George W. Bush had no more caustic critics than the brilliant columnist Molly Ivins, who passed away after a long fight with breast cancer. Her various books on Bush are must reading for anyone who wants a bracing air of sanity after experiencing any neocon craziness. She will be missed.
PAD
Posted by Peter David at February 1, 2007 07:11 AM | TrackBack | Other blogs commentingMolly Ivins passed away? That's a damn shame. I can't believe the only place I've heard of this so far is on your blog PAD. I read a couple of her books, including Bushwacked. That book was funny and scary at the same time. The things she wrote about that Bush was doing were scary. The little Texas-ism type comments were what made it funny and took the edge off of the fear.
I've seen her interviewed and she always came off as quite a lady, fighting the good fight. I'll miss her.
I once saw her give a speech at some journalism award ceremony at the U of Minnesota. She was asked her impressions of Dubya's first few months as governor of Texas. Her response:
"Well, he's...amiable. Amiable here, amiable there -- amiable out the ass."
I had dragged one of my right-of-center friends with me, and even though he pretty much disagreed with all of her views, he found Molly incredibly funny.
I loved reading her books, but I never got to read her columns on a regular basis. I've got some catching up to do, I guess.
Other favorite moments of reading: her story of her dog, Shit (full name, Shitface), and her description of the Mythical Average Reader of the Minneapolis Star Tribune as a retarded North Dakota housewife (though I might be misremembering that last).
She'll be missed.
I've always enjoyed her caustic wit as a writer. As a Texan, she tried to warn us about Bush and we wouldn't listen.
I think that should be her epitaph.
A friend of mine died of breast cancer a couple of years ago. I had hoped Molly Ivins, on the other hand, would beat it and keep going for another decade or three.
I am saddened.
In honor of Ms. Molly Ivins, I just donated money to the Susan G. Komen For the Cure breast cancer foundation. I think everyone else who was inspired by Molly Ivins' work should do the same.
Very funny and gifted writer. Didn't always agree with where she went opinion-wise, but I always laughed.
Gonna miss her POV over my morning coffee.
Sigh! I always looked forward to reading her columns on the Smirking Chimp. She came up with one of the better nicknames for the President-Shrub.
A wonderful woman, a wonderful writer; she knew time was running out for her, and her final columns were eloquent pleas for sanity in the war on Iraq--but the strength of her writing, first and foremost, was the utter belief that injustice needed to be fought everywhere, by everyone, and that people can make a difference. A true inspiration, and I'll truly miss her.
Molly was a dear friend of mine and she will truly be missed.
She always saw something in me that I never saw in myself, and I will always appreciate that.
Now I have the great memories of Final Fridays (a party she used to have at her home in Austin every last Friday of the month) and accompanying her on the book tour for Bushwacked.
She was a wonderful person and always an inspiration.
I've been meaning to re-read the (pre-Derbya) book of Ivins' writing which my Mom gave me one Christmas. She did seem like a very funny, cool, intelligent person; and cut off prematurely by disease. Very sad.
Amazing that in the same week we lost TWO intelligent, sometimes funny female political columnists to cancer.
Ivins was, of course, one. My favorite memory of her was when she was on Leno in '92 and said "Well, we have Bill Clinton, who never inhaled. And jerry Brown, who never exhaled. While I rarely agreed with her views, she was a far cry from the vicious, angry personalities that now populate so much of talk show/radio show/ news analysis today.
The other was Deborah Orin-Eilbeck. She too, was sharp, funny and witty - and gave candid analysis neither side wanted to hear. She thought the Democrats might have a brokered convention in '04 IF dean hadn't blown himself up with his famous scream screech. She also thought Dubya had made a grave political error for Republicans by backing the UAE Ports deal.
She was also quite attractive. Her column ran in the New York Post and she appeared on Fox News every once in a while. But she was hardly an ideologue. She was truly "fair and balanced" and Bush noted both he and Laura were "saddened" by her passing.
Both women died of cancer. Ivins made the obits on "This Week" and Orin-Eilbeck did not. But both were intelligent women who actually contributed to our country's political discourse in a positive manner. Both were taken far too soon. Orin-Eilbeck was only 59 and had said she was greatly looking forward to the 2008 election.
Both will be missed.