Mr. Hormel Goes to Luxembourg

I mentioned yesterday that former U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg used one of my cartoons in his memoir. It may well be this one, the original of which I sent to Mr. Hormel in 1999 at the request of his staff:

I drew this cartoon upon President Clinton's recess appointment of Hormel, which is why the senators (Trent Lott, Jesse Helms and Robert C. Smith) are shown on vacation at the beach.

As for the Ambassador's costume, that stems from the allegation that he was anti-Catholic, based on some San Francisco TV footage of him chuckling off-camera as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence skated by during a parade.

None of these senators are still in the Senate; Helms, of course, has passed on. The staffer who wrote me expressed a wish that Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) had been in the cartoon, feeling that Inhofe had been leading the opposition to Hormel's appointment. Inhofe is still in the Senate, and I have had occasion to draw cartoons about his antigay statements and votes from time to time; I think that I did include him in an earlier cartoon.