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.

Right-Wing 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 two weeks, and thus offers less of a chance of toxic overload than the previous, super’sized installment. But never fear, it’s just as wonky at a quarter the size. And conservative cartoonists were in fine form. Slandering Dems! Lauding a scalliwag! Shunning homosexuals! Lancing straw men and agitating for war! Apart from a few more lame attacks on Ted Kennedy or John Kerry, what more could you ask for?

 

LARRY CRAIG

Republicans have been falling over each other to condemn “family values” Craig and push him to resign. Drop that gay potato! Hell, Fox News not only underplayed the scandal, they tried to obsfuscate that Craig is a Republican.

Gary Varvel goes for the double entendre. Why are Republicans clamoring for Craig’s resignation while behind closed doors they’re applauding adulterer and prostitute “john” David Vitter? Glenn Greenwald nicely breaks down the three key reasons: Craig is gay and Vitter is straight; Craig would likely be replaced by a Republican while Vitter would be replaced by a Democrat; and prominent Republicans are complete hypocrites for whom “principles” and “family values” are only rhetorical weapons.

Michael Ramirez’ cartoon is unclear. Is he saying Craig is innocent? That he was set up? At the very least, Ramirez seemed to charging entrapment. With that, I’d tend to agree. Craig is a complete hypocrite, true. Sex in a public place is a mismeanor in most states. But this undercover cop didn’t catch Craig in the act. He apparently set a trap, and responded to Craig’s specific signal with his own specific signal - something an uninterested party wouldn’t do. I’m more than happy to mock Craig, but this doesn’t seem like the best use of tax dollars.

Henry Payne goes for an obvious joke…

… And Mike Lester ain’t buying Craig’s denials. Most people aren’t. (Still, somehow I don’t think Lester and his “pocketful of rainbows” will be supporting the local “Pride” parade.)

Did you know? All gay men are perverts! Really, this Cox and Forkum cartoon is a bit creepy. They do get some credit for pointing out the Romney connection.

Meanwhile, did you know all gay men hit on straight men? This odd cartoon by Jerry Holbert seems to be an expression of typical conservative homophobia and anxiety. (Either that, or he’s saying all of Romney’s staff are closet gays who are afraid of being arrested for solicting furtive gay sex in the bathroom. Hmm. And wait a minute - why isn’t Romney bloated, then?)

Ah, yes, that old myth, the media are liberal! For that matter, being gay is not “perverted,” and I suspect Craig’s choice of venue is not his umm, ideal spot. I also highly doubt Barney Frank would have sex in a public bathroom, but more to the point, Frank hasn’t been arrested, he’s openly gay and not a hypocrite. This is a standard GOP distraction smear attack, hardly surprisingly from the homophobic Glenn McCoy.
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Payne goes with a similar tactic. Yes, we all know how the press ignored Clinton’s private sex life! What a load of crap.

It’s really hard to keep up with all the Republican sex scandals and all the hypocrisy, but the ever’sharp Rachel Maddow does a fine job.

Finally, Payne also delivers this pretty funny piece.

 

GONZALES RESIGNS

Eric Allie never tires of providing proof he’s a partisan hack. There was no scandal, I tell you!

Since Allie’s trotting out the same old crap, we’ll rebut him with the same TPM Muckraker piece as before: Gonzales’ top six lies.

Ramirez also pretends that Gonzales is as pure as the fallen snow. That nasty Congress, insisting that the Department of Justice not be immorally politicized! For Ramirez, here’s one of Andrew Cohen’s many scathing, on-target pieces on Gonzales: “Good Riddance.” (You can also click through Cohen’s four part “Case Against Alberto Gonzales” from the same page.)

Is Benson saying Gonzales was driven from office, or that the attacks mainly missed? She’s certainly said Gonzales was attacked. Ya know - considering America’s top law man perjured himself and secretly authorized torture and illegal wiretaps, he wasn’t attacked nearly enough.

Henry Payne claims Gonzales was trapped by the evil Dems. He didn’t do anything wrong, I tell you!

Which is it, Henry Payne? Gonzales as a mouse, or just an innocent, torturing, Constitution’shredding, execution-hungry little kid bullied by those evil Dems? Really, when it comes to laughably bad conservative analogies, there are so many to choose from!

Scott Stantis has the integrity to bring up the torture issue and one of the darkest of many dark legacies Gonzales leaves behind…

…But here reverts to form. Yeah, Scott, it was just politics. Lord knows Gonzales didn’t actually do anything wrong. Apparently, Stantis forgot about his previous cartoon, that he submitted on the exact same day. Red meat for the wingnuts, mmm-mmm, it pays so nicely!

Mike Shelton at least admits that many of Gonzales’ woes are self-inflicted. Of course, he was mainly a human shield for Bush, which is why he was kept around so long.

Holbert invokes Gonzales’ despicable, Godfather-esque bedside vist to then Attorney General John Ashcroft…

…While Varvel invokes a famous boxing match.

Finally, Chip Bok’s cartoon ain’t bad. Of course, Bush is in charge, and deserves more blame than he gets, even if it’s for being hands-off. (But he’s not nearly as hands-off as they pretend - he makes horrible decisions, it’s true, but that’s not solely from staying in his happy bubble. He also makes horrible decisions when he’s actually engaged.)

 

IRAQ

Holbert’s funny and on target. Sadly, our occupation of Iraq is highly unlikely to end until Bush is out of office. Eugene Robinson has a great run-down on how bad Bush’s analogy is (and it’s all the more striking because Bush has previously testily denied any comparisons to Vietnam!).

Gorrell invokes LBJ. Are the last two panels supposed to be a gag, a LBJ dig, or both? LBJ certainly made horrendous mistakes on Vietnam, but he agonized over his decisions and was clearly haunted by every death, dying himself shortly after leaving office. Bush seems relatively unperturbed, and has alternative boasted about crying over military deaths and sleeping like a baby. I fear Bush is so insistently, aggressively unreflective the latter is far closer to the truth.

Umm… Nowak never really frames good arguments. The rest of Asia and the world didn’t go Communist, and Vietnam is doing quite well now. It’s even on good relations with the U.S. Nowak really believes we should have stayed?!? Who exactly is this cartoon suppose to appeal to, anyway? The high school dropout who never got to that chapter in history class, never talked to adult alive at that time, and thus doesn’t know that Nowak is whistling through his ass?

The first, second, third and all drafts of history are important. On Iraq and Vietnam, here’s a massive post, smacking down every possible ridiculous piece of BS Nowak could possibly muster. Ha! Take that!

This cartoon is surprisingly violent for Mike Shelton. It also promotes unconscionable bullshit, debunked by Rick Perlstein.

Sigh. No RWCW would be complete without a conservative offering the BS line that Dems want us to “lose” in Iraq. We’re occupying a country in the middle of a civil war, and conventional “victory” and “defeat” haven’t applied for years now. Furthermore, why is McCoy not going after the many Republicans who privately say Iraq is a quagmire but are too scared to say so publicly? (…Do you really need an answer? Oh, and the open butt flap is a nicely insulting touch.)

Speaking of military victories, yeah, Eric Allie, how have things gone since Bush’s “mission accomplished” speech of May 1, 2003? And where’s Osama bin Laden?

Chuck Asay asserts his partisan hackery in bold fashion with this piece of propaganda. To draw this cartoon, he had to ignore that many prominent Republicans have been pushing to ditch Maliki, including a Republican lobbying firm with very strong Bush ties and prominent war-mongering neocon Charles Krauthammer (among many others). I guess Asay will have to try an embarrassing Winston Smith revision like much of the rightwing blogosphere.

As he often does, Ramirez delivers an elegant cartoon, even if it’s largely BS - although the Iraqi is rather poignant.

Chris Dodd sums “the surge” up nicely - it’s an attempt at a military solution to a political problem that can only be solved politically.

Lisa Benson charges that the Democrats have already rendered their verdict on the Petraeus report while she deliberately ignores that the White House is writing it. Hmm, she won’t call them on that, will she?

Ramirez tries the same BS, but won’t call out the White House, nor the scared hawks of the GOP. He also won’t take note of the recent General Accountability Office report that all but two of nine security measures have not been met, and eleven of the eighteen benchmarks have not been met. Some military commanders dispute these judgments, but their claims of decreased violence are highly misleading and inaccurate. That’s not to mention that the GAO report was leaked in advance, because someone feared the Bush administration would try to whitewash it.

Payne asserts Iraq is making progress, but it’s slooooooow. In some areas, thay may be true, but in many others, it seems to be getting even worse.

I hesistated to even include this Nowak cartoon, since it’s so sadly lame. It’s one of his characteristic straw men attacks (one of a few from him in this installment). Several prominent Democrats have different ideas about what to do about Iraq - just as, horrors, several prominent Republicans do (those not running for president, anyway). The main BS Nowak’s pushing is that Dems can’t make up their minds, are weak and not to be trusted. None of their plans are acceptable to Nowak, even though Republicans can be found who promote the exact same plans, because Nowak prefers the senseless, stubborn policy of Bush.

Stantis at least acknowledges some of the problems.

Perhaps Glenn McCoy’s watching Fox News, since he’s not seeing any coverage on Iraq and doesn’t know how bad things are. This is the old BS GOP attack that things are going just great in Iraq, but the media simply won’t report it. Yes, McCoy’s complaining about the very same media who were cheerleaders for the war in the first place and still marginalize anti-war voices (DFH) while promoting unrepentant, consistently wrong hawks. Conservatives are nothing if not intellectually inconsistent.

Sigh. Asay is as insistent as he is ignorant, or is just a inveterate hack. Three key points. Americans were not being killed in Iraq before we invaded. Iraq was not responsible for 9/11. Iraq had a secular government before we invaded and Saddam Hussein was despised by Islamic extremists such as bin Laden. That’s not to mention that invading and occupying Iraq has made us less safe. Asay’s fact-free worldview isn’t just stupid, it’s dangerous.

Meanwhile, Cox and Forkum promote the same Bush saber-rattling propaganda about Iran we’ve debunked many, many times previously. Barely a week goes by that Cox and Forkum don’t promote their “Bomb Iran!” campaign. Where’s the administration’s proof? And even if it were true, really, so what? Iran is a concern, but even if they simply didn’t exist, Iraq would still be a mess. Our military would still be stretched to the breaking point, and our erstwhile allies the Saudis would still be arming the Sunni insurgents responsible for most American deaths. Meanwhile, we’ve armed Sunnis too, both intentionally and through incompetence, and the Shiite militias as well. D’oh! Really, the ongoing Sadly, No! campaign to release hungry pumas and bears in Iraq is looking increasingly sane in comparison.

 

IRAN

This odd cartoon by Cox and Forkum seems to be charging that Ahmadinejiad is a leader who’s both evil and incompetent. (Hmm. Sounds familiar.) It’s always funny when Cox and Forkum go with this tact, because it undercuts their “Bomb Iran!” campaign if he’s not a real threat. Let’s remember that Ahmadinejiad is president, not the head of supreme council in Iran and thus not the head of government. Also, Israel’s American’subsized arsenal dwarfs Iran’s. (The donkey here seems mainly to be just a donkey, but given Cox and Forkum’s track record is probably a secondary sideswipe at American Democrats as well.)

 

TERRORISM

Ken Catalino has been pretty good about criticizing Bush on certain points. (But wait ’til you see his supreme hackdom later in this installment!)

Payne likes this visual concept, which he used for the Virginia Tech shootings as well. I can buy that Padilla wasn’t a nice guy. I don’t buy that he was a ticking time bomb, or that the Bush administration, which kept changing their charges against Padilla, saved us from some serious threat. His treatment was abominable, and a shame on our nation, which above all believes in justice and fair and humane treatment. From Salon here’s Glenn Greenwald, Tim Grieve and Alex Koppelman on Padilla.

 

CONGRESS

As we’ve discussed before, and Glenn Greenwald explores in far more detail here and here, those numbers are deceptive. Congress has lost approval ratings for not opposing Bush enough. “Congress” also includes all those Republican rubber’stampers. The public wants more opposition to Bush, and more investigations into his administration.

 

THOSE DAMNED DEMOCRATS

Ya know, the Dems really haven’t driven anyone from office, although they’ve pushed for them to be removed. There’s also good reason for removing everyone on that list - Larry Wright here, like right-wing talk radio, loves to pretend it’s nothing but personal animus. (”Hey, why don’t you guys like Attila the Hun? It must be Attila Derangement Syndrome!”) The Dems have also been pushing harder than Bush to get Bin Laden, frankly. Where is he, anyway? Why hasn’t Bush caught him “dead or alive” yet?

This Stantis cartoon falls into the clever-but-BS category. First of all, voter disenfranchisment is a well-documented, continuing conservative tradition. Stantis is also equivocating on “vote,” equating a national, federal vote with a political party’s primary vote. The former is legally protected, while the latter is completely a matter of the party’s choice (just as some state chapters of national parties have open primaries and others don’t). The national Democratic Party telling its Florida chapter it can’t leapfrog over other states to hold its primary does not deny anyone their Constitution-protected voting rights in November 2008. (Likely, the Florida Democratic Party will acquiesce, but nice concern trolling by Stantis.)

 

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

Sigh. Nowak, the reflexive hack. All he’d have to do is remove the word “Democratic” and this would be a non-partisan cartoon. But it’s against his nature. Apparently, he thinks the GOP candidates bragging about how much they’d torture someone is real serious, intelligent stuff.

Asay must crib his shoddy, loaded questions from Fox News or the brain trust at the National Review. First of all, most of the Dems have offered pretty substantive answers on important issues, as opposed to the fairy-land bluster of the GOP contenders. But let’s go through these quickly. Military “victory” and “surrender” do not apply when occupying a country in a civil war that can only be made better through political means. Unions represent their members, whereas corporate donations do not necessarily represent the views of their employees, only their chief management. Some people are for nuclear energy, but disposing of the waste is a serious issue and nuclear plants are an extremely vulnerable, dangerous terrorist target - something alarmists such as Asay should appreciate. We have rationed health care already, and it’s not working well. Tax cuts for the wealthy do not stimulate the economy nor bring more money into government coffers when measured in real dollars, and it’s not as if either of those facts is a secret ( unless you work for a conservative think tank). There is no medical procedure called “partial birth abortion,” a loaded and nebulous phrase invented by right-wingers, as is all of the language Asay uses here.

Shelton does Asay one better. Hillary Clinton and Obama are commies, I tell you! Commies! And they’re ugly, apparently! Just like an Allie cartoon in the previous installment making the same charge, this is straight-up propaganda. (I guess that means Edwards and Kuncinich must be Marx and Lenin, then.)

 

OBAMA

The main aim of this Catalino cartoon is to forward the laughable myth that Republicans are strong on national defense while Democrats are weak. Sure, if being “strong” means blustery tough talk and has nothing to do with actual management and the disastrous consequences of conservative policies.

Meanwhile, I sometimes hesitate to offer yet another “the Democrats are on the side of the terrorists” cartoon, because they’re so tiresome, vile, juvenile, and utterly moronic. Catalino has to be an idiot or an utter hack to offer this, and I don’t think he’s an idiot. As we’ve covered before, bin Laden is thrilled we’re bogged down in Iraq. Bush could not have helped Al-Qaeda’s strategic goals more if he tried (barring using nukes or invading Iran as well, knock on wood). Catalino has his moments, but this is sheer propaganda worthy of Karl Rove.

 

EDWARDS

Points for an original design, at least. As Media Matters points out, there’s a difference between “predatory lending” and “subprime lending,” and Edwards himself has consistently made that distinction. In terms of predatory lending, Edwards has stated that he didn’t know about Fortress’ activities, that he will investigate, divest where necessary, and try to help the affected Katrina families. (Y’know, those same families Bush promised to help two years ago.) It’s more than fair to follow up on Edwards and see if he follows through, but this smacks of another manufactured gotcha story.

 

HILLARY CLINTON

Henry Payne brings up a fair issue - to what degree does being First Lady constitute “experience”? In Hillary Clinton’s case, no naif to begin with, I think it probably counts for a fair amount of experience - although not nearly as much as she tries to depict.

This is another lame straw man attack by Nowak. Hillary Clinton has certainly done a politician’s dance on some issues, but on most issues her stance has been pretty clear. Right-wingers see her as a demon. Meanwhile, the liberal left is all too aware of her record, and doesn’t like it. Hillary Clinton’s main challenges are her high negativity ratings and that liberals don’t think she’s liberal enough while the right-wingers caricature her as Castro. It ain’t that they don’t know her record! (Even if the right-wing version distorts reality.)

As Hillary packs, it’s time to unpack the slurs! Notice the skull? What the hell is Glenn McCoy suggesting? Does he believe Rush Limbaugh’s outrageous charges that Hillary Clinton had Vince Foster murdered? Notice what else McCoy posits as “baggage” - Bill Clinton, who the majority of Americans think would be a positive force; Whitewater, which was a manufactured scandal where the Clintons were never found guilty of wrongdoing; and that she’s - horrors - pro-choice! Now, the real question is, will Hillary Clinton start a war of choice like Bush?

Mike Lester depicts Hillary as Nurse Ratchet, and Bill as cowed and clueless. The term used in the actual book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for Ratchet is “ball-buster,” although “castrating lesbian bitch” seems to be the preferred stereotype of the right-wing blogosphere for Hillary. I’m not a huge fan of Hillary Clinton, but there’s no doubt she’s the target of some serious misogyny from the right.

Henry Payne delivers this funny cartoon, less about Hillary Clinton than the increasing insanity of the primary schedule.

 

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES

Conservative cartoonists continue to note McCain’s lackluster support on the right. I’m not sure he’s credible as an agent of change, either.

Henry Payne pokes fun at Thomspon’s dance about making an official announcement, also nicely satirized by Red State Update.

Allie posits that Thompson waited too long. His announcement has earned him lots of press, but some of that coverage has turned negative.

I find the Republican primary season fascinating, since it’s one of the few times conservative cartoonists (or conservatives in general) will criticize other Republicans.

 

HEALTH CARE

Asay’s really pretty weird some times. He’s conceded that Canadian health care is cheaper and better than American health care for the average citizen. So now he moves to some new, bizarre GOP talking point. Rationing? Asay wants to scare his readers by being vague. He’s suggesting that the Canadians government heartlessly denies necessary health care to its citizens - to save money! In actuality, the problem with the Canadian system is that some people have to wait for necessary-but-not-urgent care, not that they don’t get it. Guess what? America has rationing as well, through HMOs, or through 40 million Americans not having health insurance. Or if you really want to talk about rationing, let’s go to the American insurance system itself, which has insurance companies denying legitimate and necessary claims and treatment to make money. People die because of that. Asay obviously hasn’t seen Sicko, or doesn’t read legitimate newspapers. How do Canada, France and Great Britain keep costs down? Among other things, it’s pooled, shared risk, it’s faaaaar less overhead, and basic, competent management. There’s also no reason, with our far greater wealth, that we couldn’t improve on what they do. Jonathan Cohn breaks down “rationing” in more detail here and in his book Sick - which Asay also probably hasn’t read.

I sure hope Asay’s rich, because since he’s now a senior citizen, he might finally learn how bad our system can be. Oh, wait. He’s proably eligible for Medicaid or Medicare (with only 3% overhead).

If my wait for the doctor was as short as the line in the post office, I’d be quite happy. I imagine many people would be.

“Subprime”? Riiiiight. As Paul Krugman noted (via Bob Somerby):

[E]very available indicator says that in terms of quality, access to needed care and health outcomes, the U.S. health care system does worse, not better, than other advanced countries-even Britain, which spends only about 40 percent as much per person as we do.

Conservatives are absolutely terrified of Americans experiencing good social programs. Conservative think tanks are paid millions every year to try to prevent that.

 

ENVIRONMENT

Payne really dislikes Al Gore, who he always draws as a preacher. Gore is hardly condemning average citizens as evil, and while homosexuality is not to blame for hurricanes, global warming does make hurricanes bigger and more potent, because of the increased heat (energy) in the water. SUVs don’t cause hurricanes (and banning them isn’t the most urgent step to fight climate change) but they’re one of many factors making hurricanes and tropical storms more deadly.

As mentioned above, some people are for nuclear energy, but disposing of the waste is a serious issue and nuclear plants are an extremely vulnerable, dangerous terrorist target. It’s also a false choice to posit that the only options are petroleum products or nuclear power.

 

OTHER

This is another lame straw man from Chuck Asay. It ain’t happening. Cops ain’t losing their jobs or being punished for asking questions. But surely in the authoritarian wonderland Asay dreams of, everything would be lovely and people would know their place.

I have mixed feelings about this issue. People that have the cash to build a new house in a potential disaster area should get insurance or not build there. But many of the residents of New Orleans’ lower 9th ward didn’t choose to live there when Hurricane Katrina hit. Not everyone can afford to live where they choose. Meanwhile, the links of this September 2005 post on Hurricane Katrina and FEMA detail the federal buyout program under Clinton. Basically, FEMA bought houses from people in danger zones, it was highly successful and wound up saving the government money in the long run. But the Bushies cut that program. Asay likely wouldn’t approve of that program either, but it seems both practical and compassionate to me.

I’m not going to condone violence nor condemn compassion, even for a diehard racist like George Wallace (he apparently softened somewhat later in life). But Stantis’ subject is certainly unusual.

Granted, Cox and Forkum are raging Islamophobes, but on this incident I agree. The Washington Post and other papers that yanked two pretty tame Opus Sunday strips were gutless and silly to do so. Joan Walsh has a good run-down.

Points to Payne for the double whammy!

Payne reliably delivers a non-political cartoon or two every week.

I didn’t want to run another pet food cartoon, but this Catalino one is pretty funny.

If only, Jerry Holbert, if only.

Meanwhile, here’s a late entry by Varvel on the miners. Nicely done.

 

 

That’s it for this time! As always, we celebrate the right of cartoonists of all types to mock others as well as our right to mock them.

As usual, feel free to vote for the most offensive/ridiculous/stupid/funny cartoon(s) of this installment in the comments. Alas, Bob Geiger is taking a hiatus from blogging, so I can’t offer you a palate cleanser this time (maybe I’ll have to add that myself).

To be added to the RWCW mailing list for notices of new installments, write me at the e-mail accessible through this page (or click my nom de blog at the top of this post).

See you next time!