In an uncannily frank moment along the road to Iraq, former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card explained the war's timing to a reporter as follows: "From a marketing standpoint, you don't roll out a new product in August." Say what one will about this approach to governing—let alone war—it offers comics a rich vein of material.
In fact, the administration's packaging of its policies is so elaborate and Strangelovean, a new type of comedy has developed around it—fake news. Think Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Tom Tomorrow has been leading the charge with his comic strip, This Modern World, which he has brought together in a collection.
The characters of the strip are Bush, Cheney, their cabinet and occasionally the Democrats—none of whom is up to any good. Each week Tomorrow cleverly re-reports the most outlandish or alarming events, exploiting them for their comic potential. Occasionally, simply repeating the news is enough, like when the army expelled six Arabic translators because they were gay—at a time when the U.S. sorely needed their expertise.
Tomorrow knows there is only so much of this we can take before "outrage fatigue" sets in, so Hell in a Handbasket often veers toward outright silliness. In one panel, Saddam and Osama are characters in an action movie called Lethal Buddies, directed by George Bush. Another features Karl Rove suggesting the president man a mission to Mars, to which Bush replies: "Can I wear a space suit?"