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• Ashwin Madia – the Man, the Myth, the One Democrat Who Won’t Call Michelle Bachmann Bat-Shit Crazy

As a relatively new member of the Minnesota political community, The Defenestrator has instituted a number of firsts in the last year. On the heels of the first-ever roundup of the most beautiful people at the Capitol and the first-ever reference to Michele Bachmann lunching with Al Franken whilst faking a mind-shattering orgasm comes the first annual "Award for Excellence in Electoral Putrescence" (EEP). And who better to receive the first of these sure to be coveted trophies than a luminary in Minnesota's hyperactive political blogosphere - Michael Brodkorb of Minnesota Democrats Exposed?

Many candidates vied mightily for this unspeakable honor. Entire ad campaigns were crafted for the sole purpose of sinking as low as humanly possible and catching the attention of the selection committee. Accusations of being soft on child molesters flew fast and furious. Hordes of earnest liberals worked hard to make Minnesotans care that Norm Coleman is an Armani-clad, basement-dwelling, kitten-devouring creature from beyond time and space. But despite these Herculean labors, a simple blog like any other took the prize.

Minnesota Democrats Exposed, like so many aligned with the left or right, is known for its ongoing search for truthiness and controversy in its campaign of DFL vilification and has built up a large community of rabidly conservative commenters, informants and others who do the Snoopy dance at even the hint of liberal impropriety or controversy. Despite these similarities to poli-blogs throughout Minnesota and beyond, somehow, Brodkorb reached above and beyond himself, finding a way to be more crass, despicable, and ultimately vile than a half-assed Yom Kippur epiphany, reams of NSFW bile and humor, and the legions of bloggers foaming at the mouth and spewing invective and bodily fluids at computer monitors across the country.

And all it took was a bevy of delighted right-wing commenters ready and willing to call a few young female DFL staffers "whores."

In late October, in the midst of the sturm-tossed bile of the campaign's end times, Minnesota Democrats Exposed posted a series of three stories about a few Madia staffers who posted photo sets from their work on the Madia campaign. These young women, seemingly in their early to mid-twenties and still not stripped of their dew-claws and idealism were certainly ill-prepared for the shitstorm that awaited them. Even pulling the photostreams down wasn't enough to quell the impassioned misogyny that awaited these impertinent self-styled "skinny bitches for Madia" who would dare wear anything but a burqa inside the hallowed halls of a VFW.

Impressively enough, Brodkorb's actual posts about the Madia campaign's apparent lack of class were fairly tame compared to the blizzard of ecstatic commenters decrying the DFL's use of "whores," "mannish skanks," and "streetwalkers." And nary a word of warning came down from Brodkorb's perch, despite his generally active comment moderation and participation in the dialogue on his site, making tacit approval seem a safe assumption. These women made a mistake in posting those photos publicly, and especially for the captions, however true they may be. However, few things could be more vile than to leverage relatively innocent and tame photos to manufacture controversy in an already putrid campaign - especially at the expense of some young women trying to get involved in a cause they believe in. For being all too willing to sink to those depths, Mr. Brodkorb, we salute you.

So, it is with great pleasure that we announce Michael Brodkorb, in the face of the most heated competition in the history of politics, has won the battle for the first ever EEP. By taking aim at DFL whores and skanks, he has set the bar high for campaigns to follow. And while many, GOP and DFL alike, will vie for the honor in years to come, only Brodkorb can lay claim to the distinction of being the first.