Character in
Garry Trudeau's
Doonesbury cartoon strip. Duke is a completely unscrupulous,
ethically challenged hustler, rarely seen without dark glasses and cigarette (in holder). A former journalist on
Rolling Stone, Duke went on to be governor of
American Samoa and ambassador to
China, where he rescued (?) his devoted love-slave,
Honey Yuan. He finances several
expensive habits any way he can, and is a tireless proponent of right-wing causes, when paid enough.
The fact that the name and a number of other characteristics are clearly borrowed from Raoul Duke, the alter ego of Hunter S. Thompson, has not exactly gone unnoticed; Thompson has suggested on a number of occasions that he would like to rip out various parts of Trudeau's anatomy, should the two ever meet.
With some help from the official biography on http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/thecast/html/duke.htm