Even power needs a day off.
| | | | |  | | By POLITICO MAGAZINE | Welcome to the first edition of POLITICO Weekend. Even power needs to take a moment off every now and then. When that moment comes, we're here for you. Every Friday, we will send you a collection of gripping narratives, sharp analysis from the nexus of culture and politics, saucy D.C. gossip and a little bit of internet cheekiness. We'll entertain, inform and give you plenty to talk about over the weekend. (And tell your friends to sign up here.)
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Illustration by Alex Fine | There was a time when a seat in the White House briefing room was the ultimate launching pad to media stardom. The Obama years fueled the careers of now-household names Jake Tapper, Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie. The nonstop circus of the Trump era brought a whole new level of fame and fortune to the reporters who sparred with him. But the Biden press room? The stories matter, arguably more than ever. But things have changed, writes Max Tani in his latest for Politico Magazine. Bye-bye to the massive TV budgets for White House specials. No more firehose of rich publishing deals for insidery books about the administration. And the stars? "I can't think of any," one well-known television news executive told Tani. "I don't really watch the briefings." As members of D.C.'s press corps shake out their tuxedos and cocktail dresses for the first White House Correspondents' Dinner in three years, Tani blows up their dirty little secret: It's kind of a boring job, just as Biden's team wants it to be. "Jen [Psaki] is very good at her job, which is unfortunate," said one reporter.
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| Dreading D.C.'s Biggest Night ... The glitzy return of the White House Correspondents' Dinner — and maybe more importantly, the whirl of pre- and post-parties — feels temptingly normal to a lot of This Town. Not just pre-Covid normal, but even pre-Trump normal. Should it? "On a weekend dedicated to freedom of the press, is it OK to raise a glass and toast with a seditionist?" asks the ultimate D.C. insider — Republican staffer-turned-PR pro Juleanna Glover. In his latest column, Mike Schaffer captures the worries of D.C. insiders who can no longer easily see the scene as one big game … but might accept a few invitations anyway.
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| No Invite? No Problem ... Here are our tips for sounding like a White House Correspondents' insider this weekend:
- If anyone asks whether you actually went to the dinner, just smile and complain knowingly about "the crowd on the escalator."
- For God's sake, don't say you met the president at the dinner. Only board members of the White House Correspondents Association do that. But you can talk about who you saw at the VIP event with Biden beforehand.
- Casually drop in conversation that you were one of the few people offered a free ride home from the NBC after party in an electric F-150 Lightning.
- It's not that you weren't invited, it's that you turned the invites down. "Oh, the after-party? What is it, now, Paramount? I haven't been since Graydon pulled out." Or, "The David Bradley dinner has become so corporate now that Laurene Powell Jobs is involved."
- Make knowing references to the old days when Tammy's brunch was at Tammy's house.
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Illustration by Zara Picken | Bad Bosses of Capitol Hill, Beware ... Ruby Cramer lands the first interview with the man behind @dearwhitestaffers — the Instagram account that has the halls of Congress on edge, or obsessed, or both. With 85,100 followers and counting, the account shares anonymous horror stories of harassment and discrimination purportedly from Hill staffers, and has already helped drive a union movement. "I can't believe I'm experiencing this right now and I can't tell my coworkers or my friends," said the man behind the account, who works on the Hill and keeps his Instagram a secret from all but his partner.
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| 58 percent … of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' fans are also fans of Disney films and TV shows. Every week, the Weekend asks a question in the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll and sees what the crosstabs yield. Got any suggestions? Email us at politicoweekend@email.politico.com .
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POLITICO illustration/Photos by AP | A President Walks Into a Bar ... Brace yourself: Bad political jokes are coming this weekend. So we had Sam Stein talk to comedian David Litt, the author of Thanks, Obama and a former speechwriter for the president who wrote jokes for the White House Correspondents' Dinner, about how to make politicians funny for real. He dished on that "anger translator" bit from the 2015 dinner, what made Obama a "natural performer" and Donald Trump's only good joke.
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| When JFK Slept With Nixon ... Can you imagine Bernie Sanders going on a roadtrip with Mitch McConnell? That kind of across-the-aisle chumminess wasn't so unthinkable back in 1947, when two freshmen lawmakers named John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon took a trip together to McKeesport, Pa. — a largely pro-union town — to debate the future of labor law in America. Bryan Bender takes us on a train trip back in time, when JFK and Tricky Dick shared a sleeping berth on the ride back to Washington. They drew for top bunk. "I won," Nixon said. "One of the few times I did against him."
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| "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." That was our esteemed legislative body, according to … whom? (Scroll to the bottom for the answer.)
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library | President Bill Clinton takes a spin through the halls of a near-abandoned Old Executive Office Building (later renamed the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) to film a skit, "The Final Days," for his last White House Correspondents' Dinner. The skit also shows the "lame duck" president making origami, shopping on eBay and waiting for laundry in a near-abandoned office. Thanks to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library for digging into their archives to find this.
| | | **Who Dissed answer: Mark Twain said that about Congress in the early 1880s. | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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