Dana Milbank

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post is referring to it as likely "the oddest news conference of the election season."

Yesterday Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee unveiled to a room full of local and national reporters his campaign's new ad attacking Mitt Romney, which Mr. Huckabee then noted he would not be airing in the spirit of, um, abstaining from attack ads.  read more »

Dana Milbank has some fun decoding Chuck Schumer's plan to win back the Senate:

To judge from Schumer's presentation, the Democrats will achieve this extraordinary triumph by employing an extended series of mixed metaphors. Schumer himself may have set a record in that department yesterday as he painted the electoral landscape: "This administration is shrugging its shoulders. . . . It's like 'The Wizard of Oz' -- it showed the man behind the screen. . . . You know which way the winds are blowing. . . . There have been very few bumps in the road. . . . The wind continues to stay at our backs. . . . The idea that there should be no check and balance, no congressional oversight, just isn't flying. They want to try to bring back the 2004 playbook. . . . They're trying to find a new rabbit to pull out of the hat, but so far they've gone back to the old chestnuts."

-- Azi Paybarah

Washington Post Style reporter Mark Leibovich learned the dangers of jumping to the rival New York Times this week. On Wednesday, a day after the news broke that Leibovich woudl be ankling the Post for the Times' Washington bureau, a newsroom prankster affixed a sign on the back of Leibovich's shirt reading "Traitor."

Leibovich preceded to walk around the Post's fourth floor newsroom with the sign on his back for 45 minutes until a merciful colleague alerted him to it. Shortly thereafter, White House correspondent Dana Milbank sent an email to Post staffers naming the culprit as columnist David Broder.

Leibovich confirmed the episode by phone.

"I wouldn't classify that as emblematic of a hostile reaction across the board. I thought it was hilarious. It was one of those situations where the batter has to tip his hat to the pitcher and walk back to the dugout," he said, adding: "I have wonderful friends here and I just have to laugh about it."

Asked if he had been responsible for the sign himself, Milbank insisted that Broder was the guilty party. "David left the New York Times I believe 42 years ago," Milbank said. "The guy can't give up this grudge. You know, I saw him do it. Admitedly, I didn't tell Mark he had a fourth grade sticker on his back. It was none other than David Broder, dean of the Washington press corps."

Broder was traveling and unavailable for comment. --Gabriel Sherman

In pre-computer times, when reporters smoked cigarettes and drank whiskey in public, the night city  read more »