It's only 365 days, but recalling the year can be a tedious process. A lot can happen in the news cycle; too much for us to remember. But, we'll give it a try and bestow some awards:

Man of the Year: Unlike Time magazine's award, intended as accolades, we view something like "Man of the Year" as an infamous title. And any time a politician appears dressed regularly in orange, he deserves recognition. So with all the chutzpa that this column can proffer, Milwaukee Ald. Michael McGee is our man of the year. After all, one local rag had him tagged as "best" city official a mere year ago, but we all know that was an insider's tag. Now, McGee is spending his time courtesy of the DOC at the DCI. (That would be the Department of Corrections and the Dodge County Correctional Institute for those of you playing at home.)

Being accused of liquor license shakedowns and threats on people's lives aren't usually the normal course of business for pols, but McGee apparently made regular exceptions. His dad, the former alderman-turned-radio-host-turned-unemployed dogmatic, was known for the liquor license shakedowns, but was never formally charged for the practice. Senior was just voted out of office. The younger McGee, however, continues to claim that he's being treated unfairly compared with the other corrupt aldermen this city has turned out in recent years because he's being held without bail. Perhaps he's been playing too many games of dominos behind bars, but McGee has conveniently forgotten that the other infamous local pols he wants to associate himself with were not accused of intimidating witnesses or threatening to kill people.

His potential to make headlines will not diminish in 2008, since he's campaigning for re-election while awaiting trial in spring.

Woman of the Year: In a history-making move, voters put Annette Ziegler (now officially known as Annette Kingsland Ziegler) on the state Supreme Court bench. This despite the fact that she was one of the most ethically challenged pols in Madison. And that's hard to do.

Ziegler seemed to forget that her husband and she had serious financial interests in a West Bend bank while she heard cases that ultimately came out in favor of the bank. But even though those lapses came to light during the campaign, Ziegler was lucky that her opponent had major lapses as well -- like running a decent campaign.

Ziegler has thus become a Supreme Court justice who can't hear many cases since her campaign was fueled with millions of dollars from the state's big business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturer and Commerce, which seems to have a hand in many a lawsuit heard by the high court. And she also has a place in history in that her ethical issues are now being considered by the very state Supreme Court on which she sits she could be booted off the bench. If not, she's all ours until 2017.

Good Guy Award: Who can say anything bad about Russ Feingold? Our junior senator tossed his name around as presidential campaign fodder early in the year and, given the performance of what the Democrats are putting forward for the White House in 2008, he would have actually had an excellent chance at victory. He's adamantly against the war, against invasion of our privacy and for sane budgeting -- nothing controversial there, eh? But we can all watch the chestnuts roast while reading his "unauthorized" biography, "Feingold: A New Democratic Party," which came out this summer. And ladies, keep in mind that he's single now.

Most Innocuous Man of the Year: Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett takes this honor, which could also be termed the "Invisible Man Award." While that may be too harsh a term for Barrett, who isn't entirely invisible, his administration is still viewed, after four years, as somewhat an enigma: A well-meaning, thoughtful city CEO who tries to hold the line on taxes, but lacking on inspiration for the masses.

One forgotten promise is when he said he would be at the scene after every murder in Milwaukee. With more than 100 murders a year, it's simply too much to assume any mayor would choose that as a wise course. Nonetheless, it's not enough to be a campaign issue for his only declared opponent, attorney Andrew Shaw, who's known more for weirdness in the courtroom than acumen on the political scene.

Best Red Rover Play of the Year: Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch tried to play playground politics with the state budget, ending up with little to show for the effort other than tax hikes that he promised would never happen. Huebsch, a Republican from West Salem, drew a line in the sand stating that he would rather not pass a budget at all if Gov. Jim Doyle's plan remained on the table.

After 100-day impasse, what we got was a failed attempt at universal health insurance coverage, a huge cigarette tax increase and future property tax increases due to no help in shared revenue from the state. In essence, the budget shoved any financial issues onto local governments.

Nuke us Now: Energy, global warming and greenhouse gas are the big issues of the day. At the state level, Assembly Republicans want to unleash more nuclear power on the citizenry by lifting a state moratorium on building nuclear power plants. At a recent public hearing, state Rep. Phil Montgomery (R-Green Bay), who proposed lifting the ban, appropriately stacked the speakers' deck with proponents of the nuke.

But when two opponents got to the speakers' table, he decided that they weren't giving the committee its due respect and cut them off. Montgomery adjourned the hearing until the two left the building. But not before they unfurled a banner that read, "Fight Cancer, No New Reactors."

Water Wars: It's a topic that doesn't get all wet--- western suburbs continue to thirst for Lake Michigan water. Enough said.