The Politico sauce is flowing our way again, kids! Some media insiders, both inside and outside the newsroom, think that reporter Aoife McCarthy did a much better job of working the gossip beat when she filled in for a few weeks in Sept. while Anne “Mellons” Schroeder was busy tying the knot.

“It’s not fair that Anne gets to keep the choice spot when most of her scoops come from other reporters,” one source, who asked not to be identified, tells Big Head DC. “Aoife deserves a byline at least on some stuff.”  Read more…

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Stop the presses. Campaign bloggers matter, reports staff writer Aoife McCarthy (who was very briefly a blogger herself with FishbowlDC).

“Political Internet strategists are now in a fevered race to make their sites faster, smarter and better,” she writes in the main Web site story this afternoon. “This is one medium where stealing your opponents’ ideas is not only encouraged, it is also a necessity.”

Why do I feel like this story is from 2004? Why do I also feel like making an old-fashioned Howard Dean scream?

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FishbowlDC’s Patrick Gavin just wrote this item:

It’s an interesting parallel for him to draw, given that he’s had well-publicized social relationships with several staff members. Aoife McCarthy even worked for him, remember? And he writes positively about The Politico all the time. Hypocrite alert.

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We’re hearing that Mediabistro’s FishbowlDC is *this* close to announcing it’s next co-editor. Thank goodness because we were beginning to wonder how much longer Patrick Gavin could keep up the Howie Kurtz-like pace: editor of FishbowlDC, gossip columnist with the Examiner, associate editorial page editor with the Examiner, and man about the town. We’re tired just typing this BS.

Has Mediabistro’s Dorian Benkoil even thought about what might happen to the DC enterprise if Gavin were to retire anytime soon?

He should, especially considering the poor luck the site has had since we spoiled Garrett Graff’s exit, Aoife McCarthy was a miserable failure, and Benkoil was “too afraid” to hire BHR. Excuse us for editorializing, but they need a hot ass in that seat — and fast.

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Will Patrick Gavin continue to recycle old items when he finally becomes co-gossip columnist with Jeff Dufour at the Examiner? Tongues are wagging that he’s much more than a day late and a dollar short with his FishbowlDC item today, “Lloyd Grove Back to DC?” The news first appeared in his own paper way back on May 2.

Former Fishbowler Garrett Graff even noted the item (maybe Gavin was too busy schmoozing that day to notice?)…

Speaking of stale fish, when is FishbowlDC going to fill it’s perennially open slot for the new Gavin sidekick? They’ve been advertising for months, and ever since the Aoife McCarthy debacle, we’ve been hearing lots of questions about what’s going on inside the dirty little fishbowl.

Gavin himself must be worried about juggling the new Examiner column without a reliable co-editor in place. Those silly New York City Mediabistro administrators (hi, Dorian Benkoil!) must be too busy thinking about the alleged impending sale of the company — and what they’ll do afterwards — rather than a blog that used to be a flagship enterprise.

Jon Fine, the husband of Mediabistro’s founder, Laurel Touby, even recently confirmed to Big Head Rob that he doesn’t read the blog, yet he does partake in the FishbowlNY and FishbowlLA offerings. Word is that he’s going to buy Gavin dinner to make up for it.

Enough for now–you’ve gotta stay tuned if you want more.

Happy Friday, kids.

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OK, so we told you Tuesday that something was up with Aoife McCarthy’s missing-in-action status at Fishbowl DC. And, surprise, we were right. No, Patrick Gavin didn’t eat her, but she did bid the blog farewell today, just a few short days after being hired to be Gavin’s co-fish:

FishbowlDC Readers: 

You may have noticed that, following the announcement that I was the new FishbowlDC contributing editor, my posting trailed off, followed by the removal of my name from the site’s masthead.

Unfortunately, a recent career change has created unforeseen conflicts with my professional responsibilities and it is with great disappointment that I announce I will no longer be able to be a part of this wonderful website (sic). I greatly enjoyed my brief time here and am enormously envious of whomever lands the gig next.

Thanks for the warm–albeit brief–welcome and for all of your support.

Best,
Aoife McCarthy

How the F could anyone have sent her support when her Fishbowl e-mail address never worked in the first place?! Also, why can’t we find a phone number or e-mail address for her at Financial Dynamics — “one of the world’s leading specialist communications consultancies” — that she apparently worked for after leaving the National Journal? (Not a very good communication strategy, if you ask us.) Finally, why did lots of the stories she reported on for the National Journal’s Hotline contain polling information from Financial Dynamics? (We’d have asked her ourselves, but all the communication strategies we could think of failed.)

Gavin chimed in after her enigmatic adios:

So where does this leave us, FishbowlDC readers? Well, back to the drawing board to some extent. We’ll be reaching out to some of you and hope that some of you will reach out to us if you’re interested in being a contributing editor. 

Note to Patrick Gavin: We scoop your blog regularly and we’ve got one hand tied behind our backs when we type. You insisted that the new hire wouldn’t lead to a big surprise, contrary to what our sources were telling us. And Garrett Graff has a love hate relationship with us.

Bejeezes, why not let us try blogging at Fishbowl for a day or two? Are you afraid?

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Just a few short days ago, the lord of the fish hailed the addition of a new female blogger to Fishbowl DC named Aoife McCarthy, a former National Journal staffer. We tried to e-mail her soon after the announcement to send a hearty congrats, but all of our glee bounced back:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

aoife@mediabistro.com

Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 9): 550 unknown user

Now we see that her bio has been removed from the Fishbowl “About Us” page. There’s no “us” if Aoife’s been fired, quit, or her employer wouldn’t let her blog, now is there? But those are just three possibilities. We think he ate her.

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Fishbowl DC has announced that the former National Journal staffer and current Financial Dynamics assistant vice president is the blog’s new writer. Financial Dynamics is apparently “one of the world’s leading specialist communcations consultancies,” according to its Web site. Guess she has plenty of time to blog during the day. Congrats, Aoife!

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