We're starting to get our first nominations in for our end of the year muck awards, the Golden Dukes (how to enter the contest here). And one thing I'm looking forward to is revisiting all the various scandals and sundry muck of 2007. Because there's been so much of it, a lot of choice material gets lost in the heap.

So I thought I'd run through some of the strongest contenders in our various categories.

For Best Testimonial Trainwreck, the one that really sticks with me was the performance of Bradley Schlozman, key voting rights bamboozler who got himself a Patriot Act US Attorney appointment in Kansas City and used it, among other things to try to influence the 2006 mid-term with a few gamed indictments. For sheer embarrassment and weaselliness, there's wasn't much to compare to him.

Also in strong contention have to be Lurita Doan, disgraced head of the Government Services Administration.

And of course, you can't forget the more recent blow-out with State Department Inspector General "Cookie" Krongard, who had to a change his testimony and recuse himself from the Blackwater investigation while on the witness stand ...

Who am I forgetting in this category? And remember, if you to nominate some crook or evildoer and put yourself in running to win one of the exciting prizes, check out the rules here.

Next up, category II.