Confessional.
“Grateful for the kind words of so many. If you hated it or me, well, I gave you lots of reasons to. “But I’m tryin’, Ringo.” And this: Was more than a little nervous about that story coming out last night, so I turned off my phone and watched a movie.” — The Lexington Herald-Leader‘s Sam Youngman, finally weighing in on Twitter after writing his provocative story about Washington for Politico Magazine that attracted more than a few critiques but created quite a stir. The headline: “Take This Town And Shove It.” Read here.
Meet the dumbest blonde in Washington
“Youngman’s lengthy diatribe against Washington’s mediasphere is laced with the cranky assumption that everyone in town is as vile as he was.” — Washington City Paper‘s Perry Stein in a really idiotic “takedown” of Youngman’s piece for Politico. I’d venture to guess Perry never even met Youngman. And if that’s the gold standard for calling someone “vile” these days, then Perry Stein, you’re vile. And not that bright. I witnessed Stein in court a few months back where the judge in a case I was involved in gave her and only her the entire story. There was no other reporter there. Perry, box of bricks that she seemed to be, proceeded to say the judge kicked her out (which he didn’t, I was there) and then let another news outlet kick her ass by breaking the story before her. She never even tried to interview anyone while she was there. She huffed and pouted while the judge explained everything she could’ve quickly dumped into a computer. Her story then was crap. Her story on Youngman stinks. (Full disclosure: I worked with and have known Youngman for several years. He’s a good friend to many in Washington and was this way both drunk and sober.)
Writer plans detox over Christmas
“My dad and I are going to go hiking over Christmas break. We both need it. Workaholism runs in the family.” — Shoshana Weissmann, a consultant who writes for Red Alert Politics.
Erickson’s wife scolds him
“Dammit. My wife heard that monologue. Txted me ‘All ur getting for Christmas is an ass kicking now.’ Argh.” — RedState Editor and FNC’s Erick Erickson, who’s subbing for Rush Limbaugh. On Facebook today, Erickson wrote this: “Sat next to very famous actress/author on the flight to New York. Christy Arnold Erickson admonished me to avoid going fanboy on her. I had gotten stopped twice today by people wanting autographs plus a third who just wanted to chat, which was a good reminder sometimes it’s best to just be kind.” Erickson gets stopped for autographs. No offense, but seriously?
Thank You For Sharing
“Hope you feel better soon @sav01” — CNBC and NYT‘s John Harwood to a follower who wrote, “Why are you lying to the American people on behalf of the White House? You should be ashamed” To be sure, Harwood retweeted the hate mail.
More ‘Pajama Boy’ fallout
“Fun fact: the Pajama Boy character is based on @NeilMunroDC” — The Daily Caller‘s Patrick Howley. No word on how Munro feels about this. In other Howley news… “I’ve never seen the Duck show, but I’d listen to this guy talk about anuses all day.”
Ron Fournier NOT tweeting until 2014?!
“That’s a wrap until ’14. Will give your feeds a rest for the holidays. Thank you for reading, reacting and trolling ’13. Keep up the fight.” — National Journal‘s national correspondent and serial tweeter Ron Fournier, who must be dealing with the shakes right now from trying to stay off Twitter. We’ll see if he can do it. My bet is no. Still, QGA and blogger John Feehery replied to him, saying, “You da man.” (Eye roll. In the meantime, let’s stop and smell the roses. We can learn a lot from those apes pictured above.)
Journo detests New Years
“I hereby proclaim a War on New Years — it’s terrible. It just is.” — Talking Points Memo‘s Igor Bobic. Three minutes later, he wasn’t done: “New Years resolutions? Awful.”
Late-night headline request
“That thing where you realize @lisatozzi is still awake so you email her a 2000-word story to ask for headline help at 1:45 am.” — BuzzFeed‘s McKay Coppins, who will soon go on book leave.
Urkel fanboy?
“Fresh air, rollin’ down the window/Too many Urkels on your team, that’s why your wins low.” — Political blogger Dave Cantanese, who apparently had Kanye West on his mind.