White House Correspondents Insider

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

The Ticketing Mistakes and Quadrennial Loss of the 2013 Inauguration

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Chances are you don’t have a ticket to the 2013 Inaugural Ball. You can all thank technology.

As the Washington Post reports, “People who had signed up to attend the Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center received e-mails Sunday from Ticketmaster that said tickets would go on sale Monday. It told recipients that they would receive a link sometime Monday with an exclusive link to buy a limited number of tickets for $60 each. But instead, e-mails went out hours later with a link to the Web site to buy them.”
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Ambassador Susan Rice Withdraws from Secretary of State Nomination

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From Rice’s desk to our eyes.


Susan Rice, ambassador to the United Nations, is out of the running for the coveted secretary of state seat. After weeks of harassment from congress

ABC News published the letter that Ambassador Rice sent to President Obama, which is avaliable here. She starts her letter off thanking the president.
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The Running Of The Who's Who for 2013

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The end of the year is for making lists and conjecture about who’ll be in charge come next term. Politico’s already started their weekly half-video/half column Behind the Curtain featuring Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei as they tackle the weeks that were–so far that means immigration and the rebranding of Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan.

Buzzfeed, however, seems to be focused entirely on 2013 with today’s list of the 23 People Who Will Be Running Washington Next Year. This service comes complete with headshots that tell us whether we’re looking at a daytime regular on MSNBC, Fox or CNN–or to provide photographic evidence of Paul Ryan’s Michael Steel, pictured above.
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The New York Times Names New Washington Bureau Chief

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David Leonhardt was named the new Washington Bureau chief for The New York Times.  He was appointed by Jill Abramson who calls him “one of our finest writers and most elegant thinkers.” Leonhardt recently won the Pulizter Prize for commentary and is also the paper’s Economic Scene columnist.

Check out the full memo by the New York Times here.

President Obama and Seth Meyers Score Plenty of Laughs and YouTube Views at #WHCD

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The day before Osama Bin Laden was killed the President entertained a crowd of high profile politicos, media personalities and hollywood celebs at the Washington Hilton throwing satirical punches at Donald Trump with video pieces of his birth certificate and his never seen before “actual birth.”  SNL’s Seth Meyers brought his whole family to the affair as well as his Weekend Update humor.

Check out the videos below:

Obama’s speech is now the most watched video on C-SPAN’s YouTube channel with over 6 million hits and counting.

Rhee: Election "Devastating for DC children"

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Education policy and political players came to the Newseum for the DC premiere of Washington’s own Oscar-winning filmmaker David Guggenheim’s new documentary “Waiting for Superman.” But it was DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee who locals were talking about as they were exiting the Newseum auditorium.

Rhee, featured in the documentary and on the Newseum panel discussion last night, has made headlines for her radical education reforms in the District. When asked whether it was her fault Mayor Adrian Fenty, seeking re-election, lost the Democratic primary on Tuesday, she blasted the results as being “devastating to DC public school students.”

“Yesterday’s election results were devastating – devastating.  Not for me, I will be fine.  Not for Fenty, he will be fine too.  It was devastating for the children of Washington, DC,” said Rhee. Her comments drew applause by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Guggenheim and the audience.

Rhee continued, “The biggest tragedy is the lesson we should take from this is to pull back. We cannot retreat now in anything….Now is the time to lean forward and be more aggressive and more adamant.”

Rhee was surrounded by fans who lined up for photos and hugs after the session.

New York magazine writer John Heilemann moderated the panel which also included Guggenheim; Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers; and Geoffrey Canada, the Harlem educator who is the bright star of the film.

The top dogs at Paramount including Brad Grey and Phillipe Dauman were on hand to introduce the film after a hilarious video intro by Stephen Colbert.  Attendees included David and Susan Axelrod, Bill and Elaine Bennett, Bill and Laura Burton, Julianna Smoot and Lon Johnson, George Stevens, Hilary Rosen, Mike Feldman, and Ebs Burnough.  Top news reporters and pundits in the crowd included Jake Tapper, Ed Henry, Michele Martin, Jamal Simmons, and Roland Martin.

“Waiting for Superman” will be in select theaters on September 24.