The monkey referred to in the UK Mirror article is George W. Bush. As is evident from the second paragraph, Ms. Rice is the monkey's trainer.

I personally read the Doonesbury comic with the President saying "Careful, Brown Sugar." If so, it serves to demean the President and not Ms. Rice. Even though the speech bubble is on the right - where Ms. Rice's voice was in the previous 3 strips - I cannot fathom why she'd call the President "Brown Sugar." The comic only makes sense if that's the President's line.

One Oliphant comic shows Ms. Rice effectively being the monkey's trainer yet again (Bush: "aye aye, cap'n"). She's telling the President to go "further right." The following comic shows her parroting the President, which Ms. Rice could rightfully be accused of doing. Mr. Powell strayed far from the inner sanctum at times. Ms. Rice has yet to do so. Ms. Rice as a parrot is not Jim Crow chanting "Yes, Massa! Whatever you say, Massa!"

As for Danziger, it is arguably racist. It strongly plays off of African American stereotypes and is demeaning toward Ms. Rice. But there was a lot of double-speak from the administration leading up to and following the war in Iraq. Ms. Rice was guilty of her fair share. The cartoon undeniably is harsh. I'd much rather talk about its content (that is, the double-speak) than be distracted by the manner in which that content is presented. I'd argue that Danziger should have chosen a different picture to convey his message. I'd also argue that Limbaugh is doing some hand waving to pull a rabbit out of his hat.

I'm not trying to forgive racism. It's abhorrent. But, in my opinion, only one of those 5 pieces uses race to demean Ms. Rice. It is not racist to criticize someone of a different race. It is racist when you use race as the means to the end. Only Danziger's piece accomplishes that.