Iraq-Ribbed Republicans

The Three Foreheads of the Apocalypse

Once the conservatives accept their nominee, and he accepts them, Hell will experience a hard frost. And so will cartoonists; John McCain is hard to draw. His square, All-American jaw has softened into jowelly chipmunk cheeks, which, when c0mbined with near-eyebrowlessness and expanse of overhanging, luminous forehead, drawn imprecisely, could slop over into Rush Limbauggery. That would be mid-addiction, middleweight Limbauggery; lately Rush has risen, like an unbaked bun, to new, doughy heights, his little poppy-seed eyes have all but disappeared. I'd say he's off the Oxycontin. For now.

I checked out the cartoon archive at Slate, and sure enough, all the political cartoonists are having trouble with McCain. Most, including Luckovich, (who does the funniest W I've ever seen), have to label McCain. They usually put a McCain button on him. Otherwise, he's a generic old guy with white hair.


Karl Rove is astonishingly easy to draw, for somebody who is essentially featureless. His bland Scandinavian pastiness is interrupted by surprisingly liquid blue eyes, with dark lashes. Rather like Damien. His baby-smooth brow says that persecuting Democrats and smearing war heroes doesn't interfere with his sleep any.



Employing the same group who once smeared him and his family, including his little adopted daughter (from Bangladesh, called "John McCain's black love-child" in a notorious telephone push-poll during McCain's run against Bush in 2000), may have caused McCain to lose sleep.

But I doubt it.