The reign of Alex Pareene is truly over, kids!

We just received a message from Wonkette’s new associate editor Jim Newell (who’s got quite a potty mouth on him, we hear, but not quite as big a potty mouth as new editor John Clarke Jr.) about that whole Wonkette stole copyrighted material from the GW Hatchet item we wrote earlier this morning.

“[W]e did take down the post with the Ben Stein photo yesterday afternoon as per their request,” Newell tells Big Head DC. Which, let’s face it, has helped Newell to become our favorite Wonkette editor in ages (he actually communicates, which is unique amongst that breed — God, remember the time when former editor Pareene hid under a table because he was having a panic attack and was afraid to talk to Karen Feld at a party?).

Don’t worry, we’re not forgetting that Wonkette still has a second post up mocking the GW kids to high heaven for bringing the whole copyright violation thing to their attention in the first place, which isn’t exactly fair, since the multi-million Gawker Media owns Wonkette, and, instead of mocking the kids, they could have easily afforded to pay them for the photo. Read more…

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Let’s just say it: Sommer Mathis used to write about a lot more interesting things on her personal blog. Now, however, she just talks about horses. And! She talks to The Washingtonian’s Garrett Graff (who kind of looks like a horse, now that we think of it). In a wide ranging interview, on stands now, she shares some golden nuggets:

Last year she became the first paid editor of DCist. (No wonder Mike Grass got the hell out of there.)

She loves to sit by the big fountain outside the Hirshhorn Museum to snag the Smithsonian’s free wireless Internet . (No one ever said DCist paid well.)

Her favorite book is Lolita. (If you read her old blog, you’ll know why!)

And, finally, she heads to the Outer Banks every Memorial Day. (Now you can schedule around that.)

Earlier: Should DCist Editor Sommer Mathis Be Fired?

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Garrett Graff, after reading our scathing indictment, last night talked to Mark Warner. “Why the hell did you drop out?” he screamed at the ex-Virginia governor. “You royally screwed up my book!”

OK, we jest.

But Graff truly did speak to Warner about why his decision came so early. “He explained that everything was moving quickly and that to be fair to his staff and supporters he needed to move sooner,” Graff told us. “I’ve been on the trail with him several times before — as recently as a month ago in Iowa — and it’s been pretty obvious that he was vacillating a bit in whether to run. He really cares about his family and, since he’s worth north of $100 million, he never has to do something he doesn’t really want to do.”

As for how the drop-out will affect Graff’s book, he said that “Warner was never the main focus, just a part of the larger story about how politics is changing to meet the challenges of a new economy.”

In this day and age, we suggest that Graff simply turn another page.  

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Remember last year when we muddied the waters, unveiling that the Washingtonian’s editor-at-large Garrett Graff was leaving FishbowlDC?

After we spoiled his surprise, he announced that he was indeed exiting stage right to pen a book for publication by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux titled “The First Campaign: Democrats, The Internet, & The Future of American Politics,” that would examine “the impact of technology and globalization in politics” and focus “on Mark Warner, the former Virginia governor, as the first presidential candidate to come out of the dot com era.”

Graff must have been crying today when Warner announced his decision not to run because he “wants to spend more time with his family.”

Fuck. That’s going to make for a pretty boring middle of the book, now isn’t it:

Chapter 6, January 1, 2007: Today, while Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and John Edwards threw jabs at each other, battling for the Democratic nomination, Warner made sweet love to his wife, Lisa Collis.

Chapter 7, January 12, 2007: Warner’s daughter, Eliza, kissed a boy today. And liked it. She really liked it.

Chapter 8, January 15, 2007: Warner has grown tired of me following him and his family, so we’ll have to cut this short. 

We kid, of course, but are exceptionally curious how Graff will handle this situation. If you’re reading this Garrett, we’ve got Russ Feingold’s number. And we hear he toils on the net sometimes. It could work.    

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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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The same source who gave us the early tip on Garrett Graff’s departure from Fishbowl DC (which, insiders say, really pissed him off) has fed us a few pellets about the bloggers who have tried their hand at guest blogging for Patrick Gavin over the last several weeks. One sucked royally, and the others apparently weren’t so bad. Gavin has his favorite, but the likely pick — which Mediabistro must approve — is going to be a little surprising, we’re told. Stay tuned.

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We couldn’t help but notice that FishbowlDC wasn’t mentioned in Harry Jaffe’s recent article on an apparent DC gossip war.

Not up to par, we wondered?

A conflict of interest since Garrett Graff, the editor-at-large of the Washingtonian, used to own the bowl (and Jaffe works for the Washingtonian and his work is featured in Gavin’s Examiner)?

Nope and nope.

“Fishbowl is more narrowly focused on the media, while the others range to a broader scene,” explains Jaffe. “Gavin does an terrific job. No question.”

Now, let’s not say that nothing nice was ever said about Patty on this blog again.

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Update from Patrick: I saw that Ed2010 thing too and have no idea what their source is, but it’s a bit late. We’ve stopped accepting candidates and are working on winnowing the finalists.

It’s official, they really hate us at Fishbowl, DC.
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OK, so people keep sending us a link to Ed2010 from yesterday’s (May 10 edition) “Whisper Jobs” section that says:

… that Mediabistro.com is looking for a replacement blogger for FishbowlDC.com. You MUST have knowledge of who’s-who and what’s-what in Washington DC and probably should have experience blogging or writing online. While it’s not a full-time job, it requires definite dedication. (Don’t mention Ed) 

But our dear Patrick Gavin sent us an e-mail on May 7 that implied the site had enough candidates in mind to fill the position.

Anyone smell fish? Either something fell through, we’ve been lied to, or the Ed2010 job ad went up way late. If the position is, in fact, still open, we would love to have a Mother’s Day brunch with Garrett Graff and other higher ups to discuss. K?

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Just imagine the free publicity Fishbowld DC could have gotten if they’d have chosen the blogger who broke Garrett Graff’s back to replace him. Not gonna happen: 

Dear candidates:

If you are receiving this email, you unfortunately did not make it into the next round of our selection process for the next FishbowlDC blogger.

We received a number of applications from extremely qualified candidates. Ultimately, our selections were based upon who had the right mix of qualities for FishbowlDC. Some people were strong in some areas, but weaker in others. Even someone enormously qualified still might not be the perfect candidate for us, so please understand that, in the world of blogging, “qualifications” can be a funny thing.

Please do, however, stay in touch with us and perhaps FishbowlDC’s relationship with you isn’t over…future collaborations are always a possibility and we hope you’ll continue to enjoy our site.

Best,
Patrick
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Patrick W. Gavin
Contributing Editor, FishbowlDC (www.fishbowldc.com)

Not even a special note from our pal. We feel sooo unqualified. Who do you have to f*** to get ahead in this town?!

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