Everything Auld Is New Again

I robbed Mike Peterson of 1923 Christmas cartoons last week, so I'll let him have the year-end ones — except for this one that has nothing to do with New Year's Eve, but presages a certain meme:

"'Twixt Love and Duty" by Sam Armstrong in Tacoma News Tribune, Dec. 31, 1923

Instead, it's time for your humble scribbler's annual review of my favorites of my own work from the rapidly fading year. And as long as we're mimicking memes...

✍

Former Senator from Wisconsin Herb Kohl passed away this week, so I have to acknowledge his career here before the year is up.

in UWM Post, Milwaukee, Wis., Sept. 20, 1988

I featured my home state Senator in only a few cartoons over the years, starting in 1988 during his first run for the seat of retiring Bill Proxmire. There were occasional rumors about the lifelong bachelor's sexuality, and I drew referencing that — once — for the LGBTQ press. 

But for the most part, he only appeared as one senator among others in my cartoons — sometimes with a basketball to make sure that Wisconsin readers would recognize the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. I might just as well have alluded to his grocery or department stores instead.

Curiously, I never had occasion to draw him for the Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee in the nine years that I drew editorial cartoons there. Even when the week's editorial was about the Milwaukee Bucks, the focus was on the stadium board or local government or the players' union. I drew more cartoons for the Beej about our other Senator, Russ Feingold.

That's because Senator Kohl wasn't one to crave the limelight as much as some other politicians. Yet he worked hard on behalf of the state, and put more skin in the game than most team owners do when it came to keeping the Bucks in his hometown. 

Kohl may be the last politician here to gain popularity across the political spectrum. After a modest but respectable victory over then State Senate Majority Leader Susan Engeleiter in 1988, he carried all but nine Wisconsin counties in 1994, and all but eight in 2000. In his last reelection campaign, in 2006, he won each and every county in the state.

For a billionaire, he had the common touch, and kept in touch with his constituents from day one and then some. This was the first year since 1988 that Mr. Kohl did not send my dad a Christmas card.*

Vayanuach b’shalom, Mr. Kohl.

___________

* I stand corrected: Dad did receive a holiday card from Senator Kohl this year.