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 members of the vast GOP echo chamber - not wits or critics as much they are hacks and shills.

This installment covers cartoons published between 11/28/06 and 12/3/06. Who would our conservative cartoonists rail on this week?

The Baker Commission

Michael Ramirez at least delivers a decent joke. Like most of the far right, Ramirez thinks that merely speaking with a foreign power amounts to capitulation and unmanliness. I guess he thinks we employed the silent treatment with the Soviets all through the Cold War!

Mike Shelton goes with a similar message. However, doesn’t this mean that Baker is good but dumb, and Bush is prone to temptation?

Eric Allie goes with a concept that’s just as inapt as it was when Chuck Asay used it, for Iraq, two weeks ago. Iraq has always been a war of choice. As I wrote for Asay, for this cartoon to be accurate:

It should depict Bush holding Uncle Sam’s hand over an open flame, with a finger or two already scorched or missing, with Bush deaf to Uncle Sam’s cries, in the cross of Stanley Milgram’s experiments on authority and G. Gordon Liddy that sum up the Bush administration.

Most honest discussion of Iraq has concluded that at this point none of America’s options are great.

Chuck Asay weighs in.

Iraq (Other)

Ramirez targets Iran. He’s no fan of realpolitick. Based on his body of work, I wonder how many countries and people Ramirez would bomb if he could.

Gary Varvel runs with a similar theme.

Lisa Benson is also no fan of diplomacy, apparently.

Bob Gorrell pokes fun at the Bushies’ rhetoric.

Remember when Bush condemned nation-building? Gorrell does. Oh wait, but remember, we’ve been “liberators,” not “occupiers,” for almost four years now.

Mike Shelton was the only conservative cartoonist to address the Maliki snub.

Henry Payne has pretty consistently acknowledged problems in Iraq, even if he’s shy about assigning blame. Boy, the Bush administration’s decisions to de-Baathify, and to disband the army, sending roughly 350,000 armed, angry and unemployed men back into the population has really worked out, huh?

Chuck Asay has no problem assigning blame. However, as usual, he blames the Democrats! Chuck, they’re not even in power yet! It’s also ridiculous to blame the Dems for partisanship, considering the relentless politics of division Bush, Rove, Cheney and the rest have practiced. In case you doubt the GOP is petty, and more concerned about partisan gain versus the good of the country, just read this.

The chance of Jefferson democracy flourishing in Iraq in the latest “next six months” is about as good as the chance of Varvel’s snowman surviving.

Meanwhile, Paul Nowak shows yet again he just doesn’t get it, any more than Bush did when he visited Vietnam and bemoaned the fact that we left.

Iran

Remember, kids, talking to a foreign power means you like them and agree with everything they say. The silent treatment is the most advanced and successful form of diplomacy imaginable!

Ramirez delivers his second Don”t-Trust-Iran cartoon of the week. I missed the part where any foreign policy experts trusted Iran. (Of course, maybe the silent treatment with Iran is preferable to what Republicans did in Iran-Contra.)

The Pope Visits Turkey

Chip Bok seems to commenting on church service attendance in Europe. Apparently this is ipso facto a bad thing.

Meanwhile, it seems Ramirez doesn’t trust them thar Muslims. I wonder if he’s as rabid as Dennis Prager.

The Litvinenko Poisoning

The horrific poisoning of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko was a hot subject for many cartoonists. Ann Applebaum wrote one of the better pieces on all the theories about it. For some conservative cartoonists, it may be reflexive emnity towards the Ruskies, but they’ve decided they don’t trust Putin on this one. On that point, I have to agree.

Really, given his exemplary track record, how can anyone doubt Bush’s judgment?

Henry Payne delivers a simple, striking cartoon.

Snow White made an odd appearance just last week. This time, the theme works much better, in Payne’s second cartoon on Litvinenko.

Michael Richards

Michael Richards’ racist rant was a hot topic for many cartoonists, and several conservatives touched on it.

Henry Payne offers what’s probably the funniest on the subject from his side of the aisle.

Suuuuure, guys, the real problems of racism in America stem from those damn liberals in Hollywood!

Mike Lester, who’s based in Georgia, references Michael Vick flipping off Atlanta Falcons fans. Vick has since apologized.

This cartoon from Lester is more interesting. Months ago, Lester drew a cartoon excusing Mel Gibson’s antisemitic tirade as a drunk guy saying stupid things. I missed Michael Irvin’s statement, but I tend to agree with ESPN ombudsman George Solomon on the matter. Irvin has apologized, but ESPN needs to do more. Meanwhile, I saw Michael Richards’ incoherent apology before I saw the actual incident. Richards seemed genuinely upset and contrite. His actual rant, however, went beyond racial stereotypes. What was disturbing was the degree of venom and hatred he seemed to have. (And surely an experienced comedian can handle a heckler better.) What’s wrong with condemning them both, even if there are differences? Finally, Richards is not hurting for cash and is not “out of a job” per se, although this has probably hurt his career. Reportedly, he’s arranged to apologize face to face with the men in the club.

Glenn McCoy wasn’t the only cartoonist to go with a KKK theme.

But he’s a real ass here, since he knows Kerry misspoke. He delivered a real hack’s hatchet job on the Kerry incident back on 11/6/06.

Global Warming

Who knew Al Gore was “wrong” before, and that he was upset more people didn’t die in this year’s hurricane season? Regardless of what Glenn McCoy thinks, global warming is real. A mild hurricane season is a great thing. McCoy projects his own conservative bitterness to create a straw man for his schadenfreude here.

Whatever, Paul Nowak. It really does astound me at times that climate change is such a partisan issue, especially when enacting enviromental reforms is surprisingly cost-effective and has made the cities that have adopted them more economically competitive. I have a friend that expressed the conservative mindset as, “I’ll be dead in 30 years, and I’d rather leave my kids money than the environment.” The dominant ethos for most Republicans really seems to be, “I’ve got mine, so screw you.”

Michael Ramirez goes with a similar theme.

At least Henry Payne’s cartoon is funny!

That Damned Liberal Media

Mike Lester’s cartoon at least is somewhat funny.

Yes, you read that right, folks. Chuck Asay apparently believes in sympathetic magic. If only the newspapers printed happy stories, everything in Iraq would be great! Never mind that most troops in Iraq would say the coverage is, if anything, too tame. Never mind that the Pentagon reported 93 violent episodes last July, when a careful study shows there were in fact 1,100. Ignorance is strength.

Those Damned Democrats

The Democrats are wimps! (Bomb everyone!)

The Democrats are negative, with nooooo solutions whatsoever! (What’s Bush’s exit strategy again?)

The Democrats are wasteful spenders who were only kept in check by the Republicans! (Hahahahahahahaha - Hello, what about the Bridge to Nowhere and the mammoth expansion of the deficit and debt on the GOP watch?)

The Democrats are out of touch with American voters! (Which is apparently why voters kept all the Democrats in Congress and voted out Republicans!)

The Democrats are spineless, unprincipled, and lazy! (I guess Ken Catalino missed Jack Kingston (R-GA), the same guy who keeps voting down a minimum wage increase, bemoaning that Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer are going to make him work for his hefty salary as opposed to the mere 2 days per week required by the GOP’s 109th Congress. I believe that’s the laziest Congress in modern history!)

The Democrats have no plan for anything! (In order to say this, Nowak is either a complete idiot or a complete hack. I vote for both. However, if you look carefully, you’ll see his cartoon is a good graphical depiction of where his head is in relation to his ass.)

The Democrats are hopeless! (Just keep telling yourself this, Paul, to rock yourself to sleep…)

The Democrats are corrupt! And petty! And vengeful! (Ramirez didn’t bother to wait to see that Pelosi didn’t go with Hastings or Harman. But why wait for the facts and waste a good hachet job?)

Other

It’s a trick! It’s a trick! Bomb them! Oh, wait, that’s been tried… I really do not understand anyone who thinks a cease-fire is a bad thing.

Was there a real incident with the star? Private property is fine, it’s public displays that are at issue. It’s not as if many communities don’t feature a great deal of Christmas stuff. It’s hard to avoid.

Nowak handles rhymes no better than he handles thought. My favorite line is “He wants money / Which is OK”… Yes, capitalism is great, and the true point of Christmas, right? Paul apparently doesn’t care that North Korea is years away from a nuke. Bomb them now! Don’t delay! There’s still time before Christmas!

Mike Shelton targets Schwarzenegger.

Wayne Stayskal notes the increasing disparity of wealth, sorta. This isn’t a bad cartoon.

Scott Stantis aptly captures the Frist appeal. Frist-mentum!

Bob Gorrell offers a pretty good cartoon on the current travel woes.

Jerry Holbert’s cartoon is pretty good! (It almost makes ya sympathetic to Bush, for a second.)

Local/Non-Political

Jerry Holbert’s entry. (Sure, but Mickey’s also a coke fiend.)

And here’s Henry Payne’s non-political cartoon for the week.

As usual, feel free to vote for the most offensive cartoon(s) of the week in the comments, and check out Bob Geiger’s weekly round-up of editorial cartoons for a palate cleanser. See you next week!