Here ye, here ye.

The First Annual Stupidest Senator Showdown has crowned it's first winner: Vicki Marbles (R), who hails from the great square state, Colorado! She crushed the competition last week when she blamed poverty among African Americans and Hispanics on…(drum roll please)…Fried chicken and barbeque! Listen to what Miss Marbles had to say…or just scroll down if you're deaf. Soundbyte provided by the Denver Post.

During a meeting for the Colorado Legislature's Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force, Fort Collins senator Vicki Marbles (R) word-vomited the following this precious gem and caused quite the stir.

When you look at life expectancy, there are problems in the black race…Sickle-cell anemia is something that comes up. Diabetes is something that's prevalent in the genetic makeup, and you just can't help it. Although I've got to say, I've never had better barbecue and better chicken and ate better in my life than when you go down South and you, I mean, I love it. Everybody loves it.

Marble continued,

The Mexican diet in Mexico with all of the fresh vegetables, and you go down there and they are much thinner than they are up here. They’ve changed their diet. I’ve read studies on that.

Oh! Have you? Have you also read studies about how Mexico is now the #1 most obese country on earth? Vicki, where are you getting your info, girlfriend? Will someone please smack her?

State Rep. Rhonda Fields (D) will. She verbally bitchslapped Vicki back with this:

This is not what this committee is all about. So I will ask that you suspend your perceptions and judgments about African Americans, about poverty — what we’re trying to do is come up with solutions and it’s not about chicken…It’s not about eating chicken.

Touche, Rhonda. She's right. Although poverty and diet can be related, making blanket statements about stereotypes hardly acknowledges that relationship, or offers up solutions to the problems at hand. And, if you listen to the soundbyte, senator Marbles hardly offers anything useful or informative, just recites anecdotes about stereotypes without backing them up. It's really not about "eating chicken," like Vicki suggests, but we were still so awestruck by her lack of intellect and backwards belief in stereotypes, that we just had to crown her as Stupidest Senator. Here's the story in video format for all you visual learners.