Overblown Bombast

Political slang is loaded with military-speak. Bills get targeted, armies of lobbyists are deployed, skirmishes break out, big guns get brought in, all before most of us have an issue on our radar. Inevitably, the words of war have escalated, giving us ... the “nuclear option.”

Now, tagging a legislative rule fracas with the obliterative doomsday power that leveled Japanese cities may seem trivializing and vaguely disrespectful, but such bombast has been coming for a long time.

Cartoonists are always ready to conscript powerful, even overblown, images. Dwane Powell shows us the bomb-bay view, Jeff Danziger the mushrooming Capitol and Drew Sheneman the political fallout. I especially liked Bruce Plante’s depiction of his home-state senator’s defusion confusion.

All of which shows once again why cartoons are the most potent weapons in the editorial arsenal.