Help!

Okay, you've been reading about all the excitement growing up around the Golden Duke awards. This morning, Local Scandal nominee Penn. State Sen. Vincent Fumo was written up in the local paper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, for his nomination. And in early January the Dukes are going to be featured on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS. Seriously, I kid you not: I'm going to go on Moyers' show and talk with Bill about the Golden Dukes and who the winners are.

Anyway, readers who sent in the winning nominations are going to be getting lots of cool TPM/Golden Dukes swag. And you can see the official Golden Duke statuette right there on the right. But here's the dirty secret. That's it. I have to confess that while there's a picture of the official Golden Duke statuette, there is no actual statuette. But we want to change that. We need to get a real life statuette.

But the truth is we have no idea how to get one made. It doesn't need to be fancy; doesn't have to be any nicer really than the kind of Hooray You Won Tenth Place in the Division trophies I used to get playing AYSO soccer back in the day. But it does have to look like the statuette in the picture. It just won't do to have the Duke be a guy kicking a soccer ball.

Now I normally come to you, the august TPM readership, for tips on political matters and various sorts of expertise. But there must be more than a few of you who know how we'd get this done. Obviously, it can be done. It's just a matter of how much we'd have to pay and just who we go to, or what kind of outfit we go to, or designer, or whatever to get an estimate.

So, the fate or at least the greater glory of the Dukes is in your hands. If you know who we need to call, what we need to do, please let us know as soon as you can.