The awards ceremony, which included plenty of food and booze, was held Wednesday evening in the "Gold" room in the Rayburn House Office Building and was sponsored by lobbying and public relations firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates. The firm's co-founder Ed Gillespie (who left the firm last year to become special advisor to President Bush) came up with the "flak" jacket awards back in 1998 to honor the Republican press secretary who had taken the most "flak" from reporters with grace.

This year's winners (among the hundreds nominated) were:

Political Campaign

Republican: Ken Spain, NRCC
Democrat: Jennifer Crider, DCCC

Captiol Hill Press Secretary

Republican: Don Stewart, Sen. Mitch McConnell
Democrat: Brendan Daly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Industry

Business man: T. Boone Pickens (for getting his message out in a year crowded with political news)

The judges, besides myself, were Jeff Birnbaum, The Washington Times; Eleanor Clift, Newsweek; Bob Cusack, The Hill; Eve Fairbanks, The New Republic; Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post; Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review Online; Bob Merry, Congressional Quarterly; Charlie Mitchell, Roll Call; Brody Mullins, Wall Street Journal; and Jim VandeHei, Politico.

                                                                                                                    -- Bara Vaida