Right on, man. She reads like the most inside of inside tabloids. I wonder that anyone who doesn't work directly in DC for the Federal Government can understand half of her writing.

The Washingtonienne brouhaha is the perfect example. Who really cares what low-level power-ho is getting what done to her for how much, besides the police? And where are the police in that whole thing anyhow, hmmmm? The point is you can merge the set of people who care about that with the set of people who know who has the best domestic beer on tap in Dupont Circle (answer: beer? Dupont Cirle? Uncultured Cretin!). It's a really small incestuous group who apparently loves anal, but not for less than 400 simoleons.

She's cute, she's ascerbic, but she writes about nothing and she's bankrolled to the heavens. Give you that kind of money and a short skirt and you'd be the darling of the...err...no. Probably not. But you'd have money. And a short skirt. ;)

First point, about this Washingtonienne business...she's about to learn the 15 minute rule last illustrated by Julia Baugher (What, you DC-types don't remember her? Exactly my point). That's to say, she's getting attention because she's a new face selling something tawdry. Alas, at the end of the day...who cares about some Staff Ass having sex? It would perversely be more novel if she WEREN'T having (ie "being used for") sex.

And second, about Wonkette. El Retardo Supremo, in my opinion. How she got listed as a news source is beyond me. I've seen better, more substantive things pass into the ether, but Cox posts some gossip and gets fawned over. Is it possible that instead of cash, Cox's price for anal is favorable press coverage?

I read Wankerette for about a week when she first started out, and I could never figure out what I was getting out of reading her. So I quit reading her. She never made it to my blogroll.

And Bill, I don't recall you ever apologizing for your language before. What's the big deal?

One more thought...

Isn't it amazing that on the substantive things (you know, like how Abu Ghraib isn't representative of our military, or Fallujah isn't the end of the world, or, and you may have missed this, WE FOUND A WMD IN IRAQ!!!), the blogosphere is routinely maligned and insulted as not letting facts get in the way of a story, yet on something like this the word of some Staff Ass blogger is accepted as gospel? I'm amazed anyone at the WaPo is even giving this person the time of day, let alone news coverage. Yet Glenn Reynolds (and countless others) do yeoman's work in exposing things the WaPo would either rather ignore completely, and they get the cold shoulder.

Dude, if I had her access and blogging was my job, you would see some far more entertaining and original stuff. I don't feel the slightest bit arrogant about saying that.

I guess it's just the fact that she has risen so meteorically, when her schtick and formula are so simple. I know how this sounds (actually not too bad because I'm not a woman), but she achieves much of it merely by virtue of being a mildly attractive gal.

I'd have to say that that is one of the things about the Blogosophere that really gets under my skin - that a bunch of nerd male bloggers are still held in zombie-like sway by digital pictures of good-looking women on blogs that they'll never even see in person, much less have the chance to bang. Who the fuck cares if Hot Abercrombie Chick is hot? I mean, who cares? Really?

Do we really need to transfer that popularity contest into the otherwise uber-egalitarian realm of blogwriting?

PS - I was feigning contrition with my cussword apology. Can't you recognize my 38 subtle shadings of sarcasm by now, Boyd? (Hint: I use it interchangeably with the serious points) i would have to say that you described my feelings Boyd - I've tried to read her several times, but I wind up scratching my head ... and between work and home, I'm never more than a mile away from the White House (I mean, ferchrissakes, that's pretty inside DC - I should maybe get some of it by proximity, right?)

PSS - To be fair, Reynolds links her like every week. Glenn Reynolds is my hero, but he is a notable and reliable sucker for pixelated poon.

...my 38 subtle shadings of sarcasm...

What, are you John Kerry's long-disowned evil love child or something? Shall we start calling you "Mr. Nuance?"

C'mon, Bill. Just once, you and the W twins?

Boyd -

take it back, take it back take it BACK!

Commissar -

I certainly wouldn't blog about it if it DID happen; I'd imagine that the full weight of the IRS would be the least of my worries if I went public with such information. Can you say "enemy combatant?"

Do they allow blogging from Guantanamo?

You could always look at it like you get to live in an environment full of foreign moonbats. Kind of like Jane Goodall...

LOL

As long as I get my prayer rug and Crash bandicoot, I'll be aiight.

Great post, Bill, I totally agree with you that, uh ... oh, sorry, I got distracted. Wonkette posted yet another picture of Washingtoniette, this time with a phallic building in the background. Woo-hoo! Now I'm glad I have a fast Internet connection!

What was I saying? Ah ... never mind.

Is she at least showing some...No!

Bad Jimmie! Bad, bad Jimmie!

Oh, and did you see she's going to be interviewed live on Channel 5 in DC.

The ho, that is, not Wonkette.

"super-smarmy little fucktard gabby-gab-sex-fest"

This is some great, great profanity. Rock on, brother Bill.

What are you talking about? The more I read the less I understand.

"super-smarmy little fucktard gabby-gab-sex-fest"

that IS a good line

What the hell is a wonkette?
;^)

Couldn't agree more, Bill.

I feel the same way, Bill. Unfortunately, I can't blog about it because last time I decided to take a dig at Wonkette, the blogosphere opened a can of whoop-ass on me, determining that a) I was crying sour grapes when I shouldn't dare be doing any such think when I get the hits that I do and b) I was just jealous of her.

Couldn't possibly be that I just think that whoring yourself through words and Nick Denton is unbecoming, could it?

And now this two bit whore is riding the coattails of Wonkette and she'll probably end up with a book deal.

Bitter? Absolutely? Jealous? Nope. I'd rather any book deal, press or fleeting flame I get doesn't happen because I spread my legs for dirty old politicians.

Hey, all kidding aside, good for you, Michelle. Great summation of the issue.

The thing is, while I never really liked Wonkette before, for some reason that posting of the pic of her and the hooker really set me off ... I mean, it's like I'm in an alternate universe or something. That gal wasn't just dating some married men, or sleeping around, she was HOOKING. Taking money, open for business, cha-ching. And last time I took a gander at the ol' moral compass, Prostitution was, um, frowned upon ... combine that with her outrageously cocky statements about being able to find work ...

Also, the metaphor for Wonkette's blog is rather clear; except we are the ones getting fucked in the ass. The whole thing seems a ploy.

"moral compass" You mean something that indicates a direction, something that suggests "this way good, that way bad?"

hahaha. What a 19th Century notion.

All we have now is a 'moral GPS.' Precise description of where you are (31 degrees of ass-fucking North, by 78 degrees of prostitution West), but without any of that moralistic, inconvenient "direction" stuff.

LMAO! Мое Commissar.

My moral GPS is currently at 18° of Ollie North and 64° defending Western Civilization...

Wonkette sucks. Stop reading her. Delink her blaringly manipulative, super-smarmy little fucktard gabby-gab-sex-fest from your blogroll. Don't be a sucker.

Oh, amen, AMEN. Bill, did you ever know that you're my hero? You're everything I wish I could be.

Michele, haven't you figured out by now that if a guy disses Wankerette, it's cool, 'cause we're...guys.

If another woman does it, it's a catfight, jealousy, hormones, breast-envy (I don't know if there's such a thing, I think I just made it up), and so forth.

Really, I thought you would have gotten that message by now.

;)

You mean to tell me that young women are fucking older men for money and power?

SHOCKER!

Yeah, but traditionally it's not done with a credit card machine next to the bed and then bragged about ...

Here's an idea... why don't you pay them to have sex with YOU, then write about it in YOUR blog.

Better still... why don't you pay them to have sex with ME and then you can interview ME about it for your blog.

Never heard of you. Love Wonkette. Carry on.

Well gary, I'll do my best to up the ass-fucking quotient in my posts! Perhaps have a drinkee-poo with and glamourize some prostitutes?

Scanning your blog, it seems that your political ideology lines up a bit more with me than the wonkster, which leads me to believe that you are in fact a Wonk-head SOLELY because of the ass-play featured on her site. Tell me gary, do you like ass-play?

You can be candid; we're all friends here.

I'm wracking my brain, trying to remember exactly what is this thing called sex. I'm sure we used to know, I remember the housefull of kids.
We must even have passed that knowlege to the kids, grandchildren keep popping up, faster than we can keep up.
I seem to remember enjoying it but reading about it just makes me sad.
Not so sure about this assfucking business though, one of the boys has had a shitty disposition his whole life so maybe.

lol

C'mon Gary, it's just us. Do you like free ass-play or do you prefer it on the clock?

Thanks for this post, Bill. I couldn't believe it when even Hugh Hewitt mentioned Wonkette as a good blog; I can't imagine the CC crowd getting into back door discussions. I feel moderately embarrassed about posting Alexandra Kerry in her see-through gown four times so far.

I thought Wonkette was funny in one or two posts, but most of the time it's boring crap.

Look, disclaimer:

(INDC) is a bunch of useless crap and ha-ha jokes half the time

but I really can't stand Wonkette's:

1. format
2. the writing is actually pretty average
3. Her putting this Washingtonienne up as some sort of empowered hot little gal (ditto the NYPo and WaPo, I guess)

Before the hooker scandal, I thought her blog sucked, but I think a lot of blogs suck. Live and let live.

When she went out carousing with the Washingtonienne, it all just seemed annoyingly warped and contrived. It set me off. Shrug.

Sorry if I'm coming in on the tail end of this particular tidbit, but who else knew Ana Marie Cox is married?!? I certainly didn't, and I'd have never guessed it based on her blog or the pictures she posted of her having a fine old time with a $400/hour whore.

And now it turns out her husband, Chris Lehmann, just got a job at New York Magazine (moving from the WaPo Review of Books). Dare we hope that this is the end of Wonkette?

This comment requires the donning of a tin foil hat, but does any of this seem incredibly suspicious to you? This wouldn't be the first time that a news organ (think Louella Parsons) was used as a sort of shill. The titillation factor is merely a smoke screen in a "look there while my other hand is in your pocket." While we've all got our panties in a bunch about prostitution and "whoring" what message IS getting through?

I'm immediately suspicious about things like this. It's such a classic grifter technique. When a magician creates a distraction look to see what they're doing with their other hand.

It's a great way of slandering the Republican Party, or the party of the Administration, and it is being done in a great slight of hand.

Drudge is used in the same way--a method of leaking information in an anonymous way. In this case, we have the sabotage of elected folks, a way of libeling them, without anyone noticing (or even asking) if that is the intention. Maybe that IS all there is and that is the entire point.

No tin foil hat required - the concept that Cox and Cutler were in bed together before the story broke is possible, the idea that they are in bed together now (and cynically leaking lesbian photos) is beyond dispute.

I think you are being unfair. Wonkette is writing about her field. DC gossip. I think you are missing the point in this story. Do you know who the politicians were she was sleeping with? I know some of them on my blog. The real story is that one of the guys she slept with works in Lieberman's office and is the pointman for interns. Jessica Cutler says he has many affairs with interns. So the guy who gives them their job also has sex with the interns. I think this is intollerable. We are the ones paying for this scumbags salary through taxes. I think all of us need to know what is happening in DC. It is not just about Washingtonienne.

Ricky -

The entire story isn't NOT news, it's Wonkette's gossipy enjoyment and endorsement of prostitution that irks me. Not to mention the clearly contrived ploys to make the story even more than it is ...

"Plonkette".