Remember when the young Hardball political pundit Ezra Klein made lewd comments about Tim Russert’s sex life just a few short days ago? And then promptly (and embarrassingly) shut down his Twitter Web page that featured those sharp words? Well, tonight TIME’s Ana Marie Cox, a frequent contributor to NBC shows featuring Joe Scarborough, posted this statement on her Twitter page regarding Russert:

Knowing Cox, she won’t be deleting anything, but one does have to wonder: if these people hate NBC so much, why do they attempt to desperately sell themselves on the company’s stations all too often?

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We’d have posted this earlier when our tipster first told us about this, but we tried to get 23-year-old Ezra Klein to comment on the issue. He wouldn’t, but apparently he’s telling others that it’s a joke. The question remains: Is it a good enough joke for NBC to keep paying him to appear on Tim Russert’s network as a political pundit?

Also! What are he and Matthew Yglesias plotting, kids?

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Big Head DC just received this exclusive picture of three of Washington’s youngest, most ambitious political pundits (who like nothing more than to hear themselves talk) participating in one of their daily top-secret Web chat sessions. We’ve been told that the lads regularly strap on their earpieces and yank out their microphones to plot sinister ways they could one day lead various Washington print media outlets, including The Atlantic, The American Prospect and Reason magazine.

During such sessions, the boys often enjoy repeating anecdotes or mimicking blather they’ve heard older people around them say. Which is why, if you’ve heard Ezra (the regular middle in the threesome, for some reason) talking anytime lately, he’s taken to relentlessly referencing Chris Matthews‘ favorite film, Cat Ballou. Or if you’ve seen little Jules, he’s waxed poetically about growing his hair out dramatically like his idol Nick Gillespie. Or if you’ve spotted Matthew Yglesias at a bar or fast food restaurant (or both), you’ve heard him going on and on about the joys of gay sex. (His colleague, Andrew Sullivan, has whispered a lot about that topic in his ear lately, we hear.)

Yes, these guys are swell. If you happen to see them in person (or even in a chat room) during the holidays, be sure to tell them Big Head DC sends them a hearty “Merry Christmas.” And let ‘em know that 2008 is going to be wild!

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“For my part, whenever I see Russert on the teevee, I always feel like I’m watching archival footage from the 70s,” writes DC blogger Ezra Klein. “The guy just looks anachronistic. And his questions are terrible.”

Interestingly, young Klein has agreed to appear on Chris Matthews’s Hardball program several times over, and many consider Matthews to be an even worse interviewer than Russert. Wonder what Klein makes of that paradox?

Related: Ezra Klein Smacked Again for Being 23

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The Wall Street Journal has figured out that many of DC’s most down-homiest bloggers are actually quite “elite” in the way they present themselves. Elite, as in exclusive, snotty and just as cliquey as any high school you ever attended? Yeah, that pretty much sums up our experiences with them. Still, they wear jeans to work, live in cramped group houses, and are trying to help “young writers overcome the ‘Ivy League cabal’ that dominated Washington political writing.” (Yet Matthew Yglesias, one of the profiled bloggers, went to Harvard.) Plus, we hear that if you have sex with one of them, a little part of you becomes elite, too. At least until you shower!

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Last week it was Karen Hanretty mocking him on Hardball with a flurry of eye rolls and a blunt, “How old are you?” This week it’s Slate’s Mickey Kaus, labeling the young left-leaning journo a “whippersnapper apparatchik.”

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The water cooler moment of tonight’s pundit programs occurred on Hardball when, during a debate about Alberto Gonzales, The Hill newspaper’s conservative Karen Hanretty threw a flurry of eye rolls in Ezra Klein’s direction — and then screeched, “How old are you?” after he attempted to answer a question on the Gonzales federal prosecutor firings. Host Chris Matthews even cracked a smike.

For your information, Klein was born on May 9, 1984, which makes him just 23 years young.

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