CSotD: Mooch wasn’t number one, but our fun has just begun
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Steve Sack earns top honors today for frankness. There have been some revolving door gags, but, while self-reflective cartoons can be cloying, there's something in the idea that we — whether that is "editorial cartoonists" or "columnists" or just folks at the barber shop — have to be able to absorb what's going on.
Here's an excellent example not from editorial cartoons: Matt Taibbi had a takedown on Scaramucci in which he predicted the firing, but, by the time it began to circulate on social media, the axe had fallen and, while it's still very good reading, good analysis and funny as hell, it's still outdated.
I've written before about my experience trying to write timely humor for a monthly magazine, but that's a predictable hazard of the gig. By contrast, the idea that people who can respond within 24 to 48 hours still aren't fast enough is ridiculous.
And I would add that I still don't think Trump is throwing up smoke screens or flak to keep the media off balance. I think he's simply nuts.
Which brings to mind something from Watergate. I don't think the "Trump wrote Don Jr's memo" story is going to move things forward the way the discovery of the tapes forced even Nixon loyalists to admit the game was up.
But Trump is screwy enough that he may provide additional "obstruction of justice" material in his tweets, since every time someone gets him off the hook, he wriggles back on.
Which nuttiness puts me in mind of poor Martha Mitchell, who wanted the media to know at least some of what was going on in the White House, where her hubby John was attorney general before he resigned to head up the Committee to Re-Elect.
And she was turned into a punchline, a standard for late-night comedy. Nutty Martha who calls the press and prattles on with crazy talk.
We could use an Alexander Butterfield about now, but I'd settle for Martha Mitchell.
Meanwhile, Nick Anderson rises above the rest of the "You say Hello, I say Goodbye" gags, with a more subtle display of toe tags, though, if he'd asked me (and he never does, doggonnit), I'd have said skip the specificity of "White House Communications Director" and just say "Staff," because I have a feeling we're just getting started.
David Horsey picks up the gangster straightline we were handed with Scaramucci, who — ethnicity aside — did indeed act like someone right out of the Sopranos, and one of those temporary characters who is not cool enough to last long and not useful enough to make his lack of discretion worth the risk.
As Horsey notes in the column that goes with his cartoon:
The humorists’ loss is the country’s gain. As entertaining as it may have been, Scaramucci would have only encouraged Trump to be Trump — an undisciplined, boastful, ignorant, vindictive man-child who, in the words of conservative foreign policy expert Max Boot, “is not qualified intellectually, morally or ethically to be president.”
As long as we are stuck with Trump, it will be good to have a stable presence, Kelly, as a gatekeeper in the Oval Office. The question may be if Kelly will be willing and able to keep the job as the Trump presidency descends even deeper into a legal quagmire.
And I wouldn't count on Kelly sticking around to hold the bridge, given that, legends of Horatius aside, a true military man knows when to make a stand, and I doubt he'll get an answer to this critical question:
‘Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed ye may;
I, with two more to help me,
Will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path a thousand
May well be stopped by three.
Now who will stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?’
For that matter, if we're going to frame the situation in military terms, every story of fragging I've ever heard has involved a leader who posed a greater threat to his troops than did the enemy.
I'd say that Trump had better keep his head on a swivel, but loose screws are kind of how he got himself here in the first place.
I don't know that the chaos in the White House is necessarily "good news," because we don't know how much pain will be inflicted before it ends. As noted above, we haven't got the kind of proof the White House tapes provided, and I don't know that any he-said-no-I-didn't kind of confrontation will accomplish anything.
Trump seems poised to employ the OJ defense of simply denying the obvious and hoping for a sympathetic jury, and so it will boil down to the makeup of Congress when someone finally calls for the showdown. Nixon would likely have not been impeached, much less convicted, without the incontrovertible evidence of the White House tapes.
But Jeff Danziger shows one possible silver lining, which is that, as more evidence unfolds, responsible media seems to be regaining its position in the public eye.
Good for the industry, but even better if it helps get voters up to speed for the jury selection mid-term elections.
Juxtaposition of the Day
(The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee)
We started the day with self-reflective cartooning and here's some more, easing in with Edison Lee's political commentary and then going to Piranha Club's full gonzo foolishness, both of which I heartily endorse.
When Edison launched a little over a decade ago, his forays into politics seemed forced, but, over the years, John Hambrock has become comfortable with the character and with the strip's combination of social commentary and kid-humor, and his little genius has developed into a nice Everyman.
And Piranha Club, which has been spending the week behind the scenes, is of absolutely no redeeming social significance whatsoever.
That's why I like it. We need harmless fools to offset the toxic ones.
Now here's your moment of insensitive but relevant zen:
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