Shutdown circus: Top ten cartoons of the week

What's left to say about the government shutdown and our broken politics in the nation's capital? Because Republicans and Democrats can't get together to accomplish the most basic task of keeping the federal lights on, tens of thousands of government employees face furloughs and possibly their loss of their jobs, thanks to Trump's threats about layoffs.

Our most popular cartoon of the week by far was R.J. Matson's wonderful drawing of an unplugged Capitol building, a powerful image that quietly sums up the dysfunction in Washington. Matson also drew a funny cartoon of foam fingers being delivered for the blame game between Republicans and Democrats.

Amid the shutdown, news broke that beloved chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall passed away at age 91. Cartoonists typically hate drawing obituary cartoons, but readers love and appreciate them. So it's no surprise to me Dave Whamond's wonderful drawing and quote honoring Goodall's work was among our most popular among editors.

Here are our top ten most reprinted cartoons of the week:

#1. R.J. Matson

[cartoon id="300519"]

#2. Dave Whamond

[cartoon id="300525"]

#3. Doug Plante

[cartoon id="300474"]

#4. John Darkow

[cartoon id="300516"]

#5. Ed Wexler

[cartoon id="300535"]

#6. R.J. Matson

[cartoon id="300506"]

#7. Dave Whamond

[cartoon id="300507"]

#8. Adam Zyglis

[cartoon id="300555"]

#9. Dave Granlund

[cartoon id="300411"]

#10. R.J. Matson

[cartoon id="300426"]



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Daryl Cagle is the publisher of Cagle.com and owner of CagleCartoons.com, a syndicate that distributes editorial cartoons and columns to over 500 subscribing newspapers. See Daryl’s blog at DarylCagle.com and watch his video podcast about editorial cartoons at Caglecast.com