The government once again flirted with a government shutdown this week, with Democrats once again bailing out Republicans to pass a short-term spending bill to get us past the holidays.

Unfortunately, we’ll be right back into this mess in January, when funding will run out for some government agencies. So many of these cartoons – especially Dave Whamond’s funny riff on “Groundhog Day” – will sadly remain relevant come the new year, and probably beyond.

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

#1. Dave Whamond

[download cartoon]

#2. John Darkow

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#3. Chris Weyant

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#4. Chris Weyant

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#5. Dave Granlund

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#6. Dave Granlund

[download cartoon]

#7. Jeff Koterba

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#8. R.J. Matson

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#9. Dave Whamond

[download cartoon]

#10. Bob Englehart

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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