Apparently it wasn't all moist eggs and cherry blossoms (or Julia Allison having sex with Henry Kissinger) at John McLaughlin's post-White House Correspondent's Dinner brunch. There was also a heated discussion between Time.com Political Editor (and, yes, Wonkette editor emeritus) Ana Marie Cox, and Nation columnist Eric Alterman, who is best known for being the living embodiment of the kind of smug liberal condescension that has won the Democratic party a whopping two out of the last seven elections. Cox confronted Alterman about recent comments he had made concerning Time's recent hirings, specifically, the hiring of Cox.

A sputtering Alterman backtracked that he had no issue with Cox, and that it was more of a desire to see more liberal voices in the magazine. When Cox countered that there were plenty of recent stories that could be viewed as taking a skeptical view of the administration, Alterman said something about opinion columns being more important to him than reportage. Cox said that she had been one of the voices calling for greater coverage of the U.S. Attorney firings, and Alterman said, "Well, your role at the magazine—" only to be quickly cut off by Cox's acid, "Oh, yes, Eric, do tell me what my role at the magazine is."

This caused Alterman to launch into a spiral of name-dropping ("my good friend Rick Stengel") that culminated in this classic: "As my good friend [John] Huey said to me at Jim [Kelly]'s party for Walter [Isaacson]...." At this point, any correspondents who were still around crept silently to the bar, cursing their decision not to stay home and watch the NBA playoffs.

Moist Eggs and Cherry Blossoms [NYO]