The Winners Of The 2013 Golden Duke Awards!

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TPM is pleased to announce the winners of the Seventh Annual Golden Dukes recognizing the year’s best purveyors of public corruption, outlandish behavior and The Crazy.

The awards are named in honor of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who epitomizes the iconic modern scandal.

This year, the Golden Dukes were sponsored by Media Matters, who give out their own annual award called Misinformer of the Year for the most egregious example of misinformation from the media. This year it goes to CBS News.

Our celebrity judges — Julieanne Smolinski, Dan Savage, Hendrik Hertzberg and Susie Bright — waded their way through all 35 finalists in 7 categories, and selected the winners.

Check out the lucky nominees and the reader emails that selected them here. To read any judge’s statements (be sure you do), scroll to the end and click on each judge’s name! And now, without further ado, the winners:

Best Scandal — General Interest: Rob Ford

Julieanne Smolinski: Bob Filner

Dan Savage: Rob Ford

Susie Bright: Rob Ford

Hendrik Hertzberg: Rob Ford

Best Scandal — Sex and Generalized Carnality: Rob Ford and Anthony Wiener tie

Julieanne Smolinski: Anthony Wiener

Dan Savage: Rob Ford

Susie Bright: Rob Ford

Hendrik Hertzberg: Anthony Weiner

Best Scandal — Local Venue: Rob Ford

Julieanne Smolinski: West Virginia’s Mingo County administrators

Dan Savage: Rob Ford

Susie Bright: Rob Ford

Hendrik Hertzberg: Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ)

Meritorious Achievement in The Crazy: Rep. Steve King (R-IA)

Julieanne Smolinski: Rep. Steve King (R-IA)

Dan Savage: Rep. Steve King (R-IA)

Susie Bright: Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX)

Hendrik Hertzberg: Rep. Steve King (R-IA)

The Year In Derp: Rick Santorum

Julieanne Smolinski: Rick Santorum

Dan Savage: Rick Santorum

Susie Bright: Rick Santorum

Hendrik Hertzberg: Rick Santorum

Outstanding Achievement In Corruption-based Chutzpah: Rob Ford

Julieanne Smolinski: Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ)

Dan Savage: Rob Ford

Susie Bright: Rob Ford

Hendrik Hertzberg: Rob Ford

Best Scandal By A Non-Politician: Alec Baldwin

Julieanne Smolinski: Alec Baldwin

Dan Savage: Alec Baldwin

Susie Bright: Paula Deen

Hendrik Hertzberg: Alec Baldwin

See the Hardball segment where we announced the winners:

Click below to read the statements by each judge:

Julieanne Smolinski

Dan Savage

Susie Bright

Hendrik Hertzberg

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