It's not Paul Krugman, although I know he has many fans on the right who were hoping he would win the prize because he fits the "brainless" description so aptly.

Nor is it any lefty blogger who, over the last 24 hrs, has stretched, and stretched, and stretched the point some more about Sarah Palin's "target" list actually meaning that she hoped someone or someones would grab a gun and off the congressmen she wanted defeated.

Sorry - you're all wrong. The winner is the NY Daily News' Michael Daly.

The headline on his column: "Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' blood is on Sarah Palin's hands after putting cross hair over district;"

Here's the passage that nailed down his victory:

Palin would no doubt say that she was only speaking in metaphor, that she only meant her followers should work to unseat Giffords and 19 other Democrats who had roused her ire by voting for health care.

But anyone with any sense at all knows that violent language can incite actual violence, that metaphor can incite murder. At the very least, Palin added to a climate of violence.

Palin should have taken it as a warning of what might happen when a Tea Party hothead dropped a gun while heckling Giffords at an earlier Congress On Your Corner event, more than a year ago.

That did not stop Palin from declaring Giffords a "target." Giffords' district office was subsequently vandalized, and the congresswoman noted that Palin had put "the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district."

"Metaphor incite murder?" Where? When? Who? WTF? Just one example would be helpful, but apparently Mr. Daly is far too busy drooling his hysterical rant to pay attention to such mundane details as proving such an outrageously stupid charge.

Congratulations are in order to Mr. Daly for topping the rest in vitriolic hate of Sarah Palin. The competition was stiff, but Daly prevailed due to his mindlessly idiotic "analysis" of the tragedy.

I leave it to AT readers to come up with an appropriate prize.