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.

Rightwing Cartoon Watch seeks to highlight far right cartoons, but also document the broader range of opinion from conservative cartoonists on the hot issues of a given week. While a primary goal is to challenge GOP talking points and fallacies, we also seek to celebrate the fine American tradition of editorial cartooning - and have a little fun in the process.

Which cartoonists dare to criticize their own party? Who seems to literally illustrate GOP talking points? Who are their favorite targets? Who mocks liberals - and who seems to truly hate them? Who’s funny? Who’s independently minded and who’s a hack? Read, and decide, for yourself!

This installment covers - gasp - a single week, from 3/26/07 to 3/31/07. (I know, I know, I’m shocked too.)

This week, Iran capturing British troops was easily the hottest issue - but poisoned pet food and dastardly Dems made appearances as well!

IRAQ

Chuck Asay trots out the same, lame Congress-is’surrendering crap. Let’s see, we invaded Iraq because of WMD, and there were none. Saddam Hussein is out of power. We are now occupying a country in the middle of a civil war - althought the reality is far more complex and far worse. In Vietnam, at least we were backing one side. Even the top generals have been stating for some time only a political solution can succeed, to the extent “success” is possible. But sure, after four years of crackerjack leadership from Bush, an escalation and some name-calling will do the trick - and has, judging from the latest round of bombings and horrific killings.

Michael Ramirez is at least a little more original the visual design of his attack.

Henry Payne is not a fan of timetables. Of course, foreign fighters represents a miniscule amount of those fighting in Iraq. The majority will be there after we leave, regardless of when we leave. The main reason Bush doesn’t like timetables and benchmarks is because they encourage accountability.

Payne offers a relatively neutral cartoon here - although I’d take issue with both “surge” and “retreat.” How about “escalation of the occupation” and “withdrawal.”

Jerry Holbert keeps his eye on the ball.

IRAN

That damned United Nations! They don’t even care!

Cox and Forkum continue their Bomb Iran! campaign. (They also give us more info about their erectile dysfunction than we really needed to know.)

This isn’t a bad general cartoon from Bob Gorrell, but of course, Iran does not currently have nukes and I wonder what specifically Gorrell means by “terror,” given the recent saber-rattling.

Umm… this Ken Catalino cartoon strikes me as a little odd. Officially, Gates has his hands sorta full with Iraq (although a third aircraft carrier heading toward the Gulf is not encouraging). But since when has the Bush administration’s approach been all sunshine with Iran? They’ve refused to negotiate! Has Catalino joined the Bomb Iran! campaign?

Iran’s mooning us! Aaaaah! Bomb them! Bomb them now!

How can any conservative cartoonist pass on a chance to bash Carter for a situation almost three decades old? One key difference - these were British troops who were seized.

Still, I do have to wonder what the hell Iran is thinking, and why they haven’t released these troops by now. (The Daily Show sums the “what-the-hell?” perspective pretty well.)

Glenn McCoy not only bashes Carter - he slams him as the 1st for “schmoozing dictators” and “Fidel snuggling.” At least he notes his Nobel (Peace) Prize.

From what I’ve read, the waters where this incident have been disputed for decades. But why the hell is this hostage/prisoner situation still going on?

Stantis insults Blair’s manhood. Yeah, the Falklands was a great move, there. Still, what’s the Middle East compared to some rocky islands inhabited by elephant seals? Iran couldn’t possibly be more volatile!

Bwah-ha-ha-ha! Bomb Iran!

Ah, yes, didn’t you know the press can only cover one story at a time? Rightwing hack Paul Nowak would love for the press to drop coverage on the Bush administration’s widespread, massive wrongdoing!

Michael Ramirez has a good visual design here - perhaps 300 inspired him to draw Ares/Mars. Funny, though, where’s Bush in this cartoon? Cheney certainly seems to want war with Iran. Whether Iran wants war is less certain, and it’s sent signals it doesn’t earlier - but this hostage situation is not de-escalating things any.

Holbert delivers an odd, lighter cartoon.

Henry Payne also goes with a lighter approach.

CONGRESS

Congressional pork is interfering with the war effort! I’m not going to defend pork, but it seems pretty clear that pork has been driving passage of the latest war appropriations bill…

…As Lisa Benson depicts here.

Gary Varvel ditches the pig, and goes with the cow! Umm, criticizing a specific rider is fine, but is Varvel really suggesting that the Dems’ plan on Iraq comes down to milk?!? This is just a gag, but if taken seriously, it’s a straw man.

Remember, anyone who doesn’t vote the way rightwinger Eric Allie wants them to is a coward!!! (His judgment, like that of Bush, is infallible because they both speak with God, I suppose.)

Umm… whatever. If anything, the charge against Congress would be that they’re spending too much. And they’ve certainly funded the troops, or tried to.

I assume Lisa Benson is criticizing Congress and not a specific state. Of course, this is righwing BS. As Hilzoy puts it:

So here’s what Novak’s “largest tax increase in U.S. history” actually comes to: the Republicans passed a series of tax cuts that they set up to expire. They intended to make them permanent, but never got around to it. The Democrats are proposing to leave their tax cuts alone. But this counts as a tax increase, apparently on the grounds that whatever Republicans sorta kinda thought they were going to do, but never actually got around to doing, counts as already done, and anyone who proposes to leave things alone counts as undoing the things they were intending to do.

That’s a fun way to think. Maybe we should also count the Democrats as having dramatically increased the budget deficit, on the grounds that the Republicans kinda sorta said they were going to make it go away, so even though they didn’t, we should act as though they did and compare whatever deficits the Democrats incur to the Republicans’ imaginary balanced budget. Maybe, if things in Iraq continue to go badly, we should compare that not to the situation when the Democrats took over, but to the situation that would have obtained if the Republicans had in fact produced a beacon of democracy that transformed the Middle East, and say: hey, you awful Democrats, we were being greeted with flowers and candy, and hailed as liberators, and now look what’s happened to Baghdad!!!!

Or maybe we should try living in the real world. The Democrats are proposing to leave tax laws written and enacted by Republicans alone. That does not count as increasing taxes.

Novak, of course, can’t open his mouth or write a column without partisan lying. But this “tax increase” BS is a popular GOP talking point.

PURGE-GATE

Goodling probably has no standing to plead the 5th. Josh Marshall explains some of the reasons why here, but sums it up best when he writes: “Certainly there’s no 5th amendment privilege against testifying before meanies.” (Oh, by the way, Leahy and Democrats had nothing to do with the Libby trial, and nobody forced Scooter Libby to lie to the FBI and the grand jury - among other things.)

Similarly, Schumer had nothing to do with Scooter Libby. Libby perjured himself. Rove should testify, publicly and under oath, because he was involved with this scandal, and possibly broke the law, but certainly acted unethically. Again, I don’t care if the liberals are out for blood as long as they’re doing their job.

To his credit, Henry Payne ain’t buying the Bush line of this ever-growing scandal.

Ken Catalino notes that Bush is pretty besieged - although it’s by his own doing.

THOSE DAMNED DEMOCRATS

Welcome to the dance of the straw men! Gore is not trying to use more energy! What a laughable attack. We debunked the attacks on Gore in more detail last week.

Another straw man! Code Pink’s goal is peace. How the hell is that a “conspiracy”? Oh, yeah. It’s not. It’s also not solely a “left-wing” goal, which Mike Shelton would know if he’d read a poll in the last year or so, or noted the November midterm elections!

Another straw man! Three for three! This is easily the most offensive cartoon of the week for me. Some things are out of bounds. Several liberal sites posted best wishes to Tony Snow because his liver cancer is very serious. He’s a hack and a scoundrel, but he’s still a human being. The Edwards have lost a child, and most couples’ marriage do not survive this. They’ve been through cancer before as well. They’ve explained all their reasoning, and have been very open to even the harshest questions. This cartoon accuses John Edwards of not caring about his wife, being a bad husband, a bad father, and a self-centered, ambitious hack. Mike Lester can be original, but as he often does, he crosses the line of basic human decency here. For shame.

THAT DAMNED LIBERAL MEDIA

The press hates Bush! Yup, they sure give those Dems a free pass - and they sure grilled Bush in the run-up to the war! Also, heavens know there’s no negative news to report about Bush! It’s aaaaaallll manufactured!

ISLAMOPHOBIA

Winning the Islamophobia award this week is perrenial contender, Paul Nowak! Basic respect and security aren’t mutually exclusive! (Perhaps we can take up a collection to buy Nowak some adult diapers.)

POISONED DOG FOOD

This story was quite popular this week.

Ken Catalino’s cartoon is fairly dark…

…but Chip Bok’s is even darker!

OTHER

Umm… I know Henry Payne doesn’t believe in global warming, but is he now approving of adultery and lying? This is one confused cartoon!

The thing that gets me about Nowak is how lame his attacks are. It’s really sad how so many conservative hacks need to attack celebrities, as if they’re official Democratic spokesmen or something. But this is another straw man. You might not like Sean Penn’s politics, but since when has he been inarticulate? Hey, Nowak, you are aware that Spicolli was a character in a movie 25 years ago? It’s called acting, you moron! (Next: Nowak calls Rosie O’Donnell fat!!!)

This cartoon is sorta funny, but mostly just very, very disturbing. Hey, Ken Catalino, as the song goes, sure, The Internet is for Porn, but really - what the hell are ya doing over there? (FYI, in case you’re concerned, the link is to YouTube and the WOW edit of the Avenue Q song.)

LOCAL/NON-POLITICAL

Hey, I’m not going to defend pop stars who can’t sing! Hint: there’s a reason many of them aren’t called singers, they’re called “entertainers.”

D’oh! (Y’know, virtually everywhere I’ve lived they’ve said, the pollen’s really bad here. I think it’s pretty bad most places.) The guy looks likes he’s wearing a few hamsters, or… dare I say it… tribbles.

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