steps, then the path appears.” — TLC’s “What Not to Wear” host Stacy London at 6th & I Synagogue last night to discuss her new book, The Truth About Style. More on her talk later…

Confessional.

“Big Bird: My bed time is usually 7:45, but I was really tired yesterday and fell asleep at 7! Did I miss anything last night?” — Sesame Street.

Overheard…

“‘I filed an extension on my taxes. But it only went till October, so…’ — cocktail chatter at Daily Caller book release shindig.” — Roll Call HOH’s Warren Rojas.

Reporter gets real about kimchi

“After 7 painful years, I am throwing in the towel on pretending to like kimchi. I’ll never be cool enough to eat fermented cabbage.” — HuffPost politics reporter Laura Bassett.

Another food admission…

“Breaking: gluten free, dairy free pizza is the most depressing thing I’ve done.” — Roll Call HOH’s Neda Semnani.

Morning observation at the White House

“Just arrived at the White House. Didn’t see any below-8% dancing on the front lawn.” — Politico‘s Reid Epstein.

Anonymous journo to FBDC: “I helped launch MSNBC and I remember they got rid of Ann Coulter. Which was a shame because she had great legs.”

Peter Ogburn contributed to this report.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Crashers may be picked on but they won’t likely be turned away.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Daily Caller

We wrote Martosko for comment. Here’s what he had to say:

“For the record: My health is none of your business.
Sincerely, David Martosko”

We wish Martosko Godspeed. We’re told the newsroom is being run by Rahn and Coglianese in his absence.

See the letter…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The headline in question: “McCain fingers Schumer as media whore for ‘grandstanding’ on Ariz. immigration law.”

Brian Fallon, spokesman to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a well-known press whore who practically invented the phrase press whore, called up and asked, “Is whore really a word that The Daily Caller uses in a headline on its website?” Fallon had zero problem with their use of “fingers” as a verb.

So The Daily Caller did what many modern news organizations would do and turned Fallon into a puppet. The story’s byline is “Scoops Delacroix” a fake reporter’s name that has been passed around the office. At the moment it floats between Will Rahn and Jamie Weinstein but there may be others who have used it.

This is a must-watch.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

NBC TODAY show’s Savannah Guthrie‘s feet brought to us by NBC Investigative Correspondent Jeff Rossen.

Amtrak responds to journo’s complaints

“Life is what happens when you’re on hold with Amtrak.” — The Daily Caller‘s Will Rahn wrote the other day. To which Amtrak responded, saying, “@willrahn We apologize for the wait, but thank you for your patience.”

Dicking around in the morning…

“There are many ways to teach the kids about timeliness. Waking them in a panic because you were dickering on Twitter is apparently mine.” — CBS Political Director John Dickerson.

More Olbermann analysis

“Just terrible luck for Olbermann…keeps getting hired by great people who turn out to be horrible right around the time he leave.” — Yahoo! News‘s Olivier Knox.

Journo Appreciation Society

“Thank you for the awesome #politicolive shout outs. Definitely one of my favorite parts of election nights!” — Politico‘s Juana Summers, who went up against the trifecta firing squad last night of Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Maggie Haberman.

Tornado gets train metaphor

“Fascinated by the ubiquitous use of ‘freight train’ to describe a tornado. How many people can distinguish freight trains from other trains?” — Progressive blogger and former web consultant to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton presidential campaign Peter Daou.

Journo blames spelling error on White House Press Office

“W.H. misspelled John Calipari’s name in their release, leading me to misspell his name in my item because I know nothing about basketball.” — Politico White House reporter Byron Tau.

At 3:07 a.m. Metro Weekly White House reporter Chris Geidner writes… “Can’t sleep. Grr. Trying again. :-/ Alarm is at 6a. … Night, tweeps.”

Feminist of the Day

“I hear that ABC’s ‘Honeymooners’ remake will be titled ‘I’m Gonna Punch That B****!’ — Wired‘s Spencer Ackerman.

Baier will answer literally anything

“Bret Baier mate batman is pretty intense for first thing in the morning? My kids and I go for Mickey’s Clubhouse,” wrote Steveathan. Baier replied, “Good idea.”

Eavesdrop Cafe

“Eavesdropping on @ESPN exec at a breakfast brag bout the net’s
next slate of docs, including films about Larry Bird, bodybuilding, poker” — Contributing GQ and The Atlantic Editor Marc Ambinder.

Shocker: No eBook mentions in this morning’s Politico Playbook.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Daily Caller

The headline: ‘FOX HUNT.’ In this story, written solo by Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson, paints a picture of an organization that wants to go after Fox News employees — both professionally and personally.

Like the last, they name names. This time it’s former employee Karl Frisch, now of Bullfight Strategies and a syndicated columnist, who sent a memo to David Brock detailing a plan to “attack” FNC. In it, Frisch insists FNC is the enemy of the Obama Administration and the entire progressive movement.

An excerpt and likely the most damning graph in the piece: “What Frisch proceeded to suggest, however, went well beyond what legitimate presidential campaigns attempt. ‘We should hire private investigators to look into the personal lives of Fox News anchors, hosts, reporters, prominent contributors, senior network and corporate staff,’ he wrote.

Carlson is scheduled to appear on Fox and Friends this morning at 8:15 a.m. to discuss the story.

Meanwhile…the publication continues to ruffle the feathers of Politico and BuzzFeed Editor and Politico columnist Ben Smith. And WaPo‘s Erik Wemple makes fun of The Daily Caller series, saying that he too, has played ball with MMFA. You don’t want to miss the brawling between Carlson and Smith…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The project was a group effort: Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson, who doesn’t normally attach his byline on a lead story, and Vince Coglianese are the primary authors, with Alex Pappas and Will Rahn contributing.

The story centers on MMFA Founder David Brock and his reportedly systematic effort to “influence” the national media. Former and current employees describe what they allege to be his erratic, manic and paranoid behavior in the workplace, badmouthing Obama in social settings, cocaine use and more. The degree of security around Brock is astonishing.

An excerpt: The threat he faced while smoking on his roof? “Snipers,” a former co-worker recalled.

“He had more security than a Third World dictator,” one employee said, explaining that Brock’s bodyguards would rarely leave his side, even accompanying him to his home in an affluent DC neighborhood each night, where they “stood post” to protect him. “What movement leader has a detail?” asked someone who saw it.

A little comic relief: Brock apparently can’t stand ugly people, and once wanted to can a researcher for his or her looks. “‘David really doesn’t like ugly people,’” one employee explains.

Part I has a little something for everyone: war room researchers having sex at work, drugs, guns and mental illness.

Brock and the named reporters chose not to defend themselves… The piece is predominately comprised of anonymous sources, but there are a lot of them, and internal memos such as one stating that “Media Matters intends to spend nearly $20 million in 2012 to influence news coverage.” Neither Sergent nor Smith would comment for the story despite requests. Brock also had no response. “I called Brock’s cell and office, texted him and sent notes to both of his email addresses,” Carlson told FishbowlDC. “No response. Disappointing.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Earlier today Smith received a call from The Daily Caller‘s Will Rahn. The topic concerned a story Smith wrote today about strife about Israel within the Democratic Party. Media Matters, he writes, plays a big role and has been largely at odds with Congress’s pro-Israel leadership as well as that of Obama. Headline: “Israel rift roils Democratic ranks.” Smith, who we’re told went ballistic on the Daily Caller reporter, followed up with the following tweets:

It must be Tuesday: A call from a Daily Caller reporter with a hot story on how I’m a tool of …Media Matters! Also, I think, Soros.

— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) February 7, 2012

My conspiracy on behalf of Media Matters began with this devious false-flag coverage of them politico.com/news/stories/1… cc @rp_newsletter

— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) February 7, 2012

The publication’s clash with Smith first began in Oct. 2010, eight months after The Daily Caller‘s inception, when Smith questioned the viability of the news outlet. Smith wrote that The Daily Caller is “struggling” to find its place and therefore attacking more established publications like National Review. Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson responded by email: “The Daily Caller is ‘struggling’? What a ludicrous hack job, and stupid. Fuck you.”

Rahn did not return our request for comment. UPDATE: Smith told FishbowlDC: “I’m a little surprised Will would characterize an exchange he told me was off the record, and I won’t reciprocate, but wouldn’t characterize it that way.” Stay tuned…this isn’t over. UPDATE 2: Nicole Roeberg, The Daily Caller‘s Spokeswoman, told FishbowlDC: “As you noted in your story, Will never responded to your request for comment. He didn’t characterize the exchange to anyone. Will stands by any and all pledges of ‘off the record,’ and this would never have been an item for you if the off the record call hadn’t been tweeted about in the first place.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.