The Wurlitzer Prize for Wingnuttery for the week of September 21-28

When we conceived of the Wurlitzer Prize™ we never dreamed that the mainstream media would hang a meatball like this over the plate.

By now everyone knows that Tennessee wingnut congressman (that is what she calls herself) Marsha Blackburn, appearing on the normally feeble Tucker! show came up against David Shuster who was hosting. He asked her to name the last American G.I. from her district to have fallen in Iraq.

She couldn’t do it. Not only could she not name the most recent, she could not name any of the four to have died in Iraq since the invasion. Two of the casualties were officers, which should resonate. Every American battle casualty is a tragedy. But when Sergeants and officers fall, the loss is compounded by the loss of leadership.

She looked like a total boob. And indeed, would have been in the running for the Wurlitzer her idiot self, but then, enter Dan Abrams, the General Manager of MSNBC. You may remember him from his days of banging the war drum and shilling in front of the cameras to sell the war in Iraq.

Shuster nailed Blackburn dead to rights. But Abrams sided with the congresscritter. He not only failed to stand behind his reporter, he forced Shuster to offer an on-air apology, claiming the soldier in question was not a constituent of Blackburn. Abrams wrote Shusters apology himself.

And that folks, is about as definitive of the Mighty Wurlitzer™ as it gets. A reporter was forced to tender an apology to a feckless *congressman* with screwed up priorities because he did his job and pointed out that the *congressman* is feckless and has screwed up priorities.

Fortunately, we named an award for just such an occasion…And this week, we bestow it on Dan Abrams. Dan, you really, really deserve this...