The Daily Caller launches, Journopalooza’s ‘Suspicious Package,’ and a star-studded Kennedy Center Honors Brunch

By Janet Donovan

Tucker Carlson greets guest at his launch party as Juleanna Glover looks on.

OUT TO LAUNCH

So many people came to Juleanna Glover’s house to help inaugurate the Daily Caller that partygoers looking to find the website’s founder, Tucker Carlson, had to call him on their cell phones.

The Daily Caller went live on Jan. 11, adding yet another must-read for news junkies – who should probably file a sleep deprivation class action suit against Matt Drudge. (After all, his Drudge Report pretty much started the phenomenon).

Has Tucker finally hit his stride? We hope so. He’s hosted or been a guest on all the major cable networks with multiple writing positions along the way. The consensus according to radio talk show host Bill Press: “If anybody can cut through, thrive, and survive, it’s Tucker. He’s always fresh and different.”

Guests included media stalwarts Ann Compton and Christopher Hitchens as well as hip young reporters Emily Heil of Roll Call and Kiki Ryan of Politico. The big surprise of the night: “Plamegate” scandal figure I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby circulating – mostly unrecognized – in the supposedly politically-savvy crowd.

Tucker’s take: “It hasn’t been a big month for sleeping. The launch has been an adventure.  Ten years from now, when virtually all news is delivered digitally online and there are hundreds of sites doing pretty much exactly what we do, I’m sure we’ll have competitors. As of today we have only friends.”

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Literary lights ponder before dinner at the Folger; media types don aprons for a cause.

By Donna Shor

Liz Glover, Nikki Schwab, Barry Glassman, Enzo Fargione, Patrick Gavin, and Christine Delargy at Teatro Goldoni.

REVELATION = INSPIRATION

At the 21st annual PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award Gala, humorist Calvin Trillin announced that he lacked credentials to produce a trendy public confessional. “I had a happy childhood,” he said from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Elizabethan Stage. “But please don’t let that get back to New York!”

Twelve distinguished writers read their three-minute takes on the official topic, “Revelation.” Several referenced the Biblical book of Revelation, with Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks wittily extracting, “Write what you see” from the musings of John of Patmos. National Book Award winner and Bethesda resident Alice McDermott captured a funny and fruitless dialogue with her mother on the Virgin Mary’s place in that controversial scriptural work.

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Luntz leaves, Dozier breathes fire and Press bumps liberal fists (and conservative heads)

By Janet Donovan

Kimberly Dozier

Gimme a break!

Colorful Republican pollster Frank Luntz is pulling up stakes and heading west. The announcement came as a surprise to guests attending his seventh annual Baseball All Star Party at his McLean home in July. The explanation was simple: He’s tired. This, of course, was a rather short answer for the noted wordsmith (he is the author of Words that Work: It’s Not What You Say But What People Hear). But that’s what we heard: he’s tired. Even thinking about how he’ll move his massive memorabilia collection – which includes a Big Boy, a Keystone Cop, and a Palm Beach voting machine signed by presidential decider Katherine Harris – is making everyone else tired.

Actor Richard Schiff and the Creative Coalition’s Robin Bronk lingered past midnight. Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman and Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, said to be on McCain’s veep short list, chatted about Coleman’s senatorial race against progressive commentator Al Franken. There were enough CNN collectibles sighted: bureau chief David Bohrman, political director Sam Feist, and Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre. Also seen: Rep. Darrell Issa, lobbyist Bob Livingstone, British Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald, and David Bass. Surprise guest: former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, currently in the dog house with Barney for his new book What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.

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All the people, all the (best) parties before, during, and after this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner

By Janet Donovan

Ludacris with Eva Longoria Parker. Photo by Tony Powell.

You Betcha!

The Alaskan travel industry got a boost when female guests at Tammy Haddad’s annual brunch preceding the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner ran into that state’s “First Dude,” Todd Palin. His play date, Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren, did the intros in lieu of his wife, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who remained back home to oversee what was called the most serious flooding in decades. Luckily, she also bowed out of Saturday night’s dinner where comedian Wanda Sykes shot a lowball joke in her direction, best not repeated here. Washington women looking for their man of steel should not stop but go directly to www.travelalaska.com.

The star of the day was sea hero Capt. Richard Phillips of pirate fame, whose presence erupted into a media frenzy worthy of Paris Hilton. While friendly and chatty, he remained tight-lipped about his capture and rescue off the Somali coast, probably on advice of counsel.

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