The New York Times may have scooped The Washington Post on the Alberto Gonzales resignation story by several minutes, but U.S. News’ Washington Whispers gossip columnist Paul Bedard had everyone beat by a whole day.

“The buzz among top Bushies is that beleaguered Attorney General Alberto Gonzales finally plans to depart and will be replaced by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff,” Bedard wrote yesterday. “Why Chertoff? Officials say he’s got fans on Capitol Hill, is untouched by the Justice prosecutor scandal, and has more experience than Gonzales did, having served as a federal judge and assistant attorney general.”

Nary a news outlet has given Bedard credit for his scoop, but he’s taking it in stride.

“Oh well, I used to get worked up about that stuff but not anymore,” Bedard told Big Head DC this morning. “I mean, it’s not like they stole my winning Powerball ticket. I kind of like that Washington Whispers is the tip sheet the bigs go to for ideas.”

CNN confirmed earlier this morning that Chertoff is a possible candidate for replacement.

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Which journalist with the durable DC-based news magazine was spotted downtown last night getting a little too tipsy AND pinching the bottom of a frisky young blond? We’ll never tell. But YOU can always guess.

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Alex Kingsbury, a U.S. News reporter who is currently covering the Iraq war from the front lines, sent us the above image just now.

“[H]ere’s an exclusive shot I took on a raid last night in a farm area in a city south of Baghdad,” he wrote via e-mail. ”Pictured are soldiers from the 2/3 Stryker unit, based out of Washington state. The soldiers are from C company, 3rd platoon.”

The soldiers’ work will be the subject of a big article in the magazine set to publish March 12. The reporter has been shooting some video, too, which will likely be included on the U.S. News Web site. Stay tuned, kids, and join us in wishing Alex a safe return.

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Alex Kingsbury is leaving today for Baghdad, he tells BHDC. “I’ll keep you up to date on published stories and videos, which will be posted at www.usnews.com,” says he. ”The focus of the stories will be the progress of the war and the troop surge.” 

He expects to return to DC in late March.

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The U.S. News-er does not appreciate WaPo’s Style musings on the Rest of Virginia (or RoVa) compared to oh-so-elite NoVa. (Examples of the Post’s “humor” from yesterday: “In NoVa, a lab is the family dog. In RoVa, a lab is the family meth business” and “In RoVa, they like freshly killed venison. In NoVa, they like Alfred, Lord Tennyson.”

Paul Bedard said on his blog yesterday that he’s proud to live on the West Virginia border as a “camo-wearing, gun-toting, deer-hunting, blackberry-growing, Cracker Barrel-loving” Washington, D.C. gossip columnist.

Oh, God, Paul, that sounds really bad now that we read it over. Rush & Malloy are so gonna start laughing at us.

Never mind. We agree with the Posties.

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Pssst. Have you heard that U.S. News’ gossip king Paul Bedard doesn’t give a flying flip about what his fellow newsroom staffers think about his increasingly popular Paullyblog, where he provides lots of goodies that just won’t fit into the column? Take, for example, this week’s revelation that the star of Washington Whispers was once a Congressional page — during the days of another gay ole sex scandal, that of former Rep. Gerry Studds.

You’d think his colleagues would be happy about this new venture in what the kids are calling cyberspace, but younger staffers have complained to Big Head Rob and elsewhere about everything from the content to the fact that his blog header is spelled out in cartoon lettering.

“Well, what more can I say than screw ‘em,” Bedard told us today. “You know, I hate those stupid passport photos that always run with newspaper/magazine/blog columns so we decided to do something a bit different.

“Also, the drawing and light name of the blog are meant to suggest that it’s not going to be heavy, political analysis, but someting a bit funnier,” he explained. “And since I’m basically an attractive middle-aged guy, a cartoon was the best way to go.”

Yes, Paully, we find your writing, at least, quite intoxicating (and you do have a face that a mother — our mother, perhaps — could love). We’re sure that it’s just sour grapes coming from some lowly nether regions of your newsroom.

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Have you heard of Ivy Gate? How about Ivy Leak? Neither had we until sources told us that a bunch of young graduates who now find themselves in D.C. created the blogs at virtually the same time. Who knew how deeply people care about their hoity toity degrees in this city?

But our real question is: Did one group steal the idea from the other? Collaboration, we believe, is key in all endeavors. So, if someone did steal something, please don’t kill each other.

P.S. U.S. News just launched its own education blog highlighting college campus news. Blogs. Who knew?

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“It’s like we actually go to a real school now,” George Mason University freshman Alex Innes told the Post. “That’s what everybody’s saying.”

Hey now, hold your horses. We’re not hearing anyone saying that. In fact, we think what you’ve actually got is a case of what the kids call team spirit. Does U.S. News & World Report take that into account? (And no, we’re not mad that you totally screwed up our bracket.)

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We overheard today that the staff cuts have run so deep at the U.S. News and World Report Washington office that the staff no longer takes up two floors. Yes, the weekly that was founded in 1933 is down to one measly floor. What’s next? Instead of the top 50 colleges, only the top 10? Still, at least 4 jobs are posted on the mag’s site as of today, so there must be a little coin still rattling around somewhere.

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