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May 16, 2008 - 1:00pm

Cartoon Roundup: Bush is a uniter, not a divider

By Rob Tornoe
Category: President
Tags: George W. Bush, Tom Toles, Mike Luckovich, Bush golf, now watch this drive, Sergio Vieira de Mello, golf-gate, Ann Telnas

(From left to right) Tom Toles, Washington Post; Rob Tornoe, Politicker.com; Matt Davies, Journal-News(From left to right) Tom Toles, Washington Post; Rob Tornoe, Politicker.com; Matt Davies, Journal-NewsAs the violence continues in Iraq, George W. Bush brought cartoonists from both sides of the country together when he told Politico and Yahoo! News in a joint online interview that he made a great sacrifice in the name of our troops: Golf.

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," he said. "I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."

U.S. President George W. Bush walks on to the first tee October 13, 2003 at the golf course of Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.: (Getty Images)U.S. President George W. Bush walks on to the first tee October 13, 2003 at the golf course of Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.: (Getty Images)According to the interview, Bush made the decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. The attack killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was the top U.N. official in Iraq, as well as the organization's high commissioner for human rights. 21 other members of his staff also died in the bombing.

Unfortunately for him, a Yahoo! News article points out Bush actually played his last round of golf on Oct. 13, 2003. This means that the reason he gave for quitting after the August 2003 U.N. bombing is dubious at best.

Once cartoonists got their ink-stained fingers on this story, you knew it was going to be a fun couple of days.

Here is my entry into this whole debacle, in which I attempted to link the event to a comment Bush made to news reporters back in August of 2002 about the seriousness of hunting down terrorists with a 9-iron in his hand.

And here is a round-up of all the cartoonists that decided to chime in. If you sacrified your time and did a cartoon on this latest incident, send it to me at rob.tornoe@politicker.com, and I'll add it to the list:
George W. Bush by Ann TelnasGeorge W. Bush by Ann Telnas

UPDATE: Michael Dobbs, in his Fact Checker blog at the Washington Post, weighs in on the truthfulness of 'Golf-Gate'.

Send tips to rob.tornoe@politicker.com
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