Our (successful) search for the yacht behind the biggest congressional bribery scandal of the 21st century.
Remember: tomorrow is the last day to submit your nominations for the 2013 Golden Duke Awards. It’s a special year for the Dukes, our annual awards program honoring outstanding achievement in betrayals of public trust, corruption, ridiculousness and scandal of all sorts – named in honor of the ur-corrupt pol of our times, former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Not only is this the 7th year of the Awards program but to celebrate year seven we have commissioned a true, real-life, 3 dimensional, metal-cast Golden Dukes statuette which we’ll award in person to the winner of the General Interest category (subject to their cooperation and/or being in a public area at some point when we can track them down and try to hand it to them). So get your nominations in today! (Nomination instructions and categories here.)
I didn’t want to get too ahead of ourselves. But I think it’s time to reveal this: For the first time in seven years, we have commissioned a real live metal-cast Golden Dukes statuette (it’s not technically ‘alive’ but you know what I mean). Yeah, we’ve always had the representation of the notional statuette you see in the picture above. But now it’s getting real. And I mean really real. The first edition of the statuette is currently taking shape at an artist’s workshop at an undisclosed location in the Shenandoah Valley.
Remember, Monday is the deadline for getting in your nominations for this year’s Golden Duke Awards. (Instructions here.) If your nomination is selected, you become part of the unfolding legend and grandeur of the Golden Dukes, now in its record-breaking 7th year. And, listen, do you really want to miss out on a year where Rob Ford is in the running for so many categories? I mean, why? Ford is like the Lincoln of the 2013 Oscars. So join the fun. Who do you think should win for “Best Scandal – Sex and Generalized Carnality”? What about “Best Scandal – Local Venue”? And who’s in the running for “Meritorious Achievement in The Crazy”, always a tight contest. Get your nominations in now!
We’re kicking off a membership drive at TPM to sign you up as members of TPMPrime. If you’re already a subscriber, thank you. And don’t miss the Prime-only history of the demise of the filibuster ‘Longform‘ we published just this afternoon. If you haven’t, let me take a moment of your time to explain the benefits of joining Prime and why we think it’s so important for our core readers. Already convinced? Great. Click here. If not, join me after the jump.
I see Megyn Kelly as a modern day Albert Schweitzer in a quest for the historical Santa.
Very interesting piece by TPM’s Sahil Kapur trying to tease out just what happened this week between Speaker Boehner and the Tea Party. For the first time in his Speakership, Boehner smacked the Tea Party down hard and won. And this after years of kowtowing to them and essentially ceding control of the House to these outside groups.
You know there are only days left to get in your nominations for this year’s 7th Annual Golden Duke awards. Here are the instructions for submitting your nominees for the crookedest, ridiculousest, slimiest of 2013 in each of seven categories we’ve chosen for this year. But in the spirit of the Dukes, TPM’s Hunter Walker tracked down the “Duke Stir”, that’s the yacht at the center of the Cunningham scandal. Hunter managed to get himself a tour of this monument to political corruption and even pictures of the remaining Duke Cunningham memorabilia onboard. While you’re putting together your Duke’s nomination, join us on this trip down this watery memory lane.
Many of us have been wondering for literally years whether the Harry Reid would ever pull the trigger and rein in or end the filibuster. He finally did. In our second TPMPrime Longform (sub req), TPM’s Sahil Kapur gives a detailed history of the filibuster’s demise and what finally brought Reid, who’d hedged so many times, over to the side of the reformers.
Advocates for health care reform are convinced GOP-controlled states that decided not to expand Medicaid under Obamacare will eventually come around. Too much money is being left on the table for it not to happen … eventually. But they’re not waiting around. Advocates are beginning to organize those who have been caught in the GOP’s Medicaid gap as Exhibit A for why states should expand the program. As Dylan Scott reports, that campaign is farthest along in Texas.