Wonkette

Yes, Howie, the media got all self- important about Barry and blew it on New Hamsters election night. But at least they didn’t compare their silly failures to a natural disaster that ruined the lives of many poor people. So thank you for getting on that. Also: do they pay you for this? [WP]

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Howard Kurtz has had it with libtard bloggers accusing him of loving all the neo-Nazi web gals. On his Sunday CNN show, Kurtz made sure all the unsavory body parts of fringe-right heartthrob Ann Coulter were mocked on-air. MORE »

When the Post’s Howard Kurtz emailed us to let us know that he was writing about Michelle Malkin, we were excited. After all, not nearly enough is known about this reclusive, media-shy shrinking violet.

And if there’s anyone worthy of being taken seriously, it’s Malkin. From her groundbreaking book on Japanese Internment, Those Nip Fucks Deserved It, to her recent work exposing as fictional the Iraqi police officer/AP source who was later disappeared for talking to the press, Malkin is an intellectual powerhouse whose views need to be heard and publicized.

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* John Warner’s ready to cut and run, “If I can leave Liz Taylor, I can leave Iraq.” [The Carpetbagger Report]
* Howard Dean’s job to be given to the blogger with the most inventive Bush impeachment strategy. [Firedoglake, HuffPo]
* Tom Tancredo doesn’t like places where the heat is on, all night on the beach ’til the break of dawn. [ C&L, H&R]
* Tomorrow, Drudge will look down at his tighty-whities and see President Bush’s face in the skid marks. [Raw Story]
* In his heart, Howard Kurtz knows there aren’t even enough good newspapers to make a Top 10 list. [Romenesko]
* Steny Hoyer stops by Springfield, Illinois, to spit on Abraham Lincoln’s Library and fire off a couple verses of the Terps fight song. [The Swamp]

Howard Kurtz spends a couple thousand words babbling about YouTube today. His point? Inasmuch as he ever has one, it seems to be something about how people posting funny videos on the internet may or may not permanently change the way political campaigns are run. Because young voters are tired of the same-old rhetoric and obvious manipulation — they’d much rather see two white guys rap about cupcakes, or maybe that video of Bush singing “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” MORE »

* Soledad O’Brien: Wednesday’s “Hump Day Hussy.” [Evil Discussor] MORE »

Tell it to the copy eds, Howard. MORE »

They did that while fisking him. Then they blogrolled him onto his stomach, and pinged him so hard, he couldn’t walk right for a week… MORE »

Howard Kurtz, today: MORE »

* Have a listen to Lincoln Ross’ “Come To Washington,” the song that’s angling to become the official DC anthem. After which, life will be totally perfect. [Lincoln Ross]
* And then, participate in DCist’s DC Anthem Poll.
* And then, hear the shocking story of the invasion of the Dancing Flight Attendants of Heineken. [DCist]
* David Gregory gets the puff and fluff from Howie Kurtz. Gregs totally owes us for saving his job. [Washington Post]
* Finally, there’s never been a better time to give a shout-out to Art Buchwald. [Washington Post]

We like the crew over at FishBowlDC and admire their work, which we link to frequently. But given our weakness for irony, as well as our obsession with all things media, we’d be falling down on the job if we didn’t pass along this reader email.

This may take a little concentration — so put down that plastic salad fork and focus. First, read this FishBowl DC item:

Washingtonian’s Kim Eisler is not at all happy with Howard Kurtz. Personally, we’re just amused that at the end of a column spent documenting some other reporter’s conflicts-of-interest, Kurtz profiles a correspondent on the network where Kurtz himself moonlights. Irony alert!

Second, read this “meta-irony alert!” from a Wonkette reader:

Stay with me here as I go all David Foster Wallace on your ass — Um…. the writer of said FishBowl item, Garrett Graff, is the editor at large of the Washingtonian. So — let’s say that Graff highlights how a colleague is not at all happy with Howie Kurtz (whom Graff blowjobish-ly profiled for, uh, the Washingtonian, and what a PLEASELIKEME hummer it was!).

And we are personally amused that Garrett Graff — at the end of his item on how a colleague is upset at a subject of a previous Graff profile AND how said subject has a conflict of interest by dint of his moonlighting job… neglects to so much as intimate that, in the very act of blogging about a guy who’s mad at another guy, who also has a conflict of interest… Garrett soi meme is moonlighting and creating an even more bizarre conflict of interest by reporting about a colleague and refusing to mention it.

Whoa! Didja get all that? If so, then here’s one more thing to note for the record. At the very end of his column, Kurtz at least discloses his potential conflict: “Howard Kurtz hosts CNN’s weekly media program, Reliable Sources.” As noted by our source, Graff does not.

Our musings on this tempest in a teapot — or bubbling in a fishbowl — continue after the jump.

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We’ve had a bit of fun with Washingtonian editor Kim Eisler’s friendship with Jack Abramoff, we admit (we admit also to not recognizing a fairly common expression among observant Jews — has it really been so long since we left New York?). But last night he sent us (and a couple others) a long memo discussing, in great detail, his Kurtz-described “conflict of interest,” his history with Abramoff, and so much more.

Being fans, obviously, of media infighting, we wanted to highlight a few passages:

Consider this for a second. On one hand Abramoff is accused of paying millions of dollars in contributions to, as the indictment alleged, deprive the American people of “honest government.” As if we ever had honest government.

On the other hand, Abramoff is accused of doing nothing for his clients. Could I be the only person in the entire Washington press corps who sees the conflict here? I seem to be. Why was he buying the influence of all these senators and congressmen? How is that doing nothing for his clients ? That is exactly what a lobbist does.

Which is, actually, a pretty good point. And a brilliant defense. Abramoff’s unethical behavior was proof that he wasn’t defrauding his clients! This is precisely how the system is designed to work! As we’ve mentioned numerous times, we occasionally consider ourselves the only actively pro-lobbyist media outlet in Washington. But Eisler has us beat:

I know other people who have gone to the Big House. I play poker and hang out at the race track. I don’t hobnob with the bores that inhabit 15th and L., except for my wife who is not boring and is an exception to this, I admire and like rogues and thieves. I guess that just isn’t done in this starch collar, tight ass city. Come to think of it, if Jack had the guy in Miami killed, that would just be one more feather in his black waterproof cap. Not sure I’ve actually ever known a murderer.

You hear that, Washington? You’re a bunch of tight-asses! We’re beginning to like this Eisler guy. It’s something we’ve always believed too, actually — given the choice between pious protectors of journalistic standards and reporters who drunk-dial nationally syndicated radio, we’ll party with the lush any day of the week.

Eisler’s full “memo” (it’s looong) after the jump.

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