Tongue Award Anticipates Blago's Wagging

Columnist beefs about online contest voting

The Chicago Tribune's John Kass presided over an unusual ceremony on Friday; "The Presentation of the Meat."

Kass, the snarky, straight-shooting columnist for the Chicago Tribune, has been running a contest to pick a title for the tell-all book that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich promised this week.

The prize? A "tasty 3-pound beef tongue (defrosted), awarded in symbolic anticipation" that the fallen governor will sing to the feds,  Kass says.

And the beef tongue goes to (drum-roll, please) ... a 30-year-old Cubs fan and graduate of Notre Dame University, Kevin Floyd.

Floyd's entry for the title, "Rod and the Giant Impeach," beat out more than 10,000 submissions in an online vote, and skyrocketed him to about 15 minutes of fame, to be highlighted at the presentation ceremony at 3 p.m. outside the Tribune Tower.

Kass says there's some suspicion brewing around how Floyd, of Lakeview, surged ahead of two other frontrunners -- "From Hair to Profanity" and "They Paid Me a [Bleeping] Bucket of Cash to Write This [Bleeping] Book" -- in the final hours of the contest.

Well, if there's anyone in Chicago who can address issues of vote fraud, it ought to be John Kass.  In his Friday column, Kass admits to urging readers to "vote early and often," and includes a list of other top contenders in the contest.

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