Voting is Now Open for the 2019 Ass Clown of the Year!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, today is the official start of the selection campaign for

The 2019 Ass Clown of the Year

By Friday, December 20th (announcement of the Left-Cheek Ass Clown for December, and the last biweekly award for the year), I will have named 27 individual awardees in 2019, all of whom are eligible for the annual award. Of course, if there's someone I missed or someone you like better, you are free to vote for the write-in candidate of your choice. Here are the basic ground rules for the Ass Clown of the Year voting, unchanged from previous years except as noted:

- Chicago Rules apply: you may vote as many times as you want, for as many candidates as you want. You may cast votes on behalf of yourself, your family members, your friends, your pets, your friends' pets, or anyone else, living or dead. In the interest of fairness, I ask only that you not cast more than ten votes at any one time for any one candidate* ... just vote more often.

- You may vote for any of the 27 biweekly award winners (the first 26 are listed below, and the last will be announced in the blog on December 20th), or for anyone else you wish. SPECIAL NOTE: Der Furor, having been presented a lifetime achievement award in 2017, is no longer eligible for selection, regardless of how much he may deserve it. There are plenty of other ass clowns who deserve recognition, too.

- You need not be legally authorized to vote in the United States. The law doesn't matter to the Administration, why should it matter to you?

- Photo ID is not required. If you are concerned that the Russians (or the Chinese, or the mythical Ukrainians, or one or the other political party) will manipulate the results to undermine the integrity of the award without such identification, consider that conspiracy theorists who are already convinced that elections are rigged will assume that any IDs presented will be phony, anyhow. And in any case, integrity is a quaintly outdated concept in today's political world in which "facts" require no proof or connection to reality. I worry more about my fellow citizens than I do about the Russians.

- Votes will be accepted from now until 11:59 PM on December 31st. You may vote by leaving a comment on any blog post between now and then; by sending me an e-mail; by sending me a PM or leaving a comment on Facebook if we are connected there; or in person if we should happen to meet. If you choose to cast your votes in person, be advised that your candidate's chances of winning are enhanced if the votes are accompanied by adult beverages and tasty snacks. Yes, it's bribery, but in today's political environment that's okay unless the other side is doing it.

I will provide periodic updates on the balloting as necessary, and will announce the 2019 Ass Clown of the Year in this space on Wednesday, January 1st, 2020.

Here are links to the first 24 Ass Clown awardees for 2018, in case you want to go back and review the citations:

1/4/19 (Right Cheek) - Vice President Mike Pence (second award)
1/18/19 (Left Cheek) - Senator Lindsey Graham (R, SC) (third award)
2/1/19 (Right Cheek) - Roger Stone
2/15/19 (Left Cheek) - Representative Ilhan Omar (D, MN-5)
3/1/19 (Right Cheek) - The GOP Members of the House Oversight Committee (group award)
3/15/19 (Left Cheek) - Tucker Carlson
3/29/19 (On Crack) - Rudy Giuliani (second award)
4/11/19 (Right Cheek) - Attorney General William Barr
4/25/19 (Left Cheek) - White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders (fifth award)
5/10/19 (Right Cheek) - The Entire United States Government (group award)
5/24/19 (Left Cheek) - Kris Kobach
6/7/19 (Right Cheek) - Bishop Michael J. Bransfield
6/21/19 (Left Cheek) - Senator Mitch McConnell (R, KY) (seventh award)
7/5/19 (Right Cheek) - Kellyanne Conway (second award)
7/19/19 (Left Cheek) - The Enablers of Der Furor (group award)
8/2/19 (Right Cheek) - Senator Mitch McConnell (R, KY) (eighth award)
8/16/19 (Left Cheek) - Dmitriy Andreychenko
8/31/19 (On Crack) - James Denardo
9/13/19 (Right Cheek) - Texas State Representative Matt Schaefer (R, TX-6)
9/27/19 (Left Cheek) - Chris Cuomo and Kayleigh McEnany (joint award)
10/11/19 (Right Cheek) - Senator Ron Johnson (R, MN)
10/25/19 (Left Cheek) - Republican Representatives Who Stormed and Disrupted a Congressional Hearing (group award)
11/8/19 (Right Cheek) - The Scofflaws of the Trump Administration (group award)
11/22/19 (Left Cheek) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
12/6/19 (Right Cheek) - Representative Jim Jordan (R, OH-4)

Let your voice be heard! Vote early! Vote often! Let's work together to heap dishonor on the Ass Clowns who work so hard to Make America Grim Again.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* A few years ago someone wanted to cast 50,000 votes for their favorite Ass Clown. Come on, now ... let's give everybody a fighting chance, eh?