Oh That Evil Rex Babin

Like many cartoonists after the now-famous shoe throwing incident, Sacramento Bee cartoonist Rex Babin decided to weigh in on the situation, suggesting to President Bush that he shouldn't "let the shoe hit him on the way out."

John in Carolina, who's blog title suggests that he's "a history buff who's skeptical of much that mainstream media tells us," was upset enough at the cartoon to call Rex to "learn why an American cartoonist would pen something he had to know would be popular with our country’s enemies and encourage those who seek to attack our President."

According to John, Babin responded to the criticism by saying the shoe-throwing assault on President Bush was justified because Bush has killed so many Iraqis.

“I don’t actually want Bush to take a bullet,” Babin told the caller. “[But] Bush is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. What should he expect?”

After the cartoon and Banin's comments were posted on the blog McClatchy Watch (suspiciously similar in look and tone to Jim Hopkin's Gannett Blog, right down to the blogger template), one Anonymous poster had an interesting thought:

"Rex made a mistake. he should of put Melanie Sill's (the current Sacramento Bee editor) picture in the cartoon rather than the President's. As a former Bee subscriber, I have watched the Bee self-destruct."

You're probably thinking, "Okay, interesting thought about commenting on the perceived decline of the Sacramento Bee by one if its readers."
Well, Anonymous continued:

"Conservative readers have dropped it in droves. Young liberals don't read, and thus can't pick up the slack. The new web site is not user friendly, and seems designed to keep conservative criticism at a minimum. The Bee is sinking. It's the editorial board first, women and children last."

The comments on the Sacramento Bee's website were even funnier:

Speakup, suggesting that Babin is abusing his first amendment rights by criticizing Bush, who is a Christian:

"And for Rex Babin's 1st amendment rights he can thank our very Christian, very conservative and very self sacrificing Founding Fathers."

He also had a gem about what he thought of "progressive" voters:

"Progressives are fascist Nazis."

Rmdsacto, out of all the commenters, hits the nail on the head:

"These people worship you Rex. That is your audience. Time for a reality check"

Rex Babin's cartoons for the Sacramento Bee can be viewed here.