Okla. Politician Mails Harsh Comic to Voters
Here’s some bizarre comics news for you: an Oklahoma County commissioner is trying to keep his office amid allegations of financial wrongdoing, and his latest effort is to mail out a comic book to voters.
That comic book, according to this article in the Oklahoman newspaper, alleges that Commissioner Brent Rinehart is being pushed out of office by good ol’ boys, homosexuals and the ruler of hell.
The 16-page comic book makes fun of homosexuals and criticizes Rinehart’s political opponents. It features a man and woman admiring Rinehart’s often-controversial political career.
Other prominent characters are an angel, who supports Rinehart, and Satan, who supports Rinehart’s critics.
"It’s more or less a story of my experiences of the last four years of being the county commissioner of District 2,” Rinehart said.
Interesting stuff, sure, but the real kicker is this brilliant quote:
"This is one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen,” said Keith Gaddie, a political science professor at the University of Oklahoma. "I’ve never seen a comic book with the phrase ‘anal sodomy’ in it before. That was a new one for me.”
The newspaper didn’t offer any images of the comic, so I have nothing to post. Anyone out there who finds a copy and sends it to me (van [dot] jensen [at] comicmix [dot] com) will be my best friend for life.
http://downloads.newsok.com/documents/rinehartcar…
Rock on Van's new best buddy Jack Chic!Wow, that Brent Rinehart is sure scared of them homosexuals! Let's hope Mr. Reinhart is a better commissioner than a comics publisher. Shane Suiter gets credit for the art. He signed his name to it!
The comic book is hilarious, and I myself have had several hours of chortling over it.But I am also from Oklahoma City – and I can tell you that this does NOT represent the worldview of the vast majority of Oklahomans or Republicans – as evidenced by the many quotes from Oklahoma public officials (many Republicans) and academics who rightly condemn Rinehart. The Oklahoman, OKC's flagship newspaper, condemned the comic book in a scathing editorial this week.Rinehart is a mentally-disturbed narcissist with a penchant for pencil mustaches and corruption, and his (few) supporters are very unbalanced people. He is not indicative of Oklahoma City – any more than the nutty Dallas County Commissioner in Texas who accused a person who used the term "black hole" of being racist is indicative of Texas.Oklahoma City is a thriving metroplex of more than a million people (named by Forbes as among the top 10 recession proof cities, while a suburb, Norman, was named the 6th best small city in America by Money Magazine last week).I also hope that those with an axe to grind against Christianity will not somehow take this comic book as indicative of a Christian worldview. Frankly, that’s like shooting fish in a barrel. This is a theologically-bankrupt work, if I may put it bluntly. Christians do not believe in a little midget-man Satan with a pitch fork, nor in malnourished angels with magic wands – any more than we believe heaven is filled with angels playing harps (see C.S. Lewis for a better explication of this). That’s a caricature of a caricature of a caricature. Nor do the vast majority of Christians spend their lives looking for a "homosexual conspiracy" everywhere. If you’re an atheist, and wish to dispute Christianity, I would not use this comic book for the foundation of your arguments. It is not at all a representation of Christian beliefs – but is instead the product of a diseased mind.One aspect of this “comic book” requires a little background – the references to “liberal good ol’ boys”: You should know that the Oklahoma was controlled by a one-party corrupt Democratic machine for its first century (the state just celebrated the centennial). This only has recently changed, but Rinehart is playing on old superstitions about corrupt Democrats who ran the state for so long – and literally almost ran the state into the ground because of THEIR culture of corruption.