Hillary Clinton's Senate office is not confirming that she is taking the secretary of state job, though they are adopting affirmative language on the record now, quibbling, lightly, only with the timing of the report.

"We’re still in discussions, which are very much on track. Any reports beyond that are premature," wrote Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Clinton in an email.

Shall we play a game?

It's Friday. Yes, we shall.

Let's call this one "MSM or Amateur?" We'll supply a quote and you guess if it comes from a professional journalism organization—you know, the kind of place that wins Pulitzer Prizes and whatnot—or some amateur on the Internet with no editor, no oversight, and no idea what he or she is saying.

Got it? Here we go: MSM or Amateur?:

Note to Al Qaeda: If you insist on trying to insult Barack Obama, the United States' first African American president-elect, falling back on the tropes of an America that no longer exists simply is not going to work. 'Field Negroes' and 'house Negroes'? Come out of the caves, blink in the sunlight of a new era and get it right—that's 'White House Negro.'

Answer after the jump:

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Henry Waxman’s bid to oust John Dingell from his perch atop the House Energy and Commerce Committee succeeded on Thursday, with the chamber’s Democratic caucus voting 137-122 to hand him the gavel.

The verdict will have an immediate and significant impact on energy, environmental and health care policy, all of which should loom large in Barack Obama’s first-year agenda, pushing a major power center within the House sharply to the left and into alignment with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s governing vision.

There is also fear among some House veterans, particularly members of the Congressional Black Caucus, that Waxman’s triumph – the first successful bid to depose a Democratic chairman in 23 years, and the first time it’s even been tried since 1996 – will embolden more members to challenge the seniority system that, until now, has guaranteed committee chairmanships to members with the most tenure.  read more »

If you are bewildered by the labyrinth of a public storyline about Hillary Clinton's potentialpossiblemaybe appointment to serve as Barack Obama's secretary of state, you're not alone.

Apparently, most people in Hillaryland have no clue what's going on either.

A former adviser to Hillary, speaking on background, told me of receiving calls in the last couple of days from people close to the Clintons claiming that Hillary's acceptance of Obama's secretary of state offer was "a done deal," that Hillary had been offered the job but was sure to decline it and that the job had actually never been offered at all. These contradictory accounts, the former adviser said, were made with "absolute authority.  read more »

Councilman Charles Barron just pointed out to me that a painting that used to hang on the wall of the Committee Room in the City Hall is no longer there.  read more »

Jennifer 8. Lee noted today that a number of Hillary Clinton's would-be successors were in one place this week when Governor David Paterson visited the New York congressional delegation in Washington D.C.  read more »

Here’s a prediction that, very understandably, won’t go over well with liberals: Joe Lieberman will seek reelection to the Senate in 2012 as a Democrat – and he’ll probably win.

Granted, we are not right now anywhere near the point at which all of the forces required for this to happen will congeal, but the events of the last few months suggest a clear trajectory toward rapprochement in Lieberman’s relationship with Democrats in Washington and in Connecticut.

Consider how dramatically the situation has changed in just the last few months. Back in July and August, it was a foregone conclusion that, one way or another, Lieberman’s days as a committee chairman and a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus would end with the 2008 campaign.  read more »

After a ceremony in Astoria this morning to rename the Triborough Bridge after Robert F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy Jr. said that he'd consider joining the Obama administration, and would "look at" replacing Hillary Clinton in the Senate if she leaves for a secretary of state position.

"You know what?  read more »

Felix Gillette looks at CNN, which might want to rename itself The Corpulent News Network.

How did the story of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State appointee begin? John Koblin traces the story as it made its way from NBC's Andrea Mitchell to every other media outlet imaginable. "It has unspooled in a confusing way," Politico reporter Ben Smith says.

Leon Neyfakh meets Carrie Kania, the publisher at Harper Perennial, "the small but proud paperback unit of HarperCollins that she has lovingly presided over since the fall of 2005."

Plus: Candy Pratts Price... Big Shake-Up at New York Tech Meetup... Malcolm Gladwell.

"We're having a lot more fun than we did on Liberty Island!" said Tina Brown, the czarina of The Daily Beast, at her Web site's launch party last night in the Meatpacking District.

No, it didn't quite have the extravagance, say, of that 1999 Talk launch party on Liberty Island, where more than 800 movie stars and celebrities—invites went out to everyone from Henry Kissinger to Madonna—mingled and got drunk in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.

Well, those were different times.

Ms. Brown's launch party last night was at... Pop Burger on Ninth Avenue. Maybe this is the New Media reality.

At this party, Harvey Weinstein didn't make the guest list, but "Fast Eddie" Felsenthal, the executive editor of The Daily Beast, sure did (and that was his nickname at The Wall Street Journal, we're told!). And instead of nearly a thousand arriving by ferry, this one had a few dozen people who had to take the ACE or the L. Everyone went home by a quarter to nine.

There were free sliders.  read more »