Top-secret Toon-Op

Editor’s note: This column was recently declassified. Click the link at the right to read the redacted version.

When Dubya replaces a high-level honcho like the CIA chief, as a cartoonist, you’re given a special op to take an open shot at the closed-tight intelligence world. (Or, as we call it, the spying, snooping, undoing-due-diligence-on-WMD world.) Dan Wasserman earned his paycheck, and a pat-pat-pat on the back, with a clever overview. Nate Beeler got to the root of the CIA’s institutional inflexibility. Steve Sack sought to snuff out the not-so-friendly fires over the spy chief selection. And although some were spooked about the wisdom of filling the job with a military man, John Trever took a different view. Cartoonists always over-generalize. — Joel Pett

Joel Pett is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist of the Lexington Herald-Leader. His work also appears in USA Today.