Syndicated columnist Molly Ivins was a force to be reckoned with in punditry and politics, especially as the man she dubbed "Shrub" rose to the White House. So it was painful to see news of her death Wednesday at age 62, just two weeks after declaring in a column that "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."
As her death underscored how singular her talent was, it brought back the potent words she offered for her female fans of a certain age in December 1999, when she’d just been diagnosed with breast cancer. "I don’t need get-well cards, but I would like the beloved women readers to do something for me: Go. Get. The. Damn. Mammogram. Done."
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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24 Comments
Real nice hypocrisy, Rhonda.
When was the last time The Eagle actually ran a column by Molly Ivins?
Meanwhile that son-of-a-bitch Cal Thomas was run just yesterday . . .
I almost forgot–we DO get Kathleen Parker, right wing idiot.
The only thing I can figure out is that The Eagle is keeping costs down by working cheap . . .
err, running people who work cheap . . .
Molly was an icon of Texas independence and pluck; just the right voice, with a thousand imitators among plucky Texas female newspaper editors. As I have read across Texes several time, I’ve come across her influnce often. She was the best out of the Amelia Earhart, Annie Oakly, Oklahoma, female Will Rogers school of journalism; where buckskin clad lady opinionators ride the range.
I’ll miss her.
Despite my ambivolence about concepts of the afterlife (I’m a lapsed agnostic; I’m not sure what it is I don’t believe in), I still entertain a fantasy that when we die we somehow learn all the answers that escaped us in life.
We’ll know where Jimmy Hoffa’s buried. Who killed JFK. The appeal of “For Better or For Worse” on the funny pages. And, if pressed, St. Peter will explain to us how George WMD Bush’s presidency somehow fits into God’s eternal plan. That last question is what I’m counting on since I’m sure thelogic will take billions of years to explain until I’m cast into the Lake of Fire.
Or maybe it’s not like the cartoonish Pearly Gates. Maybe, just perhaps, at that moment we shed this mortal coil, all the secrets of this life will comeinto focus.
If that’s the case, tonight Molly Ivins knows.
She’ll learn the facts behind Divine Intervention…like when Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand tied for the Best Actress Oscar, or when the Mets won the ‘69 World Series, or how the creme filling gets inside Hostess Cupcakes.
But, knowing Molly, she’ll ask tougher questions: About George HW Bush’s participation in the guns-for-hostages-for-cocaine Iran/Contra deal. About Shrub’s real activites during his National Guard years. About Halliburton (nee, Kellogg-Root) and its manipulation of government (and extra-government) policies to bestow power and fortune to those so greedy to sell out any and every American ideal.
Molly will finally get that interview Ken Lay escaped. (They belong to eternity now, he can’t hold out forever).
She’ll sip boubon and branch water with Mencken and Twain and they’ll laugh and cry about all they knew but no one believed back in the days when they were able to express some logic and common sense to the people they lived with. Molly will introduce H.L. and Mark to fellow Texans Ann Richards and Barbara Jordan and there will be more laughs and wisdom than any has ever experienced.
And, I suspect, Molly won’t be surprised in the least.
Because Molly Ivins knew.
And she reported what she knew.
And she knew what she knew would be rejected by the sheeple-corporate-conservative-Republican-moron coalition who run the worldshe lived it.
And they hated her.
But tonight Molly knows she was right all along.
I have especially enjoyed her books on CD or tape.
Her writing has all the more flavor when you hear her read it.
A lone, yellow star ascends to the firmament.
Good-bye, Molly. We adored you. Thanks for everything.
I do find it somewhat disturbing that the Eagle carries Thomas but nothing to balance. And the Righties call it a “lefty lib” paper …
I had the opportunity to meet Ms. Ivins when she was in Wichita in 1989.She was always the kind of person I’d like to be… if I grow up.
Is it too late to make a trade with God?
Ann Coulter for Molly Ivins.
Even up.
Hell, we’ll throw in Kathleen Parker and Peggy Noonan.
It wouldn’t work WSC. The “other guy” would get Coulter …
The first time I saw Molly Ivins was on a video presentation, at a meeting of Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador. She was much younger then–no gray hair–and ripping Reagan a new one, in her well-known style.
Some may recall that the Reagan FBI spied on Otto for organizing those meetings.
I find that oddly fitting. :-)
Molly had a talent was stating the obvious that everyone was ignoring, only to be proven right when it was too late. We may not ever learn the lessons of history, but history will not forget her.
Bye Molly: I never met you, but it’s like I lost a friend.
“I do find it somewhat disturbing that the Eagle carries Thomas but nothing to balance. And the Righties call it a “lefty lib” paper …”
ben–Why do you kill me? More on this later.
Molly was my voice and the voice of millions. We got her, she got us. She just had the most eloquent way of saying it.
I read Ivans the way I imagine JR listens to Rush – making nasty comments and usually throwing the paper in disgust. But she did have a way with words, and her positions, even if I disagreed with her (which I usually did) were always thoughtful. You ignored her at your peril.
We need those who jab us in our collective ribs, however uncomfortable the words might me. We need to hear, especially, from those we disagree with. That is true both on the left and the right.
Far too many of us get our news/commentary only from places which reinforce our narrow world view.
I’ll miss her. And I generally didn’t even agree with her.
That’s “might BE,” no “me.” Brief overload (It’s done, thank God. But the nest one’s sitting right here, waiting).
Edit yourself, as you read, folks, if you like!!
GMC, ours is done, too; thus, back to seeing clients; luckily, not another one in the mill.
I agree; we owe it ourselves to be “jabbed in our collective ribs” and to hear from those with whom we disagree.
Comparing Molly Ivins to Rush Limbaugh?
I understand your SENTIMENT.
But confidently on behalf of Molly?
“Ewwwwww!”
A remembrance of Molly Ivins that I found worth the read:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2007/01/molly_ivins.html
Molly, we’re gonna miss you.
Molly said it best:
“I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn’t actually hurt, but it leaves youwith slimy stuff on your ankle.”
JR – you misread. I didn’t compare Ivans to Rush (though there is more comparison there than you’d like to admit; they both did much the same thing, just on opposite sides of the debate).
I was refering to you, and me, as we read (or listen). But I didn’t claim to “monitor” (that choice of words makes me giggle – scratching down notes, dashing off letters to sponsors . . . !) Ivans, as you claim to with Rush. Just read, and often disagree.
http://www.texasobserver.org/molly_gallery.html
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070219/molly_ivins
Good bye Molly.
It’s just so sad, especially at a time when her voice is so desparately needed. As much as I hate to say anything nice about the “Shrub” he really did have a nice quote about her, so did Governor GoodHair. I’m really gonna miss her, I always searched for her column, since the Eagle was to rednecked to print it…thank goodness for the web!
Running across an Ivins column was always like a breath of fresh air. Love her or hate her, she always had that irascable Texas style.
Good-by, dear lady. We’ll miss you.