Prominent Local Attorney Wins "Golden Wingnut" Award!

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.

Here is a complete list of all the other contenders in Drum’s contest, none of whom, as I say, really
came close to topping Hinderaker for sheer, I-can-no-longer-feel-my-body hyperbole.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.