The Week in Editorial Cartoons, Part I – New GOP Campaign Slogan: Monosexuality=Bad

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Crossposted at Daily Kos and Docudharma

Christine O’Donnell by Taylor Jones, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

Christine O’Donnell is fast becoming the face of the Republican Party.  Her campaign slogan is — to put it in Marxist language — power to the people.  Or, something like that. To quote an oft-used phrase on the internet(s) and one used frequently on this blog, “Teh stoopid! It burns.”  

Time permitting, I will try to post Part II of this diary later on this week.  

PLEASE READ THIS: There are another dozen or editorial cartoons in the comments section of this diary that I posted over at Daily Kos.  Take a look at them.

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THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS

This weekly diary takes a look at the past week’s important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.

When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?

2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?

3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?

The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist’s message.

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Meat Dress by Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle Spreading Fear Easier Than Learning About a Religion by Chris Britt, Comics.com, see reader comments in the State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Church of Beck by Clay Jones, see reader comments in the Freelance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA), Buy this cartoon So the guy who leads a religious rally to restore honor has the habit of questioning someone else’s religion (Obama’s is a perversion of Christianity) and of calling someone you disagree with a racist.  Now that just doesn’t seem very Christian like to me. Well I’m not a Christian so let me say the guy is a toad, a pied piper, a charlatan selling snake oil and the only one who buys and drinks his crap are the most simple minded of fools.  I’m not insulting conservatives as I know a LOT of conservatives who agree with me on this guy. — Jones stating in no uncertain terms that he isn’t a fan of the nonsense Glenn Beck preaches.  By the way, Jones’ editors killed this cartoon for the print edition of the newspaper as, I’m guessing, Fredericksburg is a fairly conservative area about 40 miles south of Washington, D.C. Burn a Koran Day by Clay Bennett, Comics.com, see the large number of reader comments in the Chattanooga Times Free Press Governor Brewer of Arizona Haunted by Headless Bodies by Randall Enos, Cagle Cartoons, Buy this cartoon Zealot Newt by Rob Rogers, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Newt Gingrich has always been a controversial outspoken firebrand … but this time he has gone over the edge.  He is adopting the wacky birther conspiracy theory about how Obama was programmed by his father to be driven by a Kenyan anti-colonial worldview.  Aside from being a bazaar fabrication, what does that even mean?  We were worried about about a crazy zealot burning Qurans.  I think politicians like Newt Gingrich are far more dangerous. — Rogers questioning Newt Gingrich’s sanity and his wacky ideas on his blog Mike Luckovich, Comics.com (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) Don Wright, Comics.com (Tribune Media Services)

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INTRODUCTION

Gingrich’s Ideal Ground Zero Monument by Lloyd Dangle, Troubletown, Buy this cartoon

For well over a year, the Republican establishment refused to condemn the blatantly racist and bizarre behavior displayed by many in the Tea Party as they conjured up exotic theories about President Barack Obama.  Even one of their so-called “intellectuals” (Newtie Gingrich) has engaged in the kind of vitriol and rhetoric that probably hasn’t been heard in this country since the McCarthy era in the 1950’s.  

The Republicans have played this cynical game of ignoring insane people within their ranks for years and now it seems to have bitten them.  As they say in Texas football circles, “You dance with what brung ya.”

Are these the kinds of people we want in charge of our country?  I don’t think so.

A good article in Mother Jones magazine describes the problems the Teabaggers are creating for the GOP.  Are they secretly working in the Democratic Party’s best interests?  We don’t know for sure but, surely, Christine O’Donnell’s ascendancy in Delaware is a gift from the political gods

A Tea Partier Against O’Donnell?

The GOP candidate for Senate in Delaware seems to have the tea party movement behind her.  But are some activists having second thoughts?

(Jeff Danziger, Yahoo Comics/New York Times Syndicate, click link to enlarge cartoon)

Christine O’Donnell’s GOP Senate primary upset over Rep. Mike Castle in Delaware last week has the media buzzing about how the tea party movement is overthrowing the established order of things-at least for Republicans.  But while O’Donnell may be labeled as a “tea party” candidate, the movement is far from a monolith, and there are some in its ranks who aren’t all that thrilled to be associated with her.

Andrew Ian Dodge is the Maine state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, one of the largest tea party umbrella groups.  TPP doesn’t endorse candidates, but that hasn’t stopped Dodge from expressing his own opinon about O’Donnell.  He thinks she’s a bit of a nutter.  “Everything I’ve seen about her has made me laugh my ass off.”…

Coming as she does from the front lines of the culture wars, where she fought abortion, homosexuality — and of course, wanking — O’Donnell doesn’t seem like Armey’s kind of candidate, tea party or not.  What Armey and FreedomWorks do about O’Donnell — now that she’s won the primary and become a tea party star — will be a telling indicator of whether the tea party and the religious right are entering a marriage of convenience.

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Randy Jones, inxart.com, Buy this cartoon

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Tea Party Elephant by RJ Matson, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Buy this cartoon

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Tim Eagan, Deep Cover, Buy this cartoon

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One of the very best editorial cartoonists ever, Paul Conrad, passed away recently.  Cartoonist Daryl Cagle paid his tributes to this brilliant man who was the chief editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times from 1964 to 1993 and had been syndicated to hundreds of newspapers worldwide

Renowned Editorial Cartoonist, Paul Conrad dies at 86

Readers of our site will remember Paul Conrad, who appeared here for much of the past ten years.  He was a three time Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist who drew for the Los Angeles Times for almost thirty years before he left the paper in a round of cost cutting, seemingly never to be printed in the LA Times again. Conservative cartoonist, Michael Ramirez, who was again cut and seemingly never reprinted in the Times, replaced Conrad.

Known for his stark, hard-hitting liberal cartoons, Conrad was often the center of controversy.  He was a colorful curmudgeon who took pride in being listed on President Nixon’s “enemies list.”  The Vietnam War and Watergate were artistic high points in Conrad’s long career.  He is one of the all-time greats of our profession and he will be missed.

Here’s an excellent column by Bill Boyarsky, a colleague of Conrad at the LA Times, about Conrad’s glory days and how the Times turned on Conrad and pushed him away.

Here’s a tribute cartoon from our own Bill Schorr, who worked opposite Paul Conrad for many years at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

See reader comments on Cagle’s blog

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Note: There are several more editorial cartoons by and about Paul Conrad towards the end of this diary.

There are about about 100 editorial cartoons in this diary.  I’ll try to post another 20-30 in the comments section on several other issues in the news.  Hope you enjoy this week’s offering.  

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1. Cartoons of the Week

Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee, Buy this cartoon

Tim Eagan, Deep Cover, Buy this cartoon

Republican’t by Steve Greenberg, VCReporter (Ventura, CA), Buy this cartoon

Steve Kelley, Comics.com (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

Burned by Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle

End Of Combat Operations by Bob Englehart, Hartford Courant, Buy this cartoon

Speaking of divine, It’s divine that President Obama cleaned up the mess W made in Iraq.  It’s unfortunate that he had to do it in the first place, but the completely inept Bush Administration botched the operation from it’s fraudulent start to it’s unfinished finish.  Obama will have to do the same with the economy, but that’s going to take more time to fix than the two wars, I bet.

The tragedy of the whole thing is if W absolutely insisted on invading Iraq because he wanted to defeat Saddam Hussein (“he tried to kill mah daddy”) the least he could’ve done is have some smart people run the war, as his daddy did in Operation Desert Storm.  Unfortunately, W’s people were as dumb as he is and we probably have twice the deaths and injuries among our fighting men and women we would have had if the war had been waged correctly.

Ah, it’s good to be bashing Republicans again.

— Englehart assigning blame for the unnecessary Iraq War where it belongs: with the inept, incompetent, and disaster of a regime that was the Bush Administration

Tim Eagan, Deep Cover, Buy this cartoon

Tax Cuts for Rich by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Stuart Carlson, Washington Post/Universal Press Syndicate and Tony Auth, Washington Post/Philadelphia Inquirer

(click links to enlarge cartoons)

Buying An Election by John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri, Buy this cartoon

Jeff Stahler, Comics.com (Columbus Dispatch)

Jeff Darcy, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Buy this cartoon

Steve Benson, Comics.com (Arizona Republic)

The Collaborator by David Fitzsimmons, Arizona Star, Buy this cartoon

Victorious Tea Party by Patrick Chappatte, International Herald Tribune, Buy this cartoon

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2. As the GOP Turns: You Reap What You Sow

Chan Lowe, Comics.com, see this excellent reader comment in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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Lowe points out that were it not for the economic problems the country is facing, the Democratic Party would be doing a hell of a lot better in polls.  The alternative, he implies, is worse and their previous record in office proves it.  Also see this blog post about the death of compassionate conservatism — an oxymoronic term if ever there was one

None of this would be happening if we weren’t feeling economically insecure.  When people are fat and happy, they don’t care much about politics.  Why fix something if it ain’t broke?  As long as you are free to splurge on flat-screen TVs, iPads, SUVs and vacation getaways, then finance your sprees by taking out another mortgage on your house, you don’t sit around whining about having your constitutional liberties taken away.

If those halcyon days were still with us, Sarah Palin would be just a better-than-average-looking footnote in history, Glenn Beck would be calling high-school football games for a small-town radio station, and Barack Obama would be sailing toward reelection in 2012.

Our current national unrest is evocative of that experienced in the 1920s during the runaway inflation in Germany, when families brought their life savings to the market in a wheelbarrow to buy a loaf of bread.  In those days, the anger and frustration reached such a boiling point that every political party had its own paramilitary wing composed of thugs who went out to crack heads in the streets. It was only a matter of time before the frantic and demoralized populace tired of their weak central government’s lack of ability to maintain civil order and provide them with a basic living. They ultimately turned to someone who promised deliverance.

The irony, of course, is that in so doing they sacrificed every personal liberty they ever had.  In other words, it’s all about jobs, jobs, jobs… a much more far-reaching sense than merely determining which party might win a by-election in November.

Bill Day, Comics.com (Memphis Commercial-Appeal)

Jeff Koterba, Omaha World Herald, Buy this cartoon

Don Wright, Comics.com (Tribune Media Services)

Robert Ariail, Comics.com (formerly of The State (SC)

Bill Day, Comics.com (Memphis Commercial-Appeal)

Bill Day, Comics.com (Memphis Commercial-Appeal)

Mike Luckovich, Comics.com (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Muslim Obama by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Hat tip: Growing Growing Gone

Christine O’Donnell Donor Form by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

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3. Beck University Ain’t Exactly Harvard College!

Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin Speak by Chan Lowe, Comics.com, see reader comments in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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Editorial cartoonists too have a dream.  People like Lowe dream about the day when Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich, and, yes, even Michele Bachmann can run for and get elected President of the United States.  If in the unlikely scenario that ever happens, what you’ll see is a quadrupling of efforts made by all cartoonists to draw their favorite people.

Will it happen?  Lowe acknowledges, sadly, it is only a dream

There has been some delirious chatter in the wake of Glenn Beck’s March to Reclaim America’s Honor about a “dream” ticket involving him and the nation’s favorite Mama Bear.  Professionally speaking, I’m all for it. I don’t care who’s at the top of the ticket. What a gift such a candidacy would be for any cartoonist…

Let’s hallucinate for a moment and imagine that a Palin/Beck or Beck/Palin combo actually won in the 2010 election.  I can visualize a scuffle on the inaugural dais while they try to rip the Bible out of each other’s hands to be sworn in as the chief, each citing constitutional chapter and verse in support of his or her own position…

Finally, let’s not forget other sizeable egos waiting in the wings.  Newt “Do As I Say, Not As I Do” Gingrich is prepared to assume the office he has always felt was due a man of his gargantuan intellect, and then there’s one who makes Glenn Beck look like a finely-tuned scientific balance scale by comparison.

Michele Bachmann for President. Talk about “I have a dream.”

… that’s mine.

by Clay Jones, Freelance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA), Buy this cartoon

Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee, Buy this cartoon

Jim Morin, McLatchy Cartoons/Miami Herald

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

Beck Has a Dream by Shlomo Cohen, Freelance Cartoonist (Israel), Buy this cartoon

Lee Judge, McLatchy Cartoons/Kansas City Star

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

The Theologian by Clay Bennett, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Chattanooga Times Free Press

Jeff Darcy, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Buy this cartoon

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4. Koran Burning: An Idea Born Out of Hateful Conservative Talk

9/11 Attack by Ed Stein, Comics.com (formerly of the Rocky Mountain News), see reader comments on Stein’s blog

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Stein cannot comprehend why an unknown preacher in Florida would have even considered such an act.  If this action (which thankfully was canceled) had proceeded as planned, it would have created problems far beyond the borders of this country

This is so wrong on so many levels it leaves me almost speechless.  It is, to put it bluntly, an act of evil.  The deliberate destruction of the sacred text of one of the world’s largest religions creates greater divisions in this country and around the world, and further jeopardizes our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, who are fighting not against Islam, but against Muslim extremists who have used a warped, fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran to justify their murderous acts.  The planned burning will do nothing but inflame them further, and deliver a handy recruiting tool to the Taliban and al Qaeda.  This reckless and foolish tantrum endangers us all.

John Sherffius, Comics.com (Boulder Daily Camera)

Quran Qartoon by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee, mBuy this cartoon

Robert Ariail, Comics.com (formerly of The State, SC)

Religious Intolerance by Cam Cardow, Ottawa Citizen, Buy this cartoon

Stuart Carlson, Washington Post/Universal Press Syndicate

Jones Burns Quran by Patrick Corrigan, Toronto Star, Buy this cartoon

Terry Jones by Taylor Jones, El Nuevo Dia (Puerto Rico), Buy this cartoon

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5. NYC Islamic Center/Mosque: Just Build it

Mosque May be Moved by Aislin, Montreal Gazette, Buy this cartoon

Signe Wilkinson, Comics.com (Philadelphia Daily News)

Steve Benson, Comics.com (Arizona Republic)

Jeff Danziger, Yahoo Comics/New York Times Syndicate

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

Vista by Matt Davies, Comics.com, see reader comments in the New York Journal News

Lee Judge, McLatchy Cartoons/Kansas City Star

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

Ground Zero Mosque by Randall Enos, Cagle Cartoons, Buy this cartoon

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6. The Aftermath of the Gulf Oil Spill Disaster

Mike Thompson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Detroit Free Press

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Thompson goes after his very favorite political targets: brain-dead economic conservatives whose capacity to think rationally is severely limited

Another Gulf Oil Rig Explosion

I’m chalking it up to one of those strange coincidences in life.  I do an enormous amount of reading for my job, and yesterday I found myself reading another column slamming alternative fuel vehicles on national news website.  A $7,500 tax credit (gasp!)… other government-funded boondoggle (gasp!)… u know, the usual criticisms.  Less than five minutes later, I found myself on my paper’s homepage clicking on breaking news alert about another oil platform exploding in the Gulf of Mexico.  Thankfully, this time we were spared another massive oil slick.

Funny how critics of alternative fuel vehicles never talk about the massive subsidies that fuel (pun intended) our addiction to gasoline-powered vehicles.  Such as the cost of keeping carrier battle groups steaming in the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean to protecting the oil shipping lanes and guard oil reserves in the Middle East, the cost of the long and bloody wars we fight for oil, the cost of our alliances with despotic oil-producing regimes, the cost of keeping tens of thousands of troops deployed near oil fields around the globe, the national security costs associated with the fight against terror groups that have sprung up as a result of our meddling in the oil-rich Middle East, the cost of massive tax breaks given to oil companies, the human and economic cost of climate change resulting from the burning of fossil fuels that have led to stronger hurricanes and massive flooding, the cost of cleaning up oil spills, and the cost of lost jobs, ruined businesses, devastated ecosystems and shattered dreams in the wake recent oil spills.

My guess is that if you were somehow able to factor in the cost of all these subsidies over the life of a gasoline-powered vehicle, they would make a $7,500 tax credit look like a pretty wise investment of tax dollars.

R.J. Matson, Roll Call, Buy this cartoon

Gulf Deja vu by J.D. Crowe, Mobile Register, Buy this cartoon

New BP Logo by Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle

BP Blame by Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Buy this cartoon

John Sherffius, Comics.com (Boulder Daily Camera)

Mike Luckovich, Comics.com (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

BP Blame Spill by J.D. Crowe, Mobile Register, Buy this cartoon

There’s another BP spill.  This time it’s not oil.  It’s blame.  BP’s first report on what it believes went wrong with the oil rig explosion that caused this country’s worst oil spill disaster is careful not to use the words ‘fault’ or ‘blame’ in the same sentence as its company name.  And it has more finger-pointing than a bad Jerry Springer Show (sorry for the redundancy.)

Halliburton and Transocean are among the top recipients of BP’s finger. And, you know what?  Most likely, there’s lots of blame to go around.  When something goes as dramatically wrong as the Deepwater Horizon, it usually takes a perfect storm of mistakes to make it happen.

— Crowe wasn’t expecting any deep self-reflection from BP or to accept any blame for the environmental damage it caused.  Par for the course for big corporations.

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7. Out of Iraq and Into Afghanistan

Matt Bors, Comics.com, see reader comments on the Bors Blog

Afghanistan Update: Street Poll

The Muslims I met in Tajikastan, Afghanistan and Iran knew about the controversy over the (so called) Ground Zero Mosque and Obama’s religion and birthplace.  It’s embarrassing as a traveler to have to admit to these people that half of my countrymen simply despise them.

— Bors writing about his experience during a recent trip he took with other cartoonists to war-torn Afghanistan.  More on this in my next diary

Bye Bye Baghdad by Patrick Chappatte, Le Temps (Switzerland), Buy this cartoon

Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle

Rocky Road by Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle

Not at War with Islam by Stephane Peray, The Nation (Bangkok, Thailand), Buy this cartoon

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8. The Economy: Do the Republicans Have a Better Plan for it?

Matt Bors, Comics.com (Idiot Box)

Conservatives don’t seem to have any plan whatsoever for the economy except keeping the Bush tax cuts for the rich while they whine about deficits.

— Bors stating what the entire country has now known for years: Republicans are all talk and no meaningful action

End of Recession by Mike Keefe, Denver Post, Buy this cartoon

Republican Jackhammer by RJ Matson, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Buy this cartoon

Chris Britt, Comics.com (State Journal-Register, Springfield, IL)

Employment Worries by Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle

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9. Sports Talk

Gary Markstein, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Buy this cartoon

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If you are not familiar with the story depicted in the above cartoon, please refer to this in Yahoo! Sports.  It was widely discussed and dissected all over sports television channels and radio talk shows over the past couple of weeks.

Dana Summers, Comics.com (Orlando Sentinel)

Reggie Bush Heisman Trophy John Cole, Scranton Times-Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Clemens and Tall Tales by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

Football Season by Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Buy this cartoon

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10. RIP Paul Conrad, 1924-2010

Paul Conrad by Bob Englehart, see reader comments in the Hartford Courant, Buy this cartoon

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If you missed it, please read this recent diary by Leo Zooson — Great Editorial Cartoonist Paul Conrad Dead At 86.  You’ll learn more about this wonderful man and his innovative work.  I mentioned in that diary that I’d try to find some of his original cartoons and tributes to him by his colleagues since his death.

Englehart remembered Conrad on his blog

Paul Conrad, one the greatest editorial cartoonists to have ever sent an angry politician to the phone to yell at a publisher has died of natural causes.  He was 86 years old.  I found out about it Tuesday but had already drawn my cartoon for the next day’s publication.  Conrad was a major influence on me, not so much how he drew, but how he kicked ass.  His ideas were right on, sometimes brutal.  His liberal cartoons were not compatible with the very conservative Los Angeles Times editorial page, so they published his work on the Op-ed page.

I spent an afternoon with Conrad at his house in Rancho Palos Verde, California once.  A group of us cartoonists went to dinner with Conrad and his wife Kay at a Los Angeles restaurant.  It was the first time I’d ever been to LA and the first time I had sushi and sashimi, which was new to America.  Most of us were in town for a cartoonist’s convention. He invited me to come over to his house the next day…

I don’t remember exactly what was said that afternoon.  I was in awe and self conscious about being in the presence of one of the giants of the craft and part of it was, I’m sure, because he was so tall, well over six feet.  I met him again in New Orleans at another cartoonist’s convention where he talked of his pride in being on Richard Nixon’s enemies list.

Read the complete tribute

Paul Conrad, Comics.com (Tribune Media Services)

Paul Conrad, Comics.com (Tribune Media Services)

Paul Conrad by Steve Greenberg, Freelance Cartoonist (Los Angeles, CA), Buy this cartoon

Mark Streeter, Savannah Morning News, Buy this cartoon

Matt Wuerker, Politico

(click link to enlarge cartoon

in Wuerker’s September archives)

John Sherffius, Comics.com (Boulder Daily Camera)

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11. Final Thoughts

Jen Sorensen, Slowpoke, Buy this cartoon

You ever wonder what the real arguments are for extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich? Well, wonder no more.  These are as persuasive a set of reasons that I’ve ever seen anyone make on behalf of the GOP.

Don’t let the rich starve, Mr. President!

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A Note About the Diary Poll

Ed Stein, Comics.com (formerly of the Rocky Mountain News)

Stein points out that money has always had a major influence on domestic politics but a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision had made it even easier for rich wingnuts to influence elections.

As our Community Director Meteor Blades has asked us of late, what are you doing to prevent such an outcome in November?

You Don’t Need to Know

Thanks to a combination of the Supreme Court’s overreach in the Citizen’s United case, which opened the floodgates to corporate campaign cash, and the GOP’s successful blockage of the DISCLOSE Act, this election features an unprecedented tide of secret money attempting to sway voters.  This unholy combination is a blow to the democratic process, allowing wealthy individuals and corporations with their own agendas to influence the political process, with no transparency or accountability.

We’ve already seen how the Koch Brothers and Rupert Murdoch have surreptitiously funded the Tea Party, and how the same Koch family is attempting to derail environmental regulation in California.  We only know because enterprising journalists have doggedly followed the money trail, not because those running for election have willingly revealed their sponsors.  How many more ad campaigns are secretly underwritten by folks with narrow business or personal economic interests in the outcome?  We don’t know, and we won’t if Republicans are successful tomorrow in blocking the next vote to require politicians to disclose the sources of their funding.

Remember to take the diary poll.

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Complaint Department: in a tip of the hat to Haole in Hawaii, I introduce you to “Que” Guevara, Chief Inspector of Complaints.  Que has led an interesting life, including this memorable role on BBC Television.  He is multilingual, empathetic, and will respond promptly to you, even though he is from Barcelona.  Que is the long-lost first cousin of Cuban revolutionary, the late Che Guevara.

Que Guevara, Chief Inspector of Complaints (left) and Che Guevara, famous Cuban revolutionary leader

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