Wonkette

CHECKING IN WITH FORMER WONKETTE EDITOR ALEX PAREENE: It is just like the old days when Pareene & Layne would spend Election Nights typing horrible things to each other over G-Chat. But this time, it’s apparently about John Edwards refusing to ever concede to anyone, because of the Mill, and Pareene works for Gawker in New York.

So, as most everyone knows, Alex Pareene abandoned Wonkette for the greener Gawker field and is on his way out of D.C. as well. When I was still anonymous, he was technically my boss, so I got an taste of having a young whippersnapper of a boss at least 15 years before I expected it to happen. But, as Ken said before me, he was a pretty cool guy. However, he never really liked doing party reports (because he was happier in a dive bar) and really hated to be in pictures, which is why I documented his going away party, after the jump.

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The Washington DC Improv comedy club held its 12th annual “Funniest Celebrity in Washington” fundraiser last night, where politicians, TV personalities, local cultural aesthetes and ex-Wonkette editors (Mary Cox or whatever, as well as Pareene this year) give stand-up comedy an awkward try. Unsurprisingly, the winner was Onion assistant editor Joseph Randazzo, followed by Sen. Arlen Specter (video above, via PennLive) in second and Cox lady in third. Randazzo had all sorts of jo–

WTF ARLEN SPECTER WON SECOND IN A COMEDY CONTEST?? MORE »

Never met Pareene. Never spoken to him, in person or on the phone. We only ever sent short messages via gchat, exclusively, because nobody else uses gchat so you don’t get bothered. Never had any substantive conversation regarding Wonkette or anything work-related beyond constant complaining about the company and its terrible broken technology. We only ever had one single goal: to move Wonkette to blogspot. Oh, and to quit. [Moving to Gawker's not really quitting Gawker]

Hello, comrades! Have you enjoyed Wonkette these past 18 months or so? Well, good, because now we’re going to change it all around, as far as who writes and edits the thing. Editor and “national treasure” Alex Pareene is moving to New York City for a secret new assignment he’ll explain in another post, and I’m hanging around for a while as a daily contributor and will continue to sort of vaguely maintain the invisible “West Coast Bureau” — yes, you can go ahead and offer me lucrative free-lance stuff now, and this time I might actually do it. MORE »

Former Examiner gossip and queen-of-all-media Karen Feld has a small bone to pick with Wonkette. So she sat right down and wrote a letter to our bosses. It’s reprinted in its entirety after the jump, but here’s the gist:

What documentation does he have that I suffer from dementia?
And that I am a dog abuser?

Pareene gets a stern, rambling talking-to, after the jump.

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Hi, everyone. Alex here. Did you notice I was gone? No? Too busy giggling like idiots at Michael Steele and Ann Coulter to even wish me a happy birthday — you didn’t even call, you didn’t write, not so much as a series of angry posts on anonymous blogs calling me a queer, nothing. MORE »

Team Wonkette Field Trip! From left: David Lat, the Comics Curmudgeon, Intern Nick (mostly hidden), and Alex Pareene.

Last night, Team Wonkette made its way out to RFK stadium for the annual Congressional Baseball Game, sponsored by Roll Call. The game was, well, sad and pathetic. The Republicans won 12-1 (Roberts recused himself). But man, what a trip. Drunk hill staffers everywhere, Katherine Harris wandering around, tight unis on middle-aged legislative paunches, and William Jefferson looking really intense. Pocket full of sandpaper, of course. But that’s another story — one for after the jump, in fact, illustrated with lovely pictures from Liz Gorman, Intrepid Girl Reporter.

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I’ve had my picture taken with Katherine Harris — in matching outfits, no less. My work here is done.

Greetings. It’s David Lat, one of your two editors here at Wonkette. And just like Star Jones, another ex-prosecutor-turned-sassy-personality, I’m using this week to say good-bye — at least for now.

As is usually the case, the gossip is true. I’m leaving the wild ‘n wacky world of politics, which I’ve enjoyed blogging about for the past five months, to return to my first love: the law. Not the practice of it, but writing about it; I’m going back to the legal blogosphere, from whence I came. Having spent a truckload of dough earnin’ a fancy law school degree, as well as several years in legal practice, I figure I might as well put it all to some productive use (with “productive” loosely defined).

The full details, plus teary farewells, after the jump (or just click here, then scroll down).

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Quick! Guess which one used to be lawyer! (Photo ? Nikola Tamindzic/AMBREL.net) MORE »