The Oval Office, shown here in May 2011, may have to close next year for renovations. Official White House photograph by Pete Souza.

Update: White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked about our report Wednesday and referred all comment to the GSA. From the transcript:

Q: Can you -- there are reports out about some renovations having to do with the Oval Office.  And can you explain what is true, what is not true?  Is the Oval Office going to have to be vacated for some time?  Does the President, whoever he may be, have to be relocated to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building?

MR. CARNEY:  Jake, I have a very broad portfolio, but renovations to the campus here are not part of it.  So we refer those questions to the GSA, which handles the renovations and all the work that’s done on the property here.  So I don’t have anything specific for you.  I would just refer you to the GSA.

Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney are already knee-deep in what many observers are saying could be the nastiest presidential bid in decades—but a year from now, the ultimate victor, no matter who he is, may not get to claim the ultimate prize: the Oval Office.

According to sources familiar with the discussions, beginning sometime next year the President may be relocated from the White House West Wing and the iconic Oval Office to temporary office space next door in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building.

The Wire depicts in raw detail and dialogue gritty crime scenes in the mean streets of Baltimore. But those scenes are fictional. Testimony in court last week included dialogue of how a murder went down in DC—but it was real. The story was captured by Homicide Watch DC, a website featured in The Washingtonian’s February issue.

Mark Plotkin quit speaking to me about 15 years ago. I had done something to cross him, he thought. It was a mystery to me. Whatever it was he thought I had done made him angry. If we saw each other in a public place, he would ignore me or say something disparaging.

What had I done? Why was Plotkin so angry? What provoked his rage?

Only Plotkin can answer those questions, but sources say it was rage that did him in as political analyst at WTOP. He had been hosting the weekly Politics Program With Mark Plotkin every Friday for the past decade. Jim Farley, WTOP vice president of news and programming, met with Plotkin yesterday and gave him his walking papers.

For the record, Farley said, “We’ve decided to part ways. We met for 45 minutes. There was no rancor.”

No one else would speak on the record, but a variety of sources at WTOP told me Plotkin’s demise had to do with his repeated outbursts of anger at the radio station.

Plotkin would “drop the F-bomb” regularly, one staffer reported.

WTOP valued Plotkin as the foremost political analyst on local matters, and the station sent him to anger-management classes, sources say. Still, the outbursts continued.

Fellow employes started to complain. The matter was bumped up to the station’s human-relations department. Bosses talked to Plotkin repeatedly. In the end, Plotkin’s own pattern of behavior did him in.

Farley is telling people that WTOP’s political coverage will not suffer, but Plotkin was unique. Despite whatever anger issues he might have had, he is one of the preeminent analysts on politics in Maryland, Virginia, and the District. He knew every player and had access to every state house.

Plotkin is irreplaceable. I would tell him, but he’s not talking to me.

Drew Barrymore with her new fiancé, Will Kopelman, at the premiere of Big Miracle. Photograph by Jeff Martin.

The so-called “whale movie” came to town last night with a splashy screening and a Potomac waterfront after-party for some 1,400 people. Big Miracle is the film’s official name, and it has an interesting, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting local angle. First, you need to know the name Bonnie Mersinger Carroll.

It was 1988, and Carroll—then Bonnie Mersinger—was working at the White House as the executive assistant for Cabinet affairs. President Reagan stopped by her West Wing office to inquire about an incident that was unfolding in Alaska, where three whales (two adults and a baby) had become trapped in the Arctic Circle by rapidly forming ice. The drama was receiving national media attention. “He saw that the National Guard was involved,” says Carroll, “and he wondered what the White House could do to help. And that’s how I met Tom Carroll.”

Photograph courtesy of WTOP.

Well-known and popular political commentator Mark Plotkin has been fired by WTOP radio for “personnel issues,” according to Jim Farley, the station’s vice president of news and programming. Plotkin had been with WTOP for ten years and hosted the weekly Politics Program With Mark Plotkin. He is friend to many of the city’s political leaders.

The firing happened today. In an interview, Farley said, “We have parted ways. His show was canceled. It will be replaced by news.” When pressed about the “personnel issue,” Farley said, “It’s the kind you can’t comment on.” But he did say the decision came from management, had nothing to do with any demands, was not an economic cut, and that Plotkin “was doing a fine job, and it has nothing to do with competition.”

Farley also said the issue had been “brewing” for a while.

Given that this is a presidential election year, we wondered if Farley would quickly try to fill Plotkin’s slot with a new political commentator. “Yes, eventually,” he told us, “but we have strategic partnerships with Politico, CBS, and CNN. We have an abundance of riches when it comes to political coverage.”

Finally, he said that the firing “was done without rancor. Mark and I are still friends.” There was a severance package included.

Calls for comment from Plotkin have not yet been returned.

Just in case yet another typo-riddled work e-mail had you doubting Washington is filled with smart people who read a lot: We’ve now officially been declared the most literate city in the country—for the second year in a row. Dr. John W. Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University, published a study examining various kinds of data that indicate if a city is well read: newspaper circulation; how many people purchased a book online in the past year, visited a news website in the past week, or owned an e-reader; magazine and journal subscription data; number of bookstores in the area; educational attainment; and prevalence of libraries.

Washington ranked first overall, ahead of Seattle, Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Boston. The District also ranked highest in the second data set—Internet usage to access books and news—as well as in newspaper and magazine/journal circulation. So yep, Washingtonians are smart. Cue the dramatic removal of eyeglasses.