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CNN Sunday Morning
Interview With Mike Luckovich
Aired October 06, 2002 - 09:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Mike Luckovich is here. He brought his chief assistant Michaela (ph) -- we might meet her later. But that's another story.
RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN ANCHOR: He is a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist from the "Atlantic Journal-Constitution." If you don't already know him, he is here with us today. And he is going to be joining us every couple of weeks to share his work.
MIKE LUCKOVICH, EDITORIAL CARTOONIST, ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: And my insights -- don't forget my insights.
O'BRIEN: Insights, work and -- the bottom line -- it is really cheap and easy segment. He walks across the parking lot.
We love having him.
LUCKOVICH: Thank you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Ask Michaela (ph) what she thinks about her dad having a living doodling.
LUCKOVICH: Yes, I know, it's strange to think that I actually get paid to do this, but life is good. It's great; it's great!
Now listen, to start things off, I did a cartoon on the whole Torricelli thing, and where I thought this would wind up.
If we could show this cartoon. I've got the...
O'BRIEN: U.S. Supreme Court -- shades of chads here.
LUCKOVICH: You know, they actually jumped ahead.
O'BRIEN: They jumped ahead. Let's go back to the Supreme Court. Can we? Can we toggle back? No? I guess not. What?
We got it now. Here we go.
LUCKOVICH: Oh, here we go -- all right.
O'BRIEN: We demanded a recount and we got it. Very good, very good.
LUCKOVICH: I did this cartoon, one of the justices I think that is Antonin Scalia. O'BRIEN: Antonin Scalia.
LUCKOVICH: No, that's not Scalia.
O'BRIEN: That is Rehnquist.
BAKHTIAR: No, this one is Rehnquist at end.
LUCKOVICH: No, it's Kennedy!
O'BRIEN: No reflection on your drawing.
LUCKOVICH: Right, right. But he is saying, "So who are you voting for in the New Jersey Senate race" -- because that is probably where it will end up. But what was interesting is, this week on Thursday, I was at a reception in Washington photo exhibit, a David Hume (ph) photo exhibit, and Sandra Day O'Connor was there, and I had this cartoon and I gave it to Sandra Day O'Connor and -- she looked at it -- and the first thing she said was, Well that doesn't look like me.
O'BRIEN: It doesn't, it doesn't!
LUCKOVICH: Well, see now, that made me a little bit mad. I almost brought up Florida, but I didn't say anything. So, I took it back, and I said, Now how would you like me to sign this to you? It was sort of an informal thing, and I thought she might say, My friends call me Sandy. But she said, most people refer to me as Supreme Court Justice O'Connor. That's how she wanted me to sign it to her. She didn't actually do the hand thing.
O'BRIEN: That's good. Quickly, let's go back to the shot of the close-up that we just had up there. I want to point out one -- can we get it up there? All right, Scalia looks like Tony Soprano.
LUCKOVICH: I always draw him with a heavy growth of beard.
O'BRIEN: Let's move on.
LUCKOVICH: Yes.
Now the cartoon -- that night in Washington I couldn't sleep. You know how when you are on the road, you can't sleep very well? In the middle of the night, I did this cartoon. This is also Torricelli related. I have a news anchor, and he is saying, Democrats pulled another Torricelli, replacing a faltering Gore with Daschle, Daschle with Kerry and Kerry with Hillary.
The other anchor says, "It's been quite an election night."
O'BRIEN: That's good, very good. All right, let's move on -- we're wasting time as usual.
LUCKOVICH: Exactly.
Now, this cartoon is on the way that the administration is trying to make a link between al Qaeda, al Qaeda and...
BAKHTIAR: I love this one!
LUCKOVICH: I have Rumsfeld here and he is saying, "A definitive link! Both Saddam and Osama appeared in movies with Kevin Bacon.
O'BRIEN: There is a parlor game, Six Degrees of Separation...
LUCKOVICH: ... which you can do with almost every person in Hollywood. And Osama actually appeared in "Footloose" with Kevin Bacon.
O'BRIEN: OK, let's move along.
LUCKOVICH: Moving on.
Now, the Democrats have been very quiet about this whole Iraq thing and it's sort-of disappointing because I don't think -- I think can you be patriotic and have questions about a war where a lot of people are going to die.
O'BRIEN: Should be the American way.
LUCKOVICH: Should be, but it hasn't been that way. So I have a Democrat saying to soldiers going into Iraq, "I have grave doubts about rushing into this, and trust me, if I wasn't up for re-election, I'd have voiced them.
O'BRIEN: Pretty much sums it up. If they don't at least say it that way...
LUCKOVICH: Yes, a little bit of honesty -- cut to the chase.
O'BRIEN: All right, moving on.
LUCKOVICH: Moving on...
O'BRIEN: I like the troops.
LUCKOVICH: Thank you, thank you. Now Bush's military doctrine is pretty blunt, and he's pretty much saying we're going to kick your rear if you give us any trouble. I wish he would go back to his wanting a foreign policy that is humble. But that's sort of been abandoned.
So, I drew a school yard bully, and he is saying, "This is well within current norms. I refer you to page seven, paragraph three, of the Bush Military Doctrine.
O'BRIEN: Was there a tip to the pen -- that's Charlie Brown's shirt, isn't it?
LUCKOVICH: Yes, Charlie Brown's shirt, and then the little lunch pail has a Snoopy on it.
O'BRIEN: That's interesting; we were just thinking about him. LUCKOVICH: He is still, as far as popular culture goes, everyone just recognizes that. I thought that would be a cool thing.
O'BRIEN: He wasn't really a bully, he was the picked upon.
Moving along to Saddam.
LUCKOVICH: Now you tell, when things are getting really bad, an aide is saying to Saddam, "The demonizing's increased. Now they're calling you CEO of Iraq. Now that is bad.
O'BRIEN: Now, don't link me to Enron, whatever you do. All right -- next.
LUCKOVICH: And now the administration in building their case, they try and tell us how evil Saddam is, which we all agree. They keep reminding us, as Isidore is coming in, I have Cheney saying, "Of course Saddam is going to deny supplying her winds."
BAKHTIAR: So, we're blaming that on him, too.
O'BRIEN: What would you call the Cheney mouth position?
LUCKOVICH: Very strange.
O'BRIEN: Indigestion.
LUCKOVICH: He looks like he's about to burp when he talks. I love that look of his.
O'BRIEN: It's good fodder for the likes of -- all right, Michaela (ph), what did you think?
BAKHTIAR: Winding up our Sunday morning...
O'BRIEN: Can we get that shot of Michaela over there. Let's get her in, quickly if we can, because she is -- she brought her dad.
OK, what would you say about your dad's segment?
LUCKOVICH: Two thumb's up.
BAKHTIAR: It doesn't get any better than that.
O'BRIEN: OK, Michaela (ph), you get meals for the next week.
LUCKOVICH: Exactly.
O'BRIEN: All right, drop down next time in a couple of weeks.
LUCKOVICH: OK, that would be great.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 6, 2002 - 09:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Mike Luckovich is here. He brought his chief assistant Michaela (ph) -- we might meet her later. But that's another story.
RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN ANCHOR: He is a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist from the "Atlantic Journal-Constitution." If you don't already know him, he is here with us today. And he is going to be joining us every couple of weeks to share his work.
MIKE LUCKOVICH, EDITORIAL CARTOONIST, ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: And my insights -- don't forget my insights.
O'BRIEN: Insights, work and -- the bottom line -- it is really cheap and easy segment. He walks across the parking lot.
We love having him.
LUCKOVICH: Thank you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Ask Michaela (ph) what she thinks about her dad having a living doodling.
LUCKOVICH: Yes, I know, it's strange to think that I actually get paid to do this, but life is good. It's great; it's great!
Now listen, to start things off, I did a cartoon on the whole Torricelli thing, and where I thought this would wind up.
If we could show this cartoon. I've got the...
O'BRIEN: U.S. Supreme Court -- shades of chads here.
LUCKOVICH: You know, they actually jumped ahead.
O'BRIEN: They jumped ahead. Let's go back to the Supreme Court. Can we? Can we toggle back? No? I guess not. What?
We got it now. Here we go.
LUCKOVICH: Oh, here we go -- all right.
O'BRIEN: We demanded a recount and we got it. Very good, very good.
LUCKOVICH: I did this cartoon, one of the justices I think that is Antonin Scalia. O'BRIEN: Antonin Scalia.
LUCKOVICH: No, that's not Scalia.
O'BRIEN: That is Rehnquist.
BAKHTIAR: No, this one is Rehnquist at end.
LUCKOVICH: No, it's Kennedy!
O'BRIEN: No reflection on your drawing.
LUCKOVICH: Right, right. But he is saying, "So who are you voting for in the New Jersey Senate race" -- because that is probably where it will end up. But what was interesting is, this week on Thursday, I was at a reception in Washington photo exhibit, a David Hume (ph) photo exhibit, and Sandra Day O'Connor was there, and I had this cartoon and I gave it to Sandra Day O'Connor and -- she looked at it -- and the first thing she said was, Well that doesn't look like me.
O'BRIEN: It doesn't, it doesn't!
LUCKOVICH: Well, see now, that made me a little bit mad. I almost brought up Florida, but I didn't say anything. So, I took it back, and I said, Now how would you like me to sign this to you? It was sort of an informal thing, and I thought she might say, My friends call me Sandy. But she said, most people refer to me as Supreme Court Justice O'Connor. That's how she wanted me to sign it to her. She didn't actually do the hand thing.
O'BRIEN: That's good. Quickly, let's go back to the shot of the close-up that we just had up there. I want to point out one -- can we get it up there? All right, Scalia looks like Tony Soprano.
LUCKOVICH: I always draw him with a heavy growth of beard.
O'BRIEN: Let's move on.
LUCKOVICH: Yes.
Now the cartoon -- that night in Washington I couldn't sleep. You know how when you are on the road, you can't sleep very well? In the middle of the night, I did this cartoon. This is also Torricelli related. I have a news anchor, and he is saying, Democrats pulled another Torricelli, replacing a faltering Gore with Daschle, Daschle with Kerry and Kerry with Hillary.
The other anchor says, "It's been quite an election night."
O'BRIEN: That's good, very good. All right, let's move on -- we're wasting time as usual.
LUCKOVICH: Exactly.
Now, this cartoon is on the way that the administration is trying to make a link between al Qaeda, al Qaeda and...
BAKHTIAR: I love this one!
LUCKOVICH: I have Rumsfeld here and he is saying, "A definitive link! Both Saddam and Osama appeared in movies with Kevin Bacon.
O'BRIEN: There is a parlor game, Six Degrees of Separation...
LUCKOVICH: ... which you can do with almost every person in Hollywood. And Osama actually appeared in "Footloose" with Kevin Bacon.
O'BRIEN: OK, let's move along.
LUCKOVICH: Moving on.
Now, the Democrats have been very quiet about this whole Iraq thing and it's sort-of disappointing because I don't think -- I think can you be patriotic and have questions about a war where a lot of people are going to die.
O'BRIEN: Should be the American way.
LUCKOVICH: Should be, but it hasn't been that way. So I have a Democrat saying to soldiers going into Iraq, "I have grave doubts about rushing into this, and trust me, if I wasn't up for re-election, I'd have voiced them.
O'BRIEN: Pretty much sums it up. If they don't at least say it that way...
LUCKOVICH: Yes, a little bit of honesty -- cut to the chase.
O'BRIEN: All right, moving on.
LUCKOVICH: Moving on...
O'BRIEN: I like the troops.
LUCKOVICH: Thank you, thank you. Now Bush's military doctrine is pretty blunt, and he's pretty much saying we're going to kick your rear if you give us any trouble. I wish he would go back to his wanting a foreign policy that is humble. But that's sort of been abandoned.
So, I drew a school yard bully, and he is saying, "This is well within current norms. I refer you to page seven, paragraph three, of the Bush Military Doctrine.
O'BRIEN: Was there a tip to the pen -- that's Charlie Brown's shirt, isn't it?
LUCKOVICH: Yes, Charlie Brown's shirt, and then the little lunch pail has a Snoopy on it.
O'BRIEN: That's interesting; we were just thinking about him. LUCKOVICH: He is still, as far as popular culture goes, everyone just recognizes that. I thought that would be a cool thing.
O'BRIEN: He wasn't really a bully, he was the picked upon.
Moving along to Saddam.
LUCKOVICH: Now you tell, when things are getting really bad, an aide is saying to Saddam, "The demonizing's increased. Now they're calling you CEO of Iraq. Now that is bad.
O'BRIEN: Now, don't link me to Enron, whatever you do. All right -- next.
LUCKOVICH: And now the administration in building their case, they try and tell us how evil Saddam is, which we all agree. They keep reminding us, as Isidore is coming in, I have Cheney saying, "Of course Saddam is going to deny supplying her winds."
BAKHTIAR: So, we're blaming that on him, too.
O'BRIEN: What would you call the Cheney mouth position?
LUCKOVICH: Very strange.
O'BRIEN: Indigestion.
LUCKOVICH: He looks like he's about to burp when he talks. I love that look of his.
O'BRIEN: It's good fodder for the likes of -- all right, Michaela (ph), what did you think?
BAKHTIAR: Winding up our Sunday morning...
O'BRIEN: Can we get that shot of Michaela over there. Let's get her in, quickly if we can, because she is -- she brought her dad.
OK, what would you say about your dad's segment?
LUCKOVICH: Two thumb's up.
BAKHTIAR: It doesn't get any better than that.
O'BRIEN: OK, Michaela (ph), you get meals for the next week.
LUCKOVICH: Exactly.
O'BRIEN: All right, drop down next time in a couple of weeks.
LUCKOVICH: OK, that would be great.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
