Editing Uncle Duke (section)

===2000 and beyond===
Duke ran for the White House after a short stretch as a key advisor to [[Governor of Minnesota|Minnesota Governor]] [[Jesse Ventura]]. His campaign, headquartered in a motel in [[Coon Rapids, Minnesota]], was a resounding failure, despite corporate sponsorships by heavy hitters [[Lipton|Lipton Tea]] and [[Absolut Vodka]]. (Through the magic of [[motion capture]] technology, Duke was able to announce his candidacy in the real world on ''[[Larry King Live]]''.) A successful business trafficking in [[stem cell]]s was followed by a lucrative involvement in the messy fallout from the [[Enron scandal]].

In March 2005, following the [[suicide]] of [[Hunter S. Thompson]], the strip ran a tribute, with Uncle Duke lamenting the death of the man he called his "inspiration". The first of these strips featured a panel with artwork similar to that of [[Ralph Steadman]], who illustrated several of Thompson's works, including his 1971 novel ''[[Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas]]''.

During the [[Iraq under U.S. Military Occupation|U.S. occupation of Iraq]], Duke installed himself as mayor of the (fictional) [[Iraq]]i city of Al Amok by exploiting a power base of [[Looting|looters]]. In late September 2005, he, having been robbed of his new fortune, relocated to [[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]], to profit from the reconstruction efforts after hurricanes [[Hurricane Katrina|Katrina]] and [[Hurricane Rita|Rita]]. There, after years of verbal abuse and neglect, Honey finally left Duke's employ, though they would later cross paths again.

Duke was then contacted by his son, now a successful [[K Street Project|"K Street lobbyist"]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], and joined his firm as a partner. The pair lobby first in favor of [[Federally recognized tribes|Native American tribes]], then the repressive regime of "Greater Berzerkistan", a fictitious [[Central Asia]]n country with a [[genocide|genocidal]] and megalomaniacal [[dictator]] called [[List of Doonesbury characters#Other characters|Trff Bmzklfrpz]]. During summer 2010 he also served as a mouthpiece for [[BP]] in conjunction with the [[Deepwater Horizon oil spill|Gulf oil leak]].