Old White-Tie Boys’ Network

Ex–Copley News Service Washington bureau chief George Condon is taking the fall for the failure of Washington, D.C.’s Gridiron Club to line up Barack Obama for its annual banquet. Obama is the first president since Grover Cleveland not to appear at the white-tie-and-tails dinner, and some speculate it’s because the club’s aging membership full of print reporters has become increasingly irrelevant in the internet age. Condon told the Politico website that he repeatedly lobbied Obama news chief Robert Gibbs about persuading the president to do the gig, to no avail. “There was a lot of back and forth between me and Robert. I would pop in and ask, and he was trying to find out.” Since being laid off after Copley shuttered its bureau last year, Condon has been writing for CongressDaily, a website.