Variations on a Theme - or - The Running Joke
Posted by Amy Lago on April 29, 2009

Cartoonists are observers not just of the facts of a single incident, but also of patterns. So Senator Arlen Specter's change of party alliance yesterday was no surprise to Philadelphia Daily News Editorial Cartoonist Signe Wilkinson.

Here is a Specter cartoon that Signe drew 20 years ago, in 1989:



And here is Signe's cartoon on Specter today:



In the interests of fairness, when I asked Signe if I could post to this blog about the two cartoons, she said the following:

In full disclosure, there was a huge outcry against me from his camp when I did a little sketch for our letters page when he was running against Lynn Yeakel in 1992 and almost lost. His son came in to discuss my work with our managing editor. It was actually a great compliment. Also, the man does have cancer. He is tough as leather. He came in to see us on a Monday this winter. Slightly tired but still spouting names of Syrian diplomats he's known for years. He had just had chemo three days earlier.