Far-Left Politico Cartoonist Wins Pulitzer

The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced today, and both Huffington Post and Politico won an award. The HuffPo award went to David Wood for his months-long series on wounded soldiers. The Politico award went to cartoonist Matt Wueker for “his consistently fresh, funny cartoons, especially memorable for lampooning the partisan conflict that engulfed Washington.”

From their description, it sounds like “partisan conflict” might involve shots at both sides of the aisle. Sadly, that’s not the case. You can probably guess the type of “fresh” humor that won Wueker the award, but I’ll spare you the trouble. So as not to be accused of selecting from his work unfairly, let me just note the 20 examples Politico used in its slideshow celebrating Wueker’s win:

1. Arab Spring in Egypt – General criticism of US foreign policy.
2. Obama squares off against the Tea Party – The Tea Party won’t let Obama raise taxes.
3. Satire of the “naked greed” of bankers.
4. US losing to China because we’re at war with ourselves – This is one of the few cartoons that could be called non-partisan.
5. Anti-nuclear energy cartoon.
6. Paul Ryan wants to end Medicare – this one brings another DNC talking point (a dishonest one) to life.
7. Anti-war cartoon.
8. Kitchen tables – Class warfare featuring a reference to the 1%.
9. Boehner and Obama playing poker – Obama is getting taken, but this is clearly an attack from the left, i.e. Obama should be tougher in negotiations with the right.
10. Weinergate/Sex scandals – Another bipartisan example.
11. Job Creator – hedge fund managers compared to teachers (unfavorably of course).
12. Boehner and Mitch McConnell depicted as witch doctors making sacrifices of children and the elderly. Ha! Killing me! No, not really.
13. Conservatives in Congress depicted as lunatics in an asylum.
14. Boehner and McConnell sinking the ship of state to beat Obama. So fresh! So funny!
15. GOP presidential candidates depicted as eagles crapping on a statue of the “thinking conservative.”
16. Passing the buck in Washington on possible default. A bipartisan cartoon.
17. Grover Norquist depicted as a blockage inside Uncle Sam’s colon.
18. Boehner dressed as a ringmaster, but the Tea Party cats hold the whip.
19. 99% vs. Wall Street – All of America supports the Occupy movement against the 1% in Wueker’s world.
20. Mitt Romney as a lost driver. Instead of a dog on his roof, he has an elephant representing the GOP.

So all together we’ve got 5 arguably non-partisan cartoons (#1,4,7,10,16) versus 10 aimed specifically at Republicans (2,6,9,12,13,14,15,17,18,20). The remaining cartoons (#3,5,8,11,19) don’t specify a party but just happen to line up with the DNC view of the world (mostly class warfare). Notably, there is not a single cartoon which seems aimed solely or primarily at the left. Take note, young artists. This is how you win a Pulitzer Prize.