As you may well know, the BULLPEN IDOL finals suffered a vote-tampering scandal not seen since Erik Feinberg beat out Batgirl for student council in eighth grade. When Batgirl went to sleep the final night of voting, Joe Nathan was ahead by about 60 votes. When she woke up, Juan Rincon was ahead by nearly 60. Clearly, some shenanigans had occurred.

Batgirl did not know what to do. BULLPEN IDOL is a storied competition and it is essential for the integrity of Batgirl and the BULLPEN itself that everyone has faith in the results. So, Batgirl immersed herself in both election law and hanging chads—until she found this passage in The Official BULLPEN IDOL Handbook.

Should the administrator find clear evidence of shenanigans on the closing eve of voting, the administrator shall declare voting stopped at the point before the shenanigans occurred.

That seems pretty clear. And Batgirl has no doubt, given the margin with which Mr. Nathan was winning, and given that he has won just about every single round before this, that the majority of Batgirl's beloved readership intended to proclaim THE NATHANEST OF JOES the BULLPEN IDOL victor.

Congratulations to Joe Nathan, 2004's BULLPEN IDOL. Look for his self-titled album of singles, including, "I Believed in a Moment Like This," written by 2003 IDOL contestant Mike Fetters, in stores near you.