Please, don't make me defend Doonesbury

For those of you who didn't see last Sunday's strip (and I don't encourage you to visit it, although the link is above), Karl Rove told President Bush that the September 11 attack had helped to advance everything on the Bush agenda, to which the President replied, "Wow... What a coincidence... Thanks, Evildoers!"

Now, aside from the traditional "Bush is too dumb to be President" subtext (face it, they're never going to get tired of that), I consider this a golden example of the broken clock that's right twice a day. It's no coincidence that Bush's agenda is strengthened by the current national resolve, and I think the President knows it.

But something about this strip has attracted far too much attention.

James Taranto, of the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com, says (among other things),

Worst of all, though, he can't draw--or at least he's too lazy to draw... now just about every "Doonesbury" strip we see depicts a conversation between invisible people.

Worst of all? You mean you don't mind his political statements, but dialogue from off-panel characters is the last straw?

At Lucianne.com, multiple posters suggest... Well, let's not even go there. Sometimes I'm embarrassed to admit I ever read the page.

Even Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, asked

Will Garry Trudeau be ... denounced for 'Bush hating?'

Of course not. Among liberals, that's a badge of honor.

If it's offensive to suggest that the events of 9-11 have advanced any part of President Bush's agenda, then what are we to make of the President's own words of November 9:

This fall I had planned a new initiative called Communities of Character, designed to spark a rebirth of citizenship and character and service. The events of September the 11th have caused that initiative to happen on its own in ways we could never have imagined.

It's only a comic strip. Garry Trudeau is entitled to his opinion. And be honest, does it really come as a surprise? He's a liberal, always has been. So what? It's not like anything he says actually matters, does it?

(You really don't want to see my list of comic strips that are a waste of space...)

[Later: Oh, please. It's all over last night's O'Reilly Factor too. C'mon, people, this is a non-issue. Let it go.]