Corruption has long been one of the most appealing themes to political satirists. Few failings are as clear-cut as the use of political power for personal enrichment, and few acts are such explicit betrayals of the public trust. Plus, it also seems to be the case that bags of money are fun to draw. Pat Oliphant frequently pointed to exchanges of money for political favors, but his sketch of Spiro Agnew is particularly elegant (Agnew resigned as Vice President in 1973 after a trial related to kickbacks he accepted while he had been Governor of Maryland). Imputations of corruption were common in visual satires from 200 years earlier. In 1782 James Gillray presented Charles James Fox confronting his bitter political rival the Earl of Shelburne, who conceals a bag of government gold under his cloak. The following year, William Wells’ cartoon “Paradise Regain’d” shows Fox again, this time celebrating with his former opponent Lord North, having finally gained access to the government treasury after their creation of a coalition government that toppled Shelburne.

Pat Oliphant, George H.W. Bush, charcoal sketch, 1998. Courtesy of the Wallace House Center for Journalists.