President Obama Has "Off-the-Record" Lunch With Journos, Including One Who Calls The First Lady a Czar

On The Menu: Setting The Record Straight
At the White House yesterday, President Obama had an "off-the-record" lunch with journalists, which lots of people actually knew about, thanks to the modern miracle that's Twitter. The President has had journo lunches--and dinners--before, as a way of better advising the media on his ideas and opinions, rather than having it spun by speculation.

On the food menu: Green salad, halibut and pear tart for dessert.

The guest list was fairly predictable: CNN's David Gergen, Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, Newsweek's Jon Meacham and Howard Fineman, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Cynthia Tucker, Politico's Mike Allen, NPR/ Fox's Mara Liasson, Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall and a trio from the New York Times: David Brooks, Andy Rosenthal, and Gail Collins.

But one of those guests is pretty interesting: Joshua Marshall of Talking Points Memo. TPM was just added to the official White House press pool last week, which occurs when the White House Correspondents' Association, the group that runs the pool, votes to let a new member in. TPM is an award-winning political blog, which does original investigative reporting in addition to commentary, and is left-leaning and liberal. How then to explain the fact that there's a big photo gallery at TPM, titled Michelle Obama: The First Lady Czar--? Is this supposed to be ironic commentary? A tongue-in-chic assault on the First Lady, or a rib at Cons? The gallery, 21 pictures long, contains plenty of Mrs. Obama's food initiatives--the opening of the White House Farmers Market, a visit to a food bank, packing bags for troops, the planting of the Kitchen Garden...there's even a photo of Mrs. Obama speaking to sailors and their families when the USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group returned home in August, and the First Lady suggested that everyone bring a meal to a military family as a way of saying thanks. It's a very interesting idea, from a left-leaning blog, that these activities make Mrs. Obama a czar, especially in light of the seriousness with which media outlets, such as Fox, regard the whole "czar issue." (Screenshot at top of post is from TPM)

*Related: Coverage of the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. Ob Fo was there.

H/T: Michael Calderone of Politico, for the "official" lunch guest list