Comedians, artists and certainly political cartoonists tend to possess an anti-authoritarian, skeptical, irreverent streak. This makes the staunchly conservative cartoonist an especially odd bird. Flipping the traditional journalist ethos of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, rightwing cartoonists tend to ridicule the disenfranchised and excuse the abuses inflicted by the powerful. In some cases, their pieces literally spout the latest GOP talking points, revealing the cartoonists to be not independent voices, but merely cogs in a vast propaganda machine - not critics, only shills.

This week, Iraq made a resurgence after being conspiciously avoided as a subject in previous weeks. The most popular subject, however, was the upcoming midterms elections. Demonize your opponent early, and often!

Limbaugh Attacks Michael J. Fox

You never thought you’d see conservatives attack Fox, did you? (Oh, wait! Not that Fox!)

Limbaugh’s vile, unconscionable attacks on Michael J. Fox this week were not much covered by rightwing cartoonists, although several non-conservatives did tackle the subject. Perhaps the conservatives will catch up next week - we’ll see. The incident is a splendid litmus test for how much of a wingnut a pundit or cartoonist is, because condemning Limbaugh just should not be hard. Jerry Holbert delivers a good cartoon here (one non-conservative cartoonist also invoked Christopher Reeve). Bravo, Jerry.

This is really is an odd cartoon, although that’s not unusual for Mike Lester. Lester is hardcore in his opposition to abortion rights, as should be obvious from his “most offensive” winner three weeks ago, and he may view embryonic stem cell creation as equivalent to abortion, as do some rightwingers. Lester doesn’t make much sense here, because Amendment 2 on the Missouri ballot bans human cloning, although banning human cloning is unnecessary anyway because no one is seeking to do it (certainly not in Missouri, anyway). Limbaugh’s spouted his usual lies and nonsense about the matter (his piece here does not even discuss the incorrect claim of his title!). Meanwhile, many ministers support the measure, which sort of undercuts the so-called religious right. Adding to the factors Lester conveniently ignores, Fox has often spoken about how stem cell research is unlikely to help him personally, but may help others in the future. But such altruism and compassion is apparently foreign to Lester, judging from his most egregious fault in this cartoon - a rather callous attitude towards Fox. More straw man attacks and hostility from Lester.

Obama Might Run for President in 2008

Chip Bok plays the Harriet Miers angle. But this is a pretty good cartoon. You’ll hear pundits of all persuasions make this point.

Eric Allie accuses the media of being worshipful of Barack Obama and Obama of having no principles. (Talk about some projection on that second one!)

Allie also invokes Bill Clinton’s infidelity to take a shot at Hillary.

Glenn McCoy also invokes Hillary. Now, while Hillary is not universally beloved in the Democratic party, this cartoon really forwards a conservative viewpoint - Conservatives would prefer Obama because he’s not Hillary. Most Democrats have heard some inspiring speeches by Obama, and he is quite the rock star in some liberal circles, but other liberals wonder if he’s experienced enough. But what am I talking about? McCoy must be right. No Democrat can have merit!

North Korea

See? Mike Lester is being clever! Kim Jong Il should be let off the hook because he’s a victim - of sexual abuse! And he talks funny, because he’s, y’know, Asian!

Sigh. Meanwhile, Nowak comes late to the party and blames the party that hasn’t been in power for the past six years of being wimpy diplomats, I mean, appeasers. We dispensed with this BS line two weeks ago. Moving on.

Iraq

There are so many dubious metaphors to employ when it comes to the war George W. Bush claims we’re winning! Let’s see…

This is a fairly neutral cartoon, or would be, if you didn’t know Ramirez was a rabid rightwinger. Rather than slamming Bush, he’s almost certainly slamming the Democrats who have not been calling the shots. Plus, the pun has been extremely overused. Merits to Ramirez for sympathy for the troops, demerits for nonsensical stupidity.

Henry Payne actually suggests that troop levels might be insufficient!

This metaphor would work better if the cartoon depicted at least three birds viciously fighting each other while the cage was locked and on fire.

Ramirez delivers a similar cartoon. Suuuuure, we’ve given Iraq all it ever needed to fly free! And the Maliki head is really pretty creepy. Plus, is he supposed to be an eagle, or is that a buzzard’s cowl? And Bush has a falcolner’s glove? There’s unintentional symbolism here in that Bush is the falconer, meaning he is the lord and master of Maliki. But the center cannot hold. And for accuracy, Bush should be wearing one of those eyeless falcon’s hoods over his head.

Bob Gorrell actually suggests things aren’t going well in Iraq.

While Michael Ramirez invokes the same image to slam those dastardly Democrats! And, uh, Chris Shays! Well, basically anyone who questions, let alone disagrees with the President!

There are times one really must wonder what planet Chuck Asay is on. This metaphor would work if the ship was on fire and full of holes and Bush had an axe and a torch in his hands. Meanwhile, the Democrat should be tied to the mast, prevented from grabbing the wheel, while the Republican stands still and ignores the Dem’s pleas that he should grab the unattended wheel. Or the cartoon could work if it depicted a massive storm, Bush had aimed the ship at every shoal in the area, and the ship was sinking. Or both. But Asay would have to, uh, read a newspaper or something for that sort of blinding insight.

Chip Bok can be a tool, but he gets serious style points here. He highlights that the Bush adminstration has merely changed its rhetoric, and arbitrarily so, and does so by invoking Monty Python. Bravo!

That Damned Liberal Media

Paul Nowak looooves to slam the media. We’ve already covered the truth of economic issues the past two weeks. And of course the media has not been saying the economy sucks or been unduly pessimistic. But why let the truth get in the way of a standard GOP talking point?

Here Nowak takes it one step further and accuses the media of being traitors! What an ass!

Ah, and here’s folksy Asay! Remember kids, “reality has a well-know liberal bias!” Is Chuck Asay aware that he’s decrying the truth, or at least legitimate matters of dicussion here? Iraq is going poorly, but the media has not said it’s a lost cause. Some public figures are saying that, which is hardly surprising at this point. Hell, even Jonah Goldberg admitted Iraq was a mistake this week! The Republicans will almost certainly lose the House, and possibly the Senate as well. Limbaugh did attack Michael J. Fox, and that was a big news story, and it was rightwing ass Limbaugh who made it the news. So what the hell is Asay complaining about? The media accurately covering the biggest news stories of the week? Meanwhile, as to gas prices, as we covered in previous weeks, Woodward’s State of Denial reports that Bush thanked Prince Bandar for dropping gas prices before the 2004 election. Additionally, the media has not been charging that gas prices have been manipulated, but several major outlets have considered the matter, as well they should. Asay has never met a straw man he didn’t like.

The Midterm Elections

Gorrell’s used this gag before, but can at least acknowledge Bush’s lousy poll numbers.

Chip Bok also riffs on this theme.

And Scott Stantis has a pretty funny visual gag.

Here Stantis goes for a false equivalency, but that’s not bad from a conservative cartoonist.

Stantis delivers a pretty good general attack here.

As does Gary Varvel here.

Meanwhile, this cartoon by Varvel is fairly neutral. It would be better if the Iraq pumpkin was much larger, dwarfing the other pumpkins.

Varvel’s cartoon here is fairly innocuous.

While Mike Shelton takes the same general idea and makes it much more sinister!

McCoy comes a week late to the “Nancy Pelosi is scary!” cartoons. Get it? Even undead serial killers are scared of her! ‘Cause she’s liberal!!!! Ahhhhh!!!

Paul Nowak throws out a few straw men here. Several Democrats, notably John Murtha, John Kerry, Russ Feingold, and Joe Biden all have plans for Iraq - you know, unlike George W. Bush. What is that plan, again, Paul? Was it, as Dan Froomkin chronicled today:

White House Briefing reader Dave King, from Merchantville, N.J., writes to point out a big contradiction in Bush’s Iraq rhetoric, just from Wednesday alone.

I noted in my column yesterday what Bush said in his press conference about winning: “Absolutely, we’re winning. . . . As a matter of fact, my view is the only way we lose in Iraq is if we leave before the job is done.”

But as King pointed out, “Then later, from the Oval Office interview , you quote Bush as saying: ‘If we can’t win, I’ll pull us out.’

“That struck me as an unbelievable contradiction of all logic — ‘the only way we can’t win is if we leave, but if we can’t win, we’ll leave’ — so is he saying that if we don’t stay in Iraq, we’ll leave? I’m confused — what’s winning?”

Kathleen Parker , one of the conservative writers who was invited to participate in the interview, writes today: “Bush tried to clarify what ‘winning’ is. . . .

“This is a little tricky, so pay attention.

“First, ‘winning’ is closely tied to ’staying the course,’ another term seeking definition the past few days. As of this writing, ’staying the course’ means ‘winning,’ which means ‘not losing,’ but you knew that.

“And what does ‘not losing’ mean? According to Bush, it means not leaving. Which no one wants to hear, but there it is. . . .

“At this point, the only real question, said Bush, is whether we can help the Iraqi government succeed. ‘Not only can we help them, we must help them,’ he said.

“Which means not leaving. Which means not losing. Which means winning, maybe, as currently defined.”

Got that?

This cartoon by Chip Bok is pretty infantile. I suppose given the fine GOP leadership in Congress, it’s good there are no upstanding Republicans pictured to oversee the children, such as, say, Dennis Hastert or Mark Foley.

Gorrell is just being an ass here. Not every Democrat wants immediate withdrawal from Iraq, but that’s better than Bush’s “stay the course -wait! no! we’re not staying the course!” praying-it-gets better approach. The most cowardly, lying BS from Gorrell here is on “terrorist surveillance.” Dems just want to follow the law and get warrants, but Republicans apparently cannot catch bad guys without breaking the law themselves. Dems want to extend tax cuts for the middle class and poor and will only raise taxes on the obscenely wealthy. The immigration bill stalled because the Republicans in the House and Senate could not agree, and the paltry fence Republicans are crowing about is a classic case of pols claiming victory for an expensive, ineffective, mostly symbolic measure. Who cares about preventing gay marriage? And we could use some sensible Democratic judges to counteract the Republican activist judges - such as Sam Alito, whose argued that legally, married women should have their rights stripped to the level of a minor, and Thomas and Scalia, the two most activist judges on the Supreme Court, since they have overturned precedent more than any of their colleagues.

I’m waiting to see any conservative, in any forum, acknowledge that Democratics have consistently argued for surveillance of terrorists but with warrants. Anyone who suggests otherwise is a disingenuous hack.

Ramirez takes it a step further than Gorell in the same vein (Varvel did a funnier version of this three weeks ago). Immediate withdrawal would not necessarily embolden the terrorists; it would remove a recruiting tool. Most experts estimate only 5% of the insurgency is Al Qaeda or similar foreign forces. As for the NSA program and Patriot Act, see above. Economists not employed by the administration do not believe Bush’s repeated tax cuts for the obscenely weathly have helped unemployment or the economy. And so on. At least Ramirez delivers a fairly clever final exchange, but damn, the man is close-minded at best, a dishonest hack at worst.

Glenn McCoy, however, easily wins my vote the most offensive cartoon of the week. “Vote Republican or Die!” “The Democrats are Terrorists - or at least, Share their Interests!” Not only is this cartoon outrageous, the opposite is the case. Bin Laden loves having Bush as the great Satan as a recruitment tool, and the bigger Bush is, the great bin Laden’s stature. When bin Laden released his video tape right before the 2004 presidential election, the CIA correctly identified that bin Laden was trying to influence the election in Bush’s favor, not Kerry’s. According to the NIE, Bush invading Iraq has made us less safe, and Bush has done virtually everything bin Laden wanted him to do. If there ever was any doubt that McCoy was a complete and utter hack, and a vicious, foul man to boot, it is gone forevermore.

Other

Asay wins the Old Fogey award for the second week in a row (Asay’s 64, hattip to reader Charles Brubaker). All you bastards out there - I’m talking literally - you’re bastards, and don’t you forget it. What’s with the young people of today - and the young people of the past 50 years - and, err, 3000 years - hell, young people since prehistoric times - having children out of wedlock? If only they had listened to Chuck Asay and his predecessors!

Here Asay pulls his folksy crap to suggest that small businesses created by kindly old grandparents are destroyed by those evil Democrats who want a minimum wage increase for the first time in ten years. Never mind, apparently, that anyone on the minimum wage is living faaar below the poverty line. I have never seen any opponent to the minimum wage provide a single credible study that suggests that small businesses are actually hurt by the minimum wage, a ridiculous assertion conservatives consistently forward. Perhaps Asay can sit down with 650 economists, including five Nobel prize winners, who are urging for an increase in the minimum wage, and enlighten them. Why make a common sense decision that would help millions of people when Asay’s folksy wisdom says otherwise?

So that’s why the U.S. Constitution went after Bush and the GOP assaulted it! Iraq! Needless to say, Cox & Forkum did not criticize the legalization of torture and the elimination of habeas corpus. They apparently only care about the U.S. Constitution as a prop to insult Muslims. Oh wait - that’s not Iraq and they’re not even insulting Iraqi Muslims - they’re attacking American Muslims! What incident brought this cartoon on? Look at the license plate. There’s some real hostility here, and the main insinuation seems to be that American Muslims are not real Americans (I guess they’d say they only mean Islamists, not all Muslims, but again, what incident or actual group are they reacting to?) A happy Ramadan to you, too, gents!

I missed this law. But again, it really is sweet the way Cox & Forkum care about the right to gamble (perhaps Bill Bennett inspired them), but refuse to stand up for those antiquated rights such as the need for warrants, a speedy trial, and the right to not be imprisoned indefinitely without charges.

Glenn McCoy attacked Barbra Streisand a couple weeks back. You’d be surprised by how many rightwing cartoonists took aim directly or indirectly at Madonna this past week (as Chip Bok does above). I’m not inclined to defend her, but it is amusing how rightwing cartoonists pick their targets…

This is an odd cartoon from Ken Catalino, since the Foley scandal seems to have stirred up discussion of priest molestation cases rather than squelched them. But I can’t fault a cartoon that slams molestation by priests, and the Catholic Church’s reluctance to investigate it.

Paul Nowak delivers an odd cartoon since I’m pretty sure that even the worst rated network primetime news show far outstrips the audience for cable news. Perhaps Nowak is suggesting Couric should be more rightwing, and this would increase her appeal?

Henry Payne pens a pretty clear, strong cartoon. Last week he provided the wittiest entry on immigration issues, so it seems he’s pretty consistent on this subject.

Decent Cartoons

I can rarely present an Asay cartoon that isn’t obtuse and objectionable, so here’s one.

And here’s a Ken Catalino cartoon, apparently for the end of the Ford Taurus.

As usual, feel free to vote on the most offensive cartoon(s) of the week in the comments.

And here’s the usual palate cleanser of Bob Geiger’s weekly round-up of editorial cartoons. (How surprising that Rush Limbaugh is the target of more of them!)