Conservatives & the Evils of the Bottle

A good many conservatives take pride in their high moral and ethical standards. They live the "right" life, unaffected by the many temptations that plague us ordinary mortals.

But the facade of conservative morality comes crashing down every so often (Ted Haggard rings a bell), revealing that right-wingers are every bit as fallible as everyone else.

The most recent example comes from Columbus, Ohio, where the conservative "Mallard Fillmore" cartoonist Bruce Tinsley was arrested in early December on a charge of operating a vehicle under the influence. The Ohio press reports that this is Tinsley's second alcohol-related arrest in the past four months. He was arrested in August for public intoxication.

Tinsley's "Mallard Fillmore" strip appears daily in the Tulsa World, where he regularly lampoons the real and imagined silliness of liberals.

Making fun of liberals has made Tinsley a conservative star. But it hasn't made him any funnier—his cartoons regularly put polemics ahead of humor.

Even worse, Tinsley is routinely sanctimonious, an attitude that apparently covers a multitude of personal failings, one of which is now all too obvious.

Note to Bruce: Four hundred papers carry your strip. It might be time for you and your unfunny duck to apologize to readers and, while you're at it, eat a little crow.