The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

Not being much of a fan of show biz and media award shows – I mean, what explains WCCO’s “Good Question” guy beating out Pat Kessler for “Best Political Reporting” or whatever it was called at this year’s local Emmys? – I usually just ignore the latest Winner du Jour.

Except … when the news gets as good as the news this morning.

I mean we here at The Slaughter are nothing if not (also) local-local, hyper-local, and when a prominent local attorney walks away with the championship in a national media competition we have an obligation – to you – to report the good news.

I am a fan of Kevin Drum, who blogs as “The Political Animal” for The Washington Monthly, and I admit that I have both followed avidly and voted in his contest for the “Golden Wingnut Awards”, his first annual competition to honor the most unhinged, delusional, delirious, no-relation-to-anything-on-this-planet nut-baggery posted in all the blogs in all the world … which I think is saying something. Furthermore, this year's award is uniquely prestigious by virtue of being the 1st Annual competition, meaning it includes every astoundingly lunatic, over-the-top thing ever written in the history of the Internet up until this year.

Now do you appreciate the depth of this competition?

But enough with the suspense. Ladies and gentlemen a huge round of applause for Minneapolis attorney, John Hinderaker, a.k.a. “Hind Rocket”, the sharpest shiv at Powerlineblog.com, Time magazine’s 2004 “Blog of the Year” for his July 2005 posting titled, “Stroke of Genius?” The guy smoked serious wingers like -- the National Review's Jonah Goldberg, Michelle Malkin and Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds -- by 2-to-1!

The breathless opening to Hinderaker's Wingnut Hall of Fame post:

A Stroke of Genius?

It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.

Now that is what I call separating yourself from the herd.

Mr. Hinderaker is notable for being both a highly influential far right-wing blogger, (the giddy intellectual chops on display in the above quote clearly demonstrate his appeal to the echo chamber crowd), and, historically, a huge source of concern to the upper managers of the Star Tribune, at least under the leadership of Anders Gyllenhaal.

Powerline’s persistent, high national-profile ridiculing of the paper’s alleged “liberal bias” and “political correctness” was – despite Gyllenhaal’s denials – a key motivating factor in the ascension of Katherine Kersten from Op-Ed think tank contributor to metro columnist. Moreover Powerline’s call-and-shout alliance/mentorship with Kersten continues to make them important, albeit un-credited contributors to the paper’s new, uh, “balanced” tone.

Anyway, nice going, John. You’re a credit to the local culture. We couldn’t be more proud.