Dave Barry is one of them, of course, and so are many of our comedians. But the ones I really envy are the political cartoonists. So few people have both the artistic talent and the political insight to be a professional snot. Unlike other political commentators, political cartoonists don't even have to pretend to be fair-minded, and it's one of the few jobs where good taste is an actual career impediment. Nobody who saw the classic Herblock cartoon of Nixon crawling out of a sewer could ever look at Nixon with complete reverence again.
Cartoonists do their magic by drawing on our stockpile of shared cultural images.
When James Watt, Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, seemed more interested in stripping the environment than protecting it, Marlette drew Watt in his office with Bambi's head mounted on the wall. Of course politicians are the first and best target. They need not always be in attack-dog mode. Because cartoonists aim directly for the gut, and so often hit it, they can't be argued with. They attract us and irritate us far more than any of our good gray editorials with their careful evidence and cautious hedging.