Michael Calderone over at the Politico broke the news today that D.C.’s original foul-mouthed political blog, Wonkette, is leaving the Gawker media empire. Managing editor Ken Layne will personally take the helm of the newly independent Wonkette, as he confirmed in a post on the site today. There’s some pretty thinly veiled subtext in both the letter from Gawker publisher Nick Denton that Calderone posted, and in Layne’s announcement, that Layne and Denton disagree about…

Any blogger worth their salt should know that the -ist family’s executive editor, Jen Chung, loves pandas. So Jen, here you go. We know you can’t see pandas at the Bronx Zoo (but there are red pandas there — our red pandas here in D.C. died after eating rat poison buried in their enclosure), so here’s the next best thing. We’re sure pandas in their natural habitat don’t have to deal with the construction…

What has Wonkette’s Ana Marie Cox been up to since she skipped town? Partying with New York media heavies, apparently. Gawker Media, the Wonkette mother ship, called our girl home for a small, A-list bloggers only shindig at the New York home of publisher Nick Denton a few days ago. (Hmm, perhaps our invitation got lost in the mail? C’mon, we’re only a train ride away…) So what’s the big occasion? Gawker reports that Ana…