Reporter and political columnist Molly Ivins died yesterday of breast cancer at the age of sixty-two. Molly's stuff was good, and wickedly funny, and insightful, and, at all times, passionate. Her coverage of George W. Bush was aided by the fact that she went to high school with him. She had covered his political career from the beginning and is the one who came up with "Shrub" and "Dubba" as nicknames for the man.
Some "Molly Quotes" about Bush:
-If you think his daddy had trouble with "the vision thing," wait till you meet this one.
-Everyone knows the man has no clue, but no one there has the courage to say it. I mean, good gawd, the man is as he always has been: barely adequate.
-Let me say for the umpteenth time, George W. is not a stupid man. The IQ of his gut, however, is open to debate. In Texas, his gut led him to believe the death penalty has a deterrent effect, even though he acknowledged there was no evidence to support his gut's feeling. When his gut, or something, causes him to announce that he does not believe in global warming -- as though it were a theological proposition -- we once again find his gut ruling that evidence is irrelevant. In my opinion, Bush's gut should not be entrusted with making peace in the Middle East.
-Last week, I began a sentence by saying, "If Bush had any imagination ..." and then I hit myself. Silly me.
-If, at the end of this short book, you find W. Bush's political resume a little light, don't blame us. There's really not much there. We have been looking for six years.
-The poor man who is currently our president has reached such a point of befuddlement that he thinks stem cell research is the same as taking human lives, but that 40,000 dead Iraqi civilians are progress toward democracy.
-Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention.
Molly was always warning her readers about the consequences of turning complete authority of the running of this country over to our elected officials:
-What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority.
-What stuns me most about contemporary politics is not even that the system has been so badly corrupted by money. It is that so few people get the connection between their lives and what the bozos do in Washington and our state capitols.
-Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television sitcom that you can decide you don't much care for.
-I carry no special brief for government...many years of studying the Texas Legislature will disenchant anyone. But if you are put in charge of government, the least you can do is run it well.
-The United States of America is still run by its citizens. The government works for us. Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world. We want and need to work with other nations. We want to find solutions other than killing people. Not in our name, not with our money, not with our children's blood.
We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there.
- January 11, 2007, her last last column, Stand Up Against The Surge.
Television journalist Mike Leonard said about Ivins death, "We lost one of the greats. It's a big loss for our profession and for columnists in particular."
Amen to that.
New York Times obituary.
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