Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) puts the brakes on a quick confirmation of Eric Holder as attorney general, much to the chagrin of Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

(ed.note: While I think it’s fair to have Eric Holder answer some tough questions about his role in the Marc Rich pardon, that does not erase the fact that Arlen Specter never stops breaking new ground in the contest of political opportunism poseurish chest-thumping — jmm.)

If you’re a right-wing family values politician who’s been caught giving substantial stimulus to the escort industry in at least two jurisdictions, don’t lecture me about the Automaker bailout.

Just in time!

Everyone remembers the excitement and hoopla surrounding last year’s First Annual Golden Duke Awards, given out for excellence in corrupt acts, betrayals of the public trust and generalized shameful behavior. (See last year’s winners here.) We’ll be explaining more of the details tomorrow. But if you want to get a jump on everyone else and get your nominations in now, here are the details …

Today we’re announcing the categories in which we’ll award prizes.

They are …

Sleaziest Campaign Ad

Best Election Season Fib

Outstanding Achievement in Corruption-based Chutzpah

Best Scandal — Sex and Generalized Carnality

Best Scandal — Local Venue

Best Scandal — General Interest

The deadline for nominations is December 17th. And we’ll be handing out exciting prizes both for the winners and also to the readers whose nominations we choose as finalists.

So here’s how it works. If you want to nominate some evil-doer for one of our awards, send us a nomination identifying the person you’re nominating and a description/argument of no more than 250 words explaining their achievements, bad acts or generally scandalous behavior that you believe entitles them to the award. All awards are to individual mucksters and evil-doers — parties, concepts, groups, etc. are not eligible.

On December 19th we’ll announce the nominees, which then then go to our panel of distinguished judges. The awards will be announced on the last day of the year, December 31st, new year’s even.

Now Arizona wants its day in the sun, courtesy of TPM Reader JB …

I’m disappointed you’re leaving out Arizona in your catalogue of corrupt states. Like NV, we too have a rich history of mob ties; Joe Bonanno lived for years in Tucson, and in Phoenix several years ago the mob killed Don Bolles, a reporter for the Arizona Republic, when he got too close. We have a congressman (Rick Renzi) currently under indictment; we led the nation by having two members of the Keating Five (McCain and DeConcini); in the past 20 years we lost two governors to corruption (Evan Mecham was impeached; Fife Symington resigned after indictment); and many members of the AZ Legislature resigned during a sting operation in the ’90s.

From TPM Reader PC in Nevada …

Our governor was recently cleared of an FBI investigation, but he is in the
middle of a messy divorce with his wife, and he faces a lawsuit for shoving
a woman in a parking garage. Our Lt. Governor Brian Krolicki was indicted
last week. Fully six former members of the Clark County Commission, the most
powerful board in the state (it encompasses the Las Vegas Strip) have been
indicted or are in jail. The LA Times did a series on our awful judges in
2006. We had a state senator who was also (at the same time) head of the
mining association. We have a state senator who’s head of anti-union contractors group.

I have a reams of other examples.

Then there’s our rich history of mob ties.

There’s been a lot of news to talk about over the last thirty-six hours. But the largest volume of emails has come in in response to yesterday’s note from TPM Reader WO’s suggesting a contest for most corrupt state. WO took it as a given that the top three contenders were Alaska, Illinois and Louisiana.

Au contraire, say partisans of perhaps a dozen other states — New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York being top claimants.

I know there are a lot of hurt feelings out there. A lot of people feel slighted on behalf of their states. But while a number of these states have impressive histories of corruption, as I told a few emailers, a lot of it really comes down to a case of ‘what have you done for me lately?’

Let’s run through the issue. As a former proud resident of Rhode Island, there’s no doubt that the Ocean State has an extremely impressive history of corruption, with an impressive level of mafia infiltration as a bonus. But TPM Reader JR concedes that those days may be in the past …

I grew up in RI and now live in MA. I think RI would have won this hands-down 20 yrs ago, but while Lincoln Almond was a completely shitty governor, as US Atty he did a pretty good job of breaking the back of the Patriarca mob family that drove a lot of southern New England’s corruption for decades.

It’s still a huge part of RI’s self-identity, though… if they ever named a state movie (in the sense of a state bird or state flower), it would surely be “The Godfather”.

Admittedly, in my day we had Buddy Cianci for the Mayor of Providence. He was on his second life at that point, having done a stint in prison after he’d been Mayor the first time. I never did the kind of deep forensic look at what that was all about as I do these days as a reporter (I was a graduate student back then.) But all the stories seemed to come back to kidnapping the guy who slept with his wife, bonking him on the head with a log and doing some sort of low level torture. That’s was all in the past in the early and mid-1990s. Alas, a few years after I left Buddy made a return visit to the slammer. At the end of the day though, it was more a faint echo of the real glory days of Rhode Island corruption than a genuine reprise.

New Jersey? Hard to deny the Garden State some serious props (I used to live there too). Readers have mentioned Torricelli and McGreevey, etc. And if the issue is sheer saturation of machine politics and graft, it’s a real contender. But perhaps this is the issue: how do you compete with Edwin Edwards a few years ago and William Jefferson with various international shenanigans, $90,000 of frozen cash hidden in his freezer. The list just goes on and on. Or Alaska, two of the three members of the congressional delegation under criminal investigation — now one of them convicted. And the third member standing out as the clean senator because all she got was a discount vacation house from a fundraiser and political fixer. Or Illinois. Well, two straight governors indicted and then you go from there.

Sure, there’s plenty of crooks in New York and New Jersey and Rhode Island. And Massachusetts has its moment. But I’m just not sure any of them can put the kind of serious and recent per capita muck on the table as these three other worthy states. Certainly not when it comes to governors and federal officeholders.

Again, I invite your response if you think I haven’t given these states their due.

Late Update: More sour grapes, now from TPM Reader TC …

I cannot believe that my home, the Garden State, is not in contention as the most corrupt state. Not with its rich tradition of seeing the mayors of its largest city sent to prison. (Three in a row! My favorite is probably Hugh Addonzio, who presided over the ’67 riots and ended in prison for, in the federal prosecutor’s words, ‘delivering the city into the hands of organized crime.”)

Not with the legendary Hudson County machine, founded by Frank “King Hanky-Panky” Hauge, who ran Jersey City from a suite in the Plaza Hotel during the depths of the Great Depression.

Not after Senator Harrison “Pete” Williams, the only US Senator to do time for dipping his beak during the Abscam affair, or after Senator Bob “the Torch” Torricelli, who left office in disgrace after news broke of his pecuniary friendship with a certain Mr. Chang — a Chinese-American ‘businessman’ who did most of his business in North Korea.

Sure, auctioning off a Senate seat is pretty heady stuff. So what does the mob-riddled state that invented ‘pay-to-play’ got to do to compete? Have its Governor resign in disgrace when it’s revealed he had his secret gay lover on the public payroll to the tune of six figures?…

Been there. Done that.

He didn’t even mention Sharpe James, not by name at least.