FishbowlDC gossip and media reporter Betsy Rothstein is, to put it mildly, a polarizing figure in Washington, DC. Despised by some for her role in Dave Weigel‘s Journolist-fueled career reorganization, dismissed by others as a petty gossip, she also enjoys a stealth legion of admirers who appreciate her hard work and Keyser Soze-like omnipresence. When word spread of my interview with Rothstein, “Team Betsy” emerged from the woodwork to weigh in, and the common theme was quickly evident: Betsy Rothstein is fearless.

Rachel Maddow tonight devoted some time to “the Paul Ryan thing;” namely, that “Republicans voted for [it]” and now must defend it at town hall meetings. They haven’t always done so with great success, but Maddow noted a lack of coverage of this, save for liberal websites…plus one site she apparently doesn’t think is so liberal these days.

Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe and a former Republican Congressman, took to Politico to air his grievances over the way Liberals have been discussing our role in Libya. In his piece, “The hypocrisy of the American left,” Scarborough writes: “How can liberals call for Qadhafi’s ouster when they opposed the war against Saddam?”

A diverse gaggle of online media outlets (from Drudge and Hot Air to Wonkette and HuffPo) are enamored with the idea that a series of 2007 speeches that Joe Biden gave regarding the possible impeachment of George W. Bush are now applicable to President Obama‘s Libya policy.With varying degrees of shrillness, they’re playing “Gotcha!” with Biden’s promise that a unilateral move to war with Iran would be met with impeachment, and applying that promise to Obama’s Libya policy.

Sarah Palin departed from her preferred platform of communication yesterday to weigh in on Twitter about the Louisiana oil crisis. The woman who coined the phrase drill baby drill (and stands by it, by the way) has somehow managed, in less than 140 characters, to connect the nation’s current furor over illegal immigration with the oil spill.

If Politico’s Mike Allen is the “most popular boy” after a glowing profile by Mark Leibovich in the New York Times Magazine hit the virtual street today, then the reaction to the piece by inside-the-beltway journalists represents the reaction of the AV club and, well, the yearbook staff: we hate him.

As part of an ongoing campaign to rid the world of little-trafficked blogs, Politico has expanded its campaign of cease-and-desist orders to the United Kingdom. Their attempt to shut down US conservative blogger The College Politico has thus far failed, but that hasn’t prevented them from reaching across the pond to stamp out Tory Politico, the UK’s 120,293rd ranked site. Whether or not Politico has any legal leg to stand on, they might want to remember how the story of David and Goliath turned out for the big guy.

As we reported earlier, Politico has published part 2 of their yearlong expose´ of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs‘ comedic chops. Using state-of-the-art word count technology, they have determined that Gibbs is about half as funny as he used to be.

I asked Gibbs for his reaction to Politico’s report, and to criticisms of Tuesday’s Sarah Palin “handgate” gag. Here’s what he had to say

No one’s laughing now, Robert Gibbs! Or at least they’re laughing a lot less. According to a report, the number of “(Laughter)” that show up in the official transcripts of White House press room briefings and in the last six months they have dropped by almost half. What is behind this sinister seriousness?

Air America has folded — again, but, it seems, permanently. Two dominant reactions seem to have emerged: Disappointment that a liberal, progressive radio empire couldn’t make it, and an utter lack of surprise. The LAT’s James Rainey blamed Air America’s failure on “Bad radio. Boring radio. Preachy radio”; as the NYT’s Brian Stelter noted, Daily [...]

Now that the dust has settled over the initial and headline-making revelations of the new campaign book Game Change, a number of people are beginning to question how authors John Heilemann and Mark Halperin managed to get all the frequently anonymous juicy quotes they included in the book. Did the authors, in fact, follow their own attribution guidelines?

George Stephanopoulos‘ move to Good Morning America has left open the plum assignment of Sunday morning talk-show host. The This Week gig is not just a big break for the eventual host, but a real opportunity for ABC News to break NBC’s ratings stranglehold on Sunday mornings.

On a very short list of rumored Stephanopoulos replacements sits ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper.

And so it begins.

Huffington Post’s Jason Linkins did a fine job, the other day, of cataloging the right’s sudden antipathy for chants of “USA! USA! USA!” Now, with the news that the IOC has rejected Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid in the first round, conservatives are in the awkward position of trying to slam the President for failing to achieve the very thing they just said was a horrible waste of time.