With much fanfare, including a widely-circulated item in Page 6, John Clarke Jr. was poised only a few short weeks ago to become the next fabled editor of the snarky Wonkette blog. It was the same “dream” job that had led to a career at TIME for Ana Marie Cox, the first Wonkette (the one without a penis, we think) — and Clarke seemed quite ready to transform his past unsuccessful career in politics into a new political blogging career. 

But, as we confirmed via a subtle change on the Gawker Media blog’s masthead this morning, Clarke has parted ways with owner Nick Denton in record time. Even David Lat stayed at the blog longer in 2006 when he exited after a few months of reportedly very little pay and even less prestige.

The change is not exactly shocking, as Big Head DC recently noted (twice) that Clarke had started freelancing for Radar, a chief competitor to Denton’s blogs. Within days of those revelations, Clarke was out at Wonkette. That a second editor has left Denton to work for Radar (the first was Alex Balk) surely must be a stinging slap in Denton’s face, especially considering the mass quitting of three of his top editors at Gawker in December. Each of those editors took jabs on the Gawker blog about Denton’s poor management style in the weeks prior to their departures.

Interestingly, Ken Layne, who had run the Wonkette blog with Alex Pareene for a majority of 2006 and 2007 - and who was asked to leave the blog by Denton when Clarke signed up - has temporarily filled the open position. Pareene left to join Gawker’s NYC-focused blog soon after Big Head DC revealed his involvement in a Washington sex scandal.

As for Clarke, problems started soon into his tenure. A source close to the situation says Clarke didn’t realize the amount of posting he’d be expected to do, nor did he understand the extent of Denton’s desire for fresh and original scoops to be broken via the blog. Denton’s demands for scoops similar to mainstream media outlets have become much more intense as of late as some of his blogs, including Wonkette, have lost audience share and ad revenue to competing outlets such as Big Head DC.

Related: Our Xmas Present to Wonkette: Words of Wisdom

BHDC Continues to Dramatically Outpace Wonkette

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In an effort to follow up on our recent post (because that’s what we do, kids), we asked former Wonketter (and former U.S. assistant attorney) David Lat for his expert opinion on a legal issue. We wanted to know whether current Wonketter Alex Pareene could be getting himself into any legal troubles by calling Robert Steinbuch a “pervert” and “Jessica Cutler-fucker.” (See second item of yesterday’s Reliable Source, if you’re not up to snuff on the case.) Replies Lat:

Normally I’d say no, since “pervert” is a matter of opinion, and “Jessica Cutler-fucker” is a fact that not even RS disputes. But given how lawsuit happy RS is…I’d say that it could cause him to drag Alex into a lawsuit — which, however meritless, would take time and money to defend.

And thus, the Washingtonienne scandal will never cease to provide blogging material. Be sure to check out Lat’s Above the Law for more expert legal observations. 

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Patrick Gavin, of FishbowldDC, decides to link to a New Yorker not-that-funny and oldish Christopher Hitchens profile all day long today – in a whopping five different posts thus far. Misses the part where Hitchens says that the most overrated things in life are “champagne, lobsters, anal sex and picnics.” Incredibly not hot. Yeah, Inky must be working out really well. 

DC Bachelor becomes hung up on site visitors. It’s crossing the line into geek territory when a non-professional blogger writes posts tantamount to press releases re: visitor numbers. Yes, we all watch our numbers, but we don’t talk about the numbers. It’s like the eighth rule of blog club. 

Kathryn pens a lengthy, boring missive about her realization that she tells lengthy, boring stories. Few disagree with her. One commenter, Web Cowgirl suggests that Kath might have ADD, due to her lack of getting-to-the-point skills. We can’t help but laugh.

Gavin makes the list again by begging an almost-fired Tucker Carlson via a lame blog entry to have drinks with him tonight! You know, Halloween night. Tucker’s got kids, dude. He doesn’t want to drink, nor dance, with you. (P.S. We can lend you his number, if you need it.) 

Wonkette’s Alex Pareene finds his site’s numbers still stagnant — despite an election cycle (you know, politics?). He replaced TIME’s Ana Marie Cox early this year and his co-editor David Lat left for his own professional blog recently. (Lat’s numbers, meanwhile, have been skyrocketing.)

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Big Head Rob is excited to bring you an exclusive Friday afternoon interview with the bloggerific lawyer David Lat (take that, Mr. Tim Russert, with your exclusive Sunday morning interviews all the time). The former assistant U.S. attorney is perhaps best known for impersonating a lady at Underneath Their Robes and for, well… impersonating a lady at Wonkette. A man with happy feet, Lat’s now shaking his bon bon to grow an audience at Above the Law, which is part of the Dealbreaker.com network. And, for the first time in a long time, he’s not impersonating a lady. Or is he?

BHR: With Foleygate in full swing, do you miss being a part of Wonkette?

DL: Alex, Ken, and the rest of the Wonkette crew are doing a great job covering Foleygate. But it’s actually not as esy a story to cover as one might think. The expectations for hilarity are ridiculously high. So I’m actually fine with not having to cover the misadventures of Mark Foley.

BHR: Yeah, they are trying pretty hard, aren’t they? What was your favorite part of your old position?

DL: The frequent parties, especially the hors d’oeuvres — like those goat cheese puffs at the GQ book party, or those mini-tortilla shells filled with southwestern salad at the Peter Beinart book party. I get invited to some parties these days, but not as many as before.

BHR: Ha. Goat cheese puffs, funny. Underneath Their Robes — hard to find time to keep it going? Will it continue?

DL: Basically I’ll be folding UTR into Above the Law. There’s nothing I could write for UTR that I couldn’t also post at ATL. Composing a formal UTR “farewell post” is on my long “to do” list.

BHR: Is Above the Law turning out to be all you hoped it would?

DL: Above the Law is turning out to be all I hoped it would — and more. It’s literally my “dream job”: I dreamt up the coolest job I could imagine, pitched my idea to some investors (Dead Horse Media LLC), and got them to back it. So far it has been a blast. Some days I can’t believe I make a living doing what I do.

It’s a lot of work, but it doesn’t feel like “work” because it’s so enjoyable. It’s the most fun job I’ve ever had, and I could see myself doing it for quite some time. I view myself as part of a long and distinguished line of what I’d call “niche gossip columnists” — e.g., Army Archerd and Hollywood, Michael Riedel and New York theatre. They’ve covered their beats for years, and I could see myself doing the same thing, assuming all goes well.

BHR: You’d make a great Asian version of Armey Archard, wethinks. But how’s the site doing thus far?

DL: ATL has been doing very well. As Elizabeth Spiers noted elsewhere, traffic is about three times what we expected. Reader feedback has been overwhelmingly positive; people are really enjoying the site. And this is just the beginning. ATL will only get better over time, as we obtain the assistance of interns (now accepting applications), recruit guest columnists, expand our readership, etc.

BHR: Why should Big Head Rob readers visit you everyday?

DL: Because we look at the law, which so many Americans find fascinating yet inaccessible, from a new and different perspective — one that’s irreverent, fun, and refreshing. It’s like “The Daily Show,” but for the legal profession. That pretty much says it all.

BHR: Well played, dear friend. Well played.

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We noted last week that the NY Times article by David Carr, which covered the Gawker empire shuffle, made it appear as though Wonkette co-editor David Lat had been let go. Lat quickly informed us that he was requesting a correction from the notoriously correction-averse paper of record. But, yesterday, he got exactly what he wanted:

The David Carr column in Business Day last Monday about cost cuts at Gawker Media, a blogging company, erroneously included a Web site on a list of sites where editors were moved to new jobs or replaced on June 30. The changes occurred at Gawker.com, Gizmodo.com, and Gridskipper.com; no editors were moved or replaced at Wonkette. 

Congrats, Mr. Lat. We always knew you were special. Now, please don’t leave us. Alex Pareene — the “regular kid” from Minneapolis — is a little scary.

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