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Meet Tom Toles
What happens when a "liberal tempered with time" moves four blocks away from a "compassionate Conservative?" The answer lies in Tom Toles' editorial cartoons, which often depict Washington politics under a Republican administration. When Toles moved southward to Herbert Block's position at The Washington Post nearly two years ago, the Bush administration transformed from "policy abstraction — to neighbors," the 1990 Pulitzer Prize winner says. That intensified rapport is captured in the thoughtful and provocative cartoons Toles consistently produces for The Post. He carries out his mission — "to say what needs saying'" — by informing, entertaining and moving the public debate forward with his signature unrelenting directness and brilliance. Toles is certain of the "who," "what," "where" and "when" involved in producing five national and one regional editorial cartoon per week for The Post. But the "how" — the process of transforming his extensive reading on the issues to a cartoon by his daily afternoon deadline — is still somewhat mysterious to him, even after nearly 30 years in the business. Cartooning chose him as a profession, Toles says, when an editor at the Buffalo Courier-Express encouraged him to become the paper's full-time editorial cartoonist right after graduating from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1973. He moved to The Buffalo News when the Courier-Express closed in 1982 and remained there until taking the position at The Post in 2002. That same year, Toles was named the editorial cartoonist of the year by Editor & Publisher. He has also received the John Fischetti Award, the Free Press Association Mencken Award and a Global Media Award for his environmental cartoons. His children's book "My School is Worse Than Your School" was published by Viking in 1997. He, his wife and two children live in the Washington, D.C. area.
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