Andrew Golis is the Editor of Blogs at Yahoo! News. Those blogs include The Upshot, The Ticket, The Lookout and The Cutline. Previously, Andrew was the Deputy Publisher of Talking Points Memo. He lives in Sunnyside, New York with his wife, feminist author and blogger Jessica Valenti, their daughter and their cat and dog.
Meritorious Achievement in The Crazy
Ginny Thomas, hands down.
I recognize that her Crazy lacks some of the flash and outrageousness of some of the other nominees. But Thomas’s decision to call to Anita Hill has to be the most difficult-to-understand political act of 2010.
I simply can’t come up with a rational explanation for how Thomas could have possibly thought calling Hill, and then leaving a message (!!), would end well. That is just plain Crazy.
Unrefudiated Champion of Tea Party Wackiness
Carl Paladino is everything liberals think all conservatives are. A wealthy businessman who benefited from over $3 million in corporate welfare and wanted to use empty prisons to create programs to teach poor people hygiene. A straight white guy who enjoys chuckling at racist and sexist emails and worries about gay folks “brainwashing” our children. A family values politician with a secret 10-year-old child from an extramarital affair.
This one isn’t even close. The Wackiness of Carl Paladino is awe-inspiring.
Most Outrageous Election Season Fib Issued By A Politician
Sharron Angle.
Shameless use of Scary Brown People to try to win elections isn’t exactly a new tactic. So, come on Sharron, think it through! Canadians? Maybe they’re not really Latinos? At least have the decency to come up with an explanation that is semi-believable. You just seemed lazy.
Nominees For Most Over-The-Top Campaign Ad
Demon Sheep! I am so glad to have had an excuse to re-watch this cinematic masterpiece. All these months later, it is just as good.
The only thing that makes me happier than watching Fiorina’s Demon Sheep stalk its helpless prey is imagining the actor psyching himself up to put on a blue suit, don the sheepskin and red-eyed mask, and crawl around in a field.
The George Allen Honors For Best Tracker-Captured Freak-Out
Bob Etheridge.
Saying wacky things on viral videos is so 2006. In 2010, things go physical. Allen West and Joe Miller were babies. They had supporters corral and intimidate unwanted cameras.
But Bob Etheridge had the courage to assault his would-be YouTuber himself, and for that I think he deserves the Duke.
Best Scandal — Sex and Generalized Carnality
I’m tempted to give Nikki Haley and her self-proclaimed paramours the nod here, just for confounding expectations so thoroughly.
But you can’t deny Eric Massa. The tickling defense. The awkward Rahm Emanuel story. The fact that he out-crazied Glen Beck. He earned it.
In a year in which Americans wondered if government officials can cooperate to get anything done, the Bell, CA City Council offered us hope.
Best Scandal — General Interest
What’s striking about Charlie Rangel’s ethical issues isn’t that any one of them were particularly severe. He’s certainly not at the level of The Golden Dukes’ namesake Duke Cunningham.
But the flagrance of Rangel’s actions when taken as a whole, along with his absurd self-pitying attitude as his fellow House members took the small step of slapping him on the wrist after he’d already won reelection, exposed the source of so much corruption in our society: entitlement.
[Click here to read all the winners of the 2010 Golden Duke Awards…]
