Your Nominees for the 2010 Golden Duke Awards!

We're pleased to announce the finalists for the 4th Annual Golden Duke awards, celebrating the year's best purveyors of public corruption, outlandish behavior and The Crazy. Thanks to all our many readers who contributed nominations -- as we noted earlier there was no shortage of potential nominees -- we have plenty of people who honor the true memory of former Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) for whom these honors are named.

Our judges -- Rick Hertzberg, Susie Bright (NSFW), Sara Benincasa, Alex Pareene and TPM alum Andrew Golis have their work cut out for them, as evidenced below.

And the nominees are:

For Meritorious Achievement in The Crazy:

• Christine O'Donnell: As TPM Reader DC put it: "A GOP candidate, witchcraft, a Satanic altar, masturbation. This was the moment when the natural world and South Park switched places." And that's not even to mention mice with human brains or whether the separation of church and state was really part of the constitution or not.
• Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX): As TPM Reader FM said, "Two words: 'terror babies.'"There's also "tea party" and "art director" and "government shutdown."

• Tim Profitt, Head Stomper And Rand Paul Volunteer: He came, he saw, he stomped the head of a MoveOn protester, he demanded an apology from the woman he stomped and claimed he was set up. As TPM Reader EO said, "his actions were stone.cold.f------.crazy!"

• Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO): In Tancredo's world, Obama's a bigger threat to America than al Qaeda and should be shipped back to Kenya. Granted, he's been crazy for years, but TPM Reader DB thought his gubernatorial run highlighted one thing we've missed: "How can a person run for governor, claiming he can create jobs and shrink government if he's never had private sector job?"

• Ginny Thomas: Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas whose public affiliation with conservative advocacy groups gave people pause this year, made observers' jaws drop after she called Anita Hill, who in 1991 accused now-Justice Thomas of sexual harassment, at an odd hour and requested an apology from her. TPM Reader DS added, "Ginny's call clearly planted a turd in the punchbowl, embarrassing her husband even more."

[Click here to go forward to the nominations for Unrefudiated Champion of Tea Party Wackiness]

Cast your own vote!