White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

A Look Back At Conan O'Brien and the White House Correspondents Dinner

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We’re hoping the jokes get updated when Conan O’Brien comes back to D.C. in April. The newly announced host for this year’s White House Correspondents Dinner is no stranger to Beltway politics. He first showed up here in 1995 to toast then-President Bill Clinton along with WHC Chairman and former Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau Chief/current columnist Carl Leubsdorf.

“For God’s sake, it’s Saturday night,” O’Brien said in his earlier monologue. “Go outside! Meet a woman! There are things you can do. I want to say though I am–higher ratings tan mine–very honored to be apart of this event tonight. When I got this invitation, I was thrilled to be speaking in the same room as the most powerful man in the country. But then I heard Judge Ito canceled, but you move on!”

You can watch the full video below from C-Span and relive Coco’s old mop top:

Conan O'Brien Returns as Host of White House Correspondents Dinner

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Late night comes back to the White House Correspondents Dinner with Conan O’Brien. The TBS host that once called NBC home is coming to D.C. to preside over the 2013 WHC Dinner on April 27th according to–of all places–Ed Henry‘s Twitter.

The 2013 Chairman went on the social media platform rather than the origination’s own website, which still hasn’t been updated. Henry followed up on his Twitter, citing that O’Brien “was terrific at ’95 correspondents dinner w/[sic]Clinton[.]”

This will mark the second time that the self-described “Basic Cable” host will stand at the Hinckley Hilton dais. Unfortunately, he still has two more times to go until he ties the current record holder for most performances (Jay Leno). Over on O’Brien’s official site, Henry gave a more formal remark:

“Conan is one of televisions most innovative and influential talents and I am absolutely thrilled that he has agreed to be this year’s featured act,” said Henry. “As social media has changed all aspects of the media business, Conan has embraced this shifting landscape to become a creative force both online as well as in the traditional television model. We are grateful that Conan will be also be using that creativity to bring more attention to the WHCA’s commitment to helping needy journalism students.”

Gavin Newsom Toasts 'Citizenville' at the Jefferson [VIDEO]

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Citizenvillie
Join us tonight as California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom stops into the Jefferson Hotel in Washington, D.C. to discuss “Citizenville: How To Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government.” The Current TV host will be introduced by Ellen Tauscher at 7:00 p.m. est and give brief remarks about his newest release.

We’ll be talking with Newsom along with our livestream of the event starting tonight at 6:30 p.m. est and then have a copy of the event afterwards. You can also catch it on C-SPAN-2’s Book TV at a later date.

The Slurp Heard Around the SOTU

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Marco Rubio stole the entire show after President Obama gave an unanimously praised speech at the State of the Union. For the fifth time, the president remained on record but with a far sterner message to congress during and after his speech.

But before we go back to Obama, let’s focus on Senator Rubio. His “Watergate” broke out over Twitter:

On YouTube:

and the same joke repeated ad naseum. Despite President Obama’s repeated plea for a vote for victims of gun violence, for Sandy Hook and for those that struggle to vote–like 102-year old Desiline Victor–it would be Rubio who would capture the Internet’s attention. But that comes after a groundbreaking number of Tweets Per Minute (TPM) according to the official Twitter Blog.

They even provided a timeline in handy graph form:

But don’t think Obama got away without a fist-bump of his own. Over the closing minutes, as Obama went through the Capitol,he could be heard encouraging Representatives and Senators that everything “deserves a vote,” in calling back to his address.

Nate Silver To Break Internet Tomorrow During Reddit AMA

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If you throw questions about narwhals and wizards at Nate Silver on the Internet, will he answer? At least he will tomorrow.

The FiveThirtyEight blogger/statician announced yesterday that he’ll be taking tomorrow on Reddit’s AMA. There’re already nine posts heralding the overlord of the Internet and wondering if he’ll answer whether he really is a witch. People like to speculate on Silver’s predictions being mixed with magic after late-night photos featuring one of the many hats he wears.
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Starbucks Comes Together for DC Despite Slushy Cliff

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The holiday cheer still lingers around DC, despite the slushy weather topped off with sleet. Except instead of the gingerbread and tickets to Les Miz—or Mis!–the Capitol is chugging back to work on the looming fiscal cliff. The White House Pool reports that President Obama is heading back from Hawaii tonight to DC, which seems like a positive sign for the cliff standstill. Heck, even Starbucks is getting an opinion about the cliff.
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CNN Gets Tapper, ABC Has Their Own Shuffle and No Go on ''Plan B"

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In case you thought it was the end of the world–well, it’s just another Friday for the District.

In pre-Christmas media shuffle CNN announced that Jake Tapper is their new chief Washington correspondent and anchor. Mike Ryan’s Playbook backstory sheds light on what CNN seems to have in mind for the former ABC correspondent: “Tapper’s new show will initially air during one of the hours that CNN programming is in D.C., between 4 and 7 p.m., after which it will likely find a later time slot. The pitch to Tapper by incoming CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker was key to the hire. Before his White House gig, Tapper was a utility player at ABC News, doing stories on Iraq, the culture wars, and plenty of general assignment stories ranging from the Virginia Tech attacks to interviewing Larry David. A show that focused on a broader palette of story subjects, from politics to international affairs to sports to popular culture, has always been his main goal.”

Which means over at ABC, Jonathan Karl has become their new Chief White House Correspondent and Martha Raddatz is bumped to Chief Global Affairs Correspondent, which the release notes will find her as “primary substitute for George Stephanopoulos on This Week and will contribute regularly to the roundtable” along with Karl.

Going to the pundit side, Politico has Purple Stategies’ Rob Collins being vetted for the National Republican Senatorial Commitee.

Would you call the failure to pass Speaker John Boehner’s “Plan B” proposal “embarrassing”? You’re not alone as nearly everyone lead with that description after last night’s rejection of his fiscal cliff spending plan. Here’s a sampling:

Bloomberg: “The flawed approach left Boehner embarrassed and Republicans without a clear alternative to Obama’s proposal to raise $1.2 trillion in taxes on high earners and cut $1.2 trillion in spending.”

Washington Post’s Right Turn: “House Republicans embarrassed their speaker Thursday night by shutting down his Plan B to protect all but millionaires from a tax hike, come Jan. 1. How close was the GOP to having enough support for Speaker John Boehner’s plan? A senior leadership aide replied glumly, ‘Not close enough.'”

On Morning Joe, David Axelrod said: “But the fact that they couldn’t even pass that was an embarrassment. This is the longest day of the year and certainly true for John Boehner, I’m sure he’s scratching his head right now.”

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Insider Round-Ups: How To Fix Fox, Stephanopoulos Stays At This Week and D.C. Loves Zero Dark Thirty

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It’s hard to figure out what’s worth your time with all the first reads, politico blasts and tweets that race by before your third coffee of the morning. So let us provide some curation to your otherwise blur of a morning before your second conference call.

  • Ana Marie Cox thinks less work for Rove at Fox is more of a “promotion” than a network reorganization.
  • TV Newser has George Stephanopoulos at ABC’s This Week through 2013.
  • The D.C. Metro area film critics love Kathryn Bigelow‘s Zero Dark Thirty (and The Master!)
  • Buzzfeed speaks to a Cory Booker backer betting big–to hell with alliteration–for a 2016 run.
  • Politico reports:South Carolina demands the good Dr. Stephen T. Colbert.
  • NPR lays out the differences in President Obama‘s second inauguration.

    • That should get you through at least your first lunch-that-gets-turned-into-a-coffee-break.