Right about now, couldn’t we all use a good laugh?
It’s about politics. The dinner-time robo-phone calls from celebrity supporters of this candidate or that; the trash-talking TV and radio ads; and the candidates who must be tired of hearing themselves mouth the same platitudes day after day wore thin weeks ago.
Paul Conrad, the subject of “Drawing Fire,” narrated by Tom Brokaw on “Independent Lens” (10 tonight, KRMA-Channel 6), revels in politics. The one-time Denver Post cartoonist – “the only political cartoonist on President Nixon’s enemies list,” he boasts proudly – grabs the paper every day to line up his target.
Winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, Conrad, 82, who has launched a second career creating bronzes of political figures, left The Post in 1964 for the Los Angeles Times. He semi-retired in 1993 but still draws four syndicated cartoons a week for Tribune Media Services. Among his clients: The L.A. Times.
The state of government and the media appalls him. Many newspapers, including the Times, no longer have editorial cartoonists. Don’t they need one? “I guess not, if they don’t have one,” Conrad said by phone from his home in Southern California.
He suffers no shortage of topics. “God has blessed me with a string of the worst presidents that ever hit this country. Nixon, Reagan and now this guy Bush. I should feel sorry for him, but I don’t. What he has done to the three branches of government is insane. The fact they could keep it up baffles me.”
Obviously, Conrad doesn’t hide his political point of view. “It isn’t a drawing. It’s an opinion,” he said in a recent article.
“The drawing is just a vehicle to get something in print,” he told me. “Very few people read the editorials; there’s very little to read.” He doesn’t know how long he’ll go on taking pen-and-ink pot shots at politicians. “There’s so much going on. I can’t pass it up.”
He still recalls his happy days in Denver. “I had a lot of fun.” And, he noted, “I met my wife, Kay King, there. She was a features writer at the paper.”
Around the dial
Just so you know: There were 942,900 political spots on local TV nationwide during an 11-week span Aug. 1-Oct. 15, an increase of 31 percent from 2002. Tampa-St. Pete was the most-blanketed region. Believe it or not, Denver didn’t make the top-10. … More politics: NPR stations carry nine hours of election coverage from around the country, starting at 6 tonight. … Opera Colorado’s production of “The Magic Flute” is previewed on “Colorado Spotlight” (7 tonight, KVOD 90.1-FM). … KCNC-Channel 4 hosting a panel-discussion webcast 1-4 p.m. today on ballot issues. Access it at cbs4denver.com. … Quotable: “An election? That’s one of those deals where they close the bars, isn’t it?” – Barney Gumbel on “The Simpsons.”
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-954-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
