I’ll never stop missing Molly Ivins

[Cyrano]

Molly Ivins was one of the greatest American political observers/humorists of the 20th century. Many people, to their great loss, never read her books or columns. But for those of us who did, we shall never forget her.

Much of Molly’s writings were about Texas politicians. Her first book about George W. Bush was titled “Shrub.” She later remarked that if more people had read it, he probably wouldn’t have become president and she wouldn’t have had to write “Bushwhacked.”

Molly had a way of slicing and dicing politicians that was unmatched by any other humorist or columnist. She once remarked of a Texas congressman: “If his IQ slips any lower, we’ll have to water him twice a day.”

One of my favorites was printed in “Mother Jones” magazine which didn’t edit out profanity. The Texas legislature had just passed a law against sodomy. When two of the congressmen shook hands upon their “great legislative victory,” Molly wrote: “… and by shaking hands, they broke the law they had just passed that a prick can’t touch an asshole.”

Perhaps her most famous quote was the one about Pat Buchanan’s speech at the 1992 Republican Convention. Buchanan was deluded enough to cut loose with a hate-filled rant against Bill Clinton, gays and liberalism, and in which he did his best to call for and try to provoke a religious war in our country.

It was the kind of speech with which most Republicans agreed, but would never have voiced (at the time). Molly needed only seven words to demolish it. “It sounded better in the original German.” Talk about harpooning a hot air balloon.

The next time you find yourself depressed by the political news of the day, Google some of Molly’s quotes. I don’t think there was a 20th century Mark Twain, but Molly comes as close as we’re likely to find.

Jeeeez, I miss her wit, her humor, her laughter, her joy of life and her very existence among us.

[HarveyDarkey]

1. RIP Molly

I read her"religiously", and I'm an atheist.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. Funny you should mention that.......

I just started reading "Who Let The Dogs In," and it's aching - so hard - to read all that she wrote about Chimpy Fucknuts.

She saw it all coming. All of it.

I agree with you about the Mark Twain comparison. She was every bit his equal, I think.

[yellowdogintexas]

4. oh I adored Molly Ivins. Miss her dreadfully.

I had the great good fortune to hear her speak at DemocracyFest in Austin, 2006, along with Howard Dean, Jim Hightower and others. She was mahvelous.

If you have never heard her, she had a deep, throaty Southern voice. In fact I had read her stuff for a long time before I ever heard her voice, which was one night on Letterman. She sounds just like you think she ought to sound.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

6. She sounded like a lot of great women I've known,

that throaty, experienced voice with so much life behind it. A voice that was cultivated in smoky bars in strange places.

I miss her, too.

[Dover]

12. And so tall too!

I was shocked when I first met Molly at how tall she was. I'm not sure why I had always pictured
her as much shorter than that, but she had as prominant a physical presence as she did on the printed page.

[pearl]

3. Me too

God, I miss her so bad I ache. I was born in Texas, now in Chicago. But recently was in Texas, west of Austin at the time of her passing. Word came out locally that she had gone home to die. I lit a candle and waited for the news. I was just quoting her today. I loved how she said "Sons of bitches". Thanks for remembering her. I only wish she had lived to see the election of Obama.

[Dover]

8. She would probably be throwing a major hissy fit over some of Obama's selections.

I would LOVE to hear her take on the conflicting feelings about him (the love and hope he engenders vs. the confounding choices he's making). She would likely have nailed it.

Well at least another native Texan, Bill Moyers, as been keeping a watchful running commentary although not with the same humor.

[malaise]

5. You are not alone

I was rereading this classic in the light of the Stanford scandal - classic Molly

The Suicide of Capitalism - damn she was prescient.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060717_molly_ivins_suicide_capitalism/
<snip>
AUSTIN, Texas—In case you haven’t got anything else to worry about—like war in the Middle East, nuclear showdowns, global warming or Apocalypse Now—how about the suicide of capitalism?

Late last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals struck down a new rule by the Securities and Exchange Commission requiring mandatory registration with the SEC for most hedge funds. This may not strike you as the end of the world, but that’s because you’ve either forgotten what a hedge fund is or how much trouble the funds can get us into.

These investment pools for rich folks are now a $1.2-trillion industry (known to insiders, I am pleased to report, as “the hedge fund community”). Hedge funds are now beginning to be used by average investors and pension investors. Back in 1998, there was this little-bitty old hedge fund called Long Term Capital Management. Because hedge funds make high-risk bets, Long Term Capital got itself in so much trouble its collapse actually threatened to wreck world markets, and regulators had to step in to negotiate a $3.6-billion bailout. A similar fiasco at this point probably would break world markets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission under William Donaldson (appointed after the Enron mess) had tried to regulate hedge funds. But Christopher Cox, current SEC chairman and no friend of regulation, said he would consult other members of the administration about whether to appeal the ruling, which “came on the same day as disclosures,” reports The Washington Post, that the feds “are investigating Pequot Capital Management, Inc., a $7 billion hedge fund, for possible insider trading.” Nice timing, judges.

This is the third time in less than a year the appeals court has blocked the SEC from acting beyond its authority. According to The Washington Post, “Former SEC member Harvey J. Goldschmid, who voted to approve the plan, yesterday urged regulators to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, members of Congress or both. In the Pequot case, a former SEC lawyer who worked on the Pequot investigation before being fired by the agency has written a letter to key members of the Senate banking and finance committees alleging that the SEC dropped the probe because of political pressure.” The lawyer said he was prevented by political pressure from interviewing a top Wall Street executive. Sources said the executive was John J. Mack, once chairman of Pequot and now chief executive of Morgan Stanley—and a major fundraiser for President Bush’s campaigns. I’d say the guy’s wired.
------------------------------

Molly warned us big time.

[Dover]

9. Wow, I'll say! That deserves it's own thread (if not in GD then in the Economy forum)..n/t

[MarianJack]

7. Proud to be the first vote...

...for the late great Molly!

[Dover]

10. dupe n/t

[Hekate]

11. A wonderful women's folk-music group in the Northwest sings "Missing Molly Ivins Tonight"

I'm trying to find it online again--the group is The Righteous Mothers--here's Old Fat Naked Women for Peace, which is how I ended up with Missing Molly Ivins. http://www.righteousmothers.com/pages/RMVideo.html

Here it is:

Better link for all their stuff: http://www.righteousmothers.com/pages/listen.php

http://www.righteousmothers.com/pages/sndfiles/Missing%20Molly%20Ivins%20download.mp3
Bring a hanky.

Hekate

[SheilaT]

13. I've been thinking about her a lot lately.

On election night I wondered what she'd have thought or said about Barack Obama. I'm sure she'd have been absolutely thrilled with his candidacy and election.

She used to do commentaries on Morning Edition on NPR. The last one she did was on September 11, guess what year. I lived then in the Central Time Zone, and had caught it on the first go-round that morning, and was looking forward to hearing it again. I can no longer remember at what point in the hour it occurred, but that morning I'd driven my kids to school, and got home right before 8 am local time. I'd been listening to Morning Edition on the radio, of course, then walked inside the house and turned the kitchen radio on. Then Bob Edwards said, "Reports are sketchy, but it appears that an airplane has crashed into the World Trade Center". I thought to myself, This is a visual, and promptly turned on the TV. Well, you all know how the rest of that morning played out. If you go to the NPR archive for Morning Edition on that day the Molly Ivins piece does not even appear.

I don't know if that was her last scheduled day with them, which I doubt since it was mid-week, or if they simply dropped her, the effing cowards.

I did get to see her when she came to speak in Kansas City in September, 2003. Here's a link to the thread from then. I used to be Dofus.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x220786

Oh, how I miss her.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

14. I adored Molly

A brilliant, witty, straight talkin' Texas gal who never failed to call bullshit what it was, and loudly. Ye gods, she is missed.

She, Barbara Jordan and Ann Richards must be swapping some grand stories these days. I still think Molly wrote that "silver foot in his mouth" line for Ann at the '88 Dem Convention. That was a Molly line if ever one there was.

[Cyrano]

18. I too always believed that Molly wrote that line

Ann Richards was smart, quick and lovable. When she said in her Texas drawl, "Poor George. He can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.", my immediate reaction was that Molly Ivins had written that line for her.

I guess we'll never know.

[tavalon]

15. I miss her too

Nance Greggs makes it a little easier for me. I swear she channels Molly. But yeah, she was an original. As angry as she would get, she also loved her Texas pols.

[Hekate]

16. I'd love to read her take on Obama's election and on how he's doing so far ...

... against the forces arrayed against him. God, I do miss her voice -- so humorous and so incisive, all at once. I would love to know the secret of her continued ability to laugh...

I miss her.

Hekate

[Norrin Radd]

17. She kicked major ass.

Heck, her words still are kickin' ass.

[janet118]

19. She will always be my role model

A real cowgirl for Democracy, she was.

[hiphopnation]

20. her books and writing were great

but what I loved most of all was listening to her speak. she had that quintessential Southern charm mixed with biting rhetoric and wit -- listening to her always made me smile, even when she was tearing someone a new one, LOL!

God speed, Molly.

[Salloot299]

21. I saw her speak at Book People in Austin once, I'll never forget, she's a legend

[Cyrano]

22. Hi, Salloot299 and welcome to DU

I agree with you that Molly was a legend.

Beyond her writings, she was a lady of great charm, wit, charisma, intelligence, wisdom, and what can only be called "sheer loveability."

You really only needed to see her once on TV to fall in love with her.

I remember a CSpan book show she did with Al Franken and Bill O'Reilly a few years back. Franken and O'Reilly tried to rip each other's throats out.

Afterward, they were interviewed and all Molly had to say about O'Reilly was: "The man is a bully."

Aside from all the bullshit and lies that O'Reilly peddles nightly on Fox "News," how do you sum up the core of what this despicable man is all about in only five words? Molly did it. "The Man's a bully." Her choice of the word "bully" implies volumes.

Shakespeare wrote, "Brevity is the soul of wit." It was one of Molly's great talents that she needed very few words to shred both tyrants and fools alike.

[kath]

23. Her piece about her visit to the Vietnam War Memorial gives me chills.

It's in her first or second book. It's written in the third person, but it sure seems to me that it was autobiographical. Very, very moving.