Ana Marie Cox
Ana Marie Cox is a well known American political blogger who writes under the pen name Wonkette, the eponymous name of her blog. On January 5, 2006, she officially announced her retirement as the blog's editor and her impending "ascension to Wonkette Emeritus." The blog, which she largely entrusted to guest editors during 2005, will be staffed by David Lat, who garnered attention in 2005 for his federal judiciary-related blog Underneath Their Robes, and Alex Pareene, a 20-year-old dropout from New York University.
Cox is the former executive editor of Suck.com where she wrote under the pen name Ann O'Tate. She lives in Washington, DC. Under her tenure, Wonkette, published by weblog group Gawker Media, was an often-racy journal of gossip and goings-on in the U.S. capital. Since going online in October 2003, the site and its author gained notoriety in the political world for publicizing the story of Jessica Cutler, aka Washingtonienne, a Capitol Hill staff assistant who accepted money from a Bush administration official and others in exchange for sexual favors.
The site focuses heavily on gossip, humor, and the downfall of the powerful as well as more "serious" matters of politics or policy. Lat, who wrote Underneath Their Robes anonymously under the fictional persona of a female court clerk, is "already obsessed with all the things you need to be obsessed with to do Wonkette properly," says Cox.
Earlier in the site's existence, Cox was posting nearly a dozen entries per day, though that rhythm slowed, and more posts were handed to guest editors, as she worked on her novel Dog Days. Dog Days was published on January 6, 2006.