DC journalist may have split from wife, dated Sen. and cried to keep story out of paper

DC insiders are buzzing that John Harwood, a CNBC Washington correspondent and political writer for the New York Times, has split with his wife, Frankie Blackburn, and has dated Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) According to well-placed sources, Harwood has kept it out of one DC paper by sobbing to a reporter until he agreed to kill the story. When asked repeatedly about the split, Harwood told Page Six, “I don’t feel comfortable talking about my family life.” But he did say the crying part “is absolutely not true.” A Cantwell spokesman in DC had no comment.