RIP Molly Ivins

Molly was one of my favorite liberals. A sense of humor, a sense of whimsy and first class writing made her columns a joy to read I will miss her in my local paper, the Poulist and the Progressive magazine.

Molly always seemed right on my wavelength. I think that she had things figured out long before most of us caught on.

To each his own, I guess. I don't think she was funny; I don't think she was witty; I don't think she was clever. I DO think she was intolerant and mean-spirited. I won't miss Molly Ivins.

quote:

Originally posted by Poverty Pete

To each his own, I guess. I don't think she was funny; I don't think she was witty; I don't think she was clever. I DO think she was intolerant and mean-spirited. I won't miss Molly Ivins.

I understand that she was a lot of fun at cocktail parties.

she was a real texan.
i can just imagine ann richards
and molly talking up there in heaven.

Hello All,
I will miss her. She was a strong person with strong ideas, and a great sense of
humour. She also possessed such down-home dignity and grace. She could use
words like a fencers welding a sword. Most of all, she spoke in way that made
her feel like a part of my family. I might disagree or agree with her, (usually
agree) but her tone and language gave me a sense of trust and honesty. She
wasn't slick, but gave a savory flavour to me. I will miss her taste.
Take Care,
Fieldthistle

As a child I was told that if you cant say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all.
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PS "______________________________________________"

.......... Frank

Very sad

Loved her. Hey, I'm a liberal, outspoken b***h just like her! She said everything I would want to say, but she did it in a much more humorous fashion. Rest in peace, Molly...give 'em hell up there in heaven!!

Well said Frank.

Hello All,
I know Frank and NebGuy are having fun, and it doesn't bother me.
But I don't want the last words spoken about Molly to be ended that way.
She was a beautiful woman. As she aged, she grew a little weight, but
God, the glimmer in her eyes, the sweetness of her smile still reflected
a beauty of her youth. And dang it, a few pounds does not make a woman
less beautiful. She was sexy, and I mean sexy, everytime I saw her, even
when she was struggling with her cancer.
She had a wit that equalled or surpassed anyone that I can recall. I would
have loved to see her at dinner table with Mark Twain or Ann Coulter.
And she was smart. She did her research and wrote with truth. And the few,
and I mean, few, times that she discovered something she had written was
wrong, she admitted it and made the record correct.
If you had seen her or read her words, I don't think she would be offended
by my saying, she was a classy broad.
And most of all, she was dedicated to and love for her country. She spoke
her heart, mind, and soul; and while she did it with wit, intelligence, and
often with barbing words, she didn't do it with personal malice. She may have
written and spoke with patriotic zeal, patriotic malice, or patriotic hope.
She was a good, strong woman who was not afraid to jump in the ring with
the good ol' boys.
So, while the good ol' boys may dance on her grave, she's in her heaven,
sipping on bourbon and coke with God, finally realizing the heaven she sought
to spread and open up to our earth.
I don't like bourbon, but for Molly,...sip.....Here's one for you!
Take Care,
Fieldthistle

Just for the record, I'm not a good ole boy, nor do I dance upon people's graves. Wouldn't it be customary to wait five years before canonizing St. Molly?

thanks, fieldthistle.

i admired the woman.
it's as simple as that.

In my daily newspaper, The Star-Ledger, there is a conservative columnist (Paul Mulshine) whose writing is almost always thought-provoking and filled with interesting insights. While I don't always agree with him, I find that I agree with perhaps 70% of what he says in his columns. (Proof that I am more moderate than most people would think I am). In his column of February 6th, Mr. Mulshine gave a requiem for Molly Ivins that I found particularly interesting.

Mr. Mulshine opined that Ms. Ivins was a liberal, "but not a clueless liberal", and that she understood practical politics in general and Texas politics in particular. He reminisced about an evening in 2000 when they had shared a few beers and Ms. Ivins had regaled him with tales of the man who had just become the President-elect. As Mr. Mulshine reminds us, he voted for Mr. Bush, but only to "keep the White House out of the hands of unions, trial lawyers, and urban political machines". In other words, he voted for Mr. Bush because he considered him to be the lesser of two (or three?) evils.

Mr. Mulshine tells us that he agreed with Ms. Ivins' statements about Mr. Bush: "a likeable guy", but simultaneously, "it appears that he doesn't know much, doesn't do much, and doesn't care much about governing".

He says that although they disagreed on virtually everything else political, he placed some credence in Ms. Ivins' assessment of Bush, and in fact, he found some similarities to another politically-connected, old-money WASP who was then Governor of NJ--Christine Todd Whitman. As he tells it, they both had the lamentable trait of "having been born on third base and thinking that they'd hit a triple"--to paraphrase Jim Hightower.

Rather than restate everything that he said, I will cut to the chase. Mulshine ended his column by saying:

"I recognized Bush as a fraud from the very beginning, and have the writings to prove it. But, I have to confess that on that evening long ago when I was drinking beer with Ivins, I thought that she was exaggerating his deficiencies because of her liberal ideology. But no, she had him pegged. And, I would like to ask the following question of all the neo and wannabe conservatives out there who bought his load of Texas bull: If you dislike liberals so much, why did you support the one guy who would prove them right?"


I think that this requiem for Ms. Ivins from a true conservative is perhaps one of the best statements of how much we lost when this insightful woman passed on. Mr. Mulshine is intelligent enough to acknowledge when those on the other side of the political fence are correct, and clearly, as the events of the past 6 years have shown, Molly Ivins was correct about the current occupant of The White House.

quote:

Originally posted by Tedbear


In my daily newspaper, The Star-Ledger, there is a conservative columnist (Paul Mulshine) whose writing is almost always thought-provoking and filled with interesting insights. While I don't always agree with him, I find that I agree with perhaps 70% of what he says in his columns. (Proof that I am more moderate than most people would think I am). In his column of February 6th, Mr. Mulshine gave a requiem for Molly Ivins that I found particularly interesting.

Mr. Mulshine opined that Ms. Ivins was a liberal, "but not a clueless liberal", and that she understood practical politics in general and Texas politics in particular. He reminisced about an evening in 2000 when they had shared a few beers and Ms. Ivins had regaled him with tales of the man who had just become the President-elect. As Mr. Mulshine reminds us, he voted for Mr. Bush, but only to "keep the White House out of the hands of unions, trial lawyers, and urban political machines". In other words, he voted for Mr. Bush because he considered him to be the lesser of two (or three?) evils.

Mr. Mulshine tells us that he agreed with Ms. Ivins' statements about Mr. Bush: "a likeable guy", but simultaneously, "it appears that he doesn't know much, doesn't do much, and doesn't care much about governing".

He says that although they disagreed on virtually everything else political, he placed some credence in Ms. Ivins' assessment of Bush, and in fact, he found some similarities to another politically-connected, old-money WASP who was then Governor of NJ--Christine Todd Whitman. As he tells it, they both had the lamentable trait of "having been born on third base and thinking that they'd hit a triple"--to paraphrase Jim Hightower.

Rather than restate everything that he said, I will cut to the chase. Mulshine ended his column by saying:

"I recognized Bush as a fraud from the very beginning, and have the writings to prove it. But, I have to confess that on that evening long ago when I was drinking beer with Ivins, I thought that she was exaggerating his deficiencies because of her liberal ideology. But no, she had him pegged. And, I would like to ask the following question of all the neo and wannabe conservatives out there who bought his load of Texas bull: If you dislike liberals so much, why did you support the one guy who would prove them right?"


I think that this requiem for Ms. Ivins from a true conservative is perhaps one of the best statements of how much we lost when this insightful woman passed on. Mr. Mulshine is intelligent enough to acknowledge when those on the other side of the political fence are correct, and clearly, as the events of the past 6 years have shown, Molly Ivins was correct about the current occupant of The White House.

Yes, let's "cut to the chase," shall we?

You took the death of a liberal columnist as an opportunity to write a hit piece on President Bush and tried to pass it off to us as a tribute to the brilliant insightfulness of the deceased. Nice going.

Big target there and most former supporters are running to the hills. Still, I find dogged support from the few rather touching. I hadn't heard the Hightower description before and that could be used on any political persusion from a political family be they Bush, Daley or Kennedy. "having been born on third base and thinking that they'd hit a triple"! Hoo-ha!

Hello all,
I've witnessed that the people of Roadfood are good, kind people from many areas and perspectives, with
many passions and loves. And when a promenient figure or one of our own Roadfooders is ill or dies,
we gather together in a thread, much like this one, to share our grief, hopes, prayers, and support.
It is akin to a chapel, (not a chapel, because not all believe in a diety,) but it is a
place to express oneself in a more...sacred or soulful way.
Earlier, there were comments made that I found distasteful that have disappeared. I found them
distasteful, especially for a thread of this nature. I cringe at the using of these types of threads in a political or mean way, from either side of the political spectrum. I don't know if Ms. Ivins would have wanted them deleted. She believed in free speech, but I
don't know how she would felt about this.
I do know it has soured me abit. A person died, and some people said some nasty things about her
and some have used her death to belittle others.
I'm not a righteous person and so have little position to judge others. I am sorry if it sounds
like I have...I'm just soured abit and need to lose it.
I hope future "R.I.P." threads are kinder. Yes, they can be deleted, but some of us read them
before they get deleted.
Rest In Peace, Molly.
Take Care,
Fieldthistle

Kinky Friedman remembers Molly Ivins for the LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-friedman4feb04,1,1355933.story

If you can't see the article, try bugmenot.com for a password.

I'm not very familar with Molly's work but Kinky's piece is funny (like he always is) and a little sad. Worth reading.

Don't mean to upstage you Improvisor, but here is the eulogy, just emailed to me by my daughter abe froeman(!):

from the LA Times...

Molly Ivins -- 'a truth-seeking missile'

Columnist Molly Ivins was a feisty truth-teller unafraid to battle those who prevented a better world.

By Kinky Friedman, KINKY FRIEDMAN is an author, musician and former candidate for governor of Texas.

February 4, 2007

A true maverick died in Texas last week, and they don't make 'em extra.

There'll always be plenty of George Bushes and John Kerrys to go around; the Crips and the Bloods will trot them out every four years whether we like it or not. But a voice in the wilderness, like the still, small voice within, is a song to be savored while we have it, whether we're listening or not, and when we have lost it, we should mourn for ourselves. Such a voice was that of Molly Ivins.

I met her on the gangplank of Noah's ark. I did not agree with her on a lot of things. Like Sinatra, I've gotten more conservative as I've gotten older. But not Molly. With the awkward grace of a child of our times, she clung to her ideals and notions and hopes, riding against the wind in a state as red as the blood of a dying cowboy. The word I'm looking for is "righteous." Righteous without being self-righteous.

Molly was a truth-seeking missile. She was a devil and an angel and a spiritual chop-buster who went after anybody who got in the way of a better world. Quite often she towered above the people she wrote about. They, as likely as not, were merely the slick, lubricated heads of well-oiled political machines; she was a dreamer, a little girl lost at the county fair, who somehow grew up to be a brave and bawdy and brilliant ball-buster in a state where men have always been men and emus have always been nervous.

In an age in which the five major religions are Bank of America, Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Starbucks, Molly Ivins was an atheist. The New York Times, which got Herman Melville's name wrong in his obituary, called Molly a "liberal newspaper columnist." The Los Angeles Times said she was a "political humorist and best-selling author." They were right, of course, but those are the words we use when we don't know what to say.

In her dark, American heart, Molly was mostly a troublemaker in the feisty spirit of Jesus Christ, John Brown, Joe Hill and, not to be a male chauvinist or needlessly alliterative, Joan of Arc and Josephine Baker. Two, and possibly three, among this esteemed and reviled assemblage spent time in France. Molly studied in Paris. I do not like France. I do not know what Molly thought of that country. I know she loved this one.

It is, however, the sacred duty of the troublemaker to stir the putrid pot of humanity every now and again, to make people see that there is something more important than political correctness and that is moral correctness, and to challenge the prayers and the promises of the heartbroken land she loved. And she did it mostly with wit and humor, the kind of humor that sailed dangerously close to the truth without sinking the ship. There are two kinds of sailors, they say: the sailor who fights the sea and the sailor who loves the sea. Molly loved the sea.

I loved Molly because she would say things nobody else had the cojones to say, always in a funny and charming Texas way, of course. Imagine a big, brazen cowgirl walking up and saying, "That boy's jeans are on so tight, if he farted he'd blow his boots off."

My dad, Tom, was a World War II hero, and Molly had long been one of his heroes, though he had never met her. After he had a heart attack, Molly showed up on our doorstep one afternoon just to visit with him. Molly lifted his spirits and her gesture touched him deeply, as it did his son.

Finally, Molly gave me the greatest slogan I had in my recent campaign for governor of Texas. The slogan was, "Why the hell not?" Why the hell not, indeed. In this homogenized, trivialized, sanitized world, she stands as a lighthouse not just to the left but to us all. Peace be with you, Molly.

quote:

Originally posted by desertdog

quote:

Originally posted by Tedbear


In my daily newspaper, The Star-Ledger, there is a conservative columnist (Paul Mulshine) whose writing is almost always thought-provoking and filled with interesting insights. While I don't always agree with him, I find that I agree with perhaps 70% of what he says in his columns. (Proof that I am more moderate than most people would think I am). In his column of February 6th, Mr. Mulshine gave a requiem for Molly Ivins that I found particularly interesting.

Mr. Mulshine opined that Ms. Ivins was a liberal, "but not a clueless liberal", and that she understood practical politics in general and Texas politics in particular. He reminisced about an evening in 2000 when they had shared a few beers and Ms. Ivins had regaled him with tales of the man who had just become the President-elect. As Mr. Mulshine reminds us, he voted for Mr. Bush, but only to "keep the White House out of the hands of unions, trial lawyers, and urban political machines". In other words, he voted for Mr. Bush because he considered him to be the lesser of two (or three?) evils.

Mr. Mulshine tells us that he agreed with Ms. Ivins' statements about Mr. Bush: "a likeable guy", but simultaneously, "it appears that he doesn't know much, doesn't do much, and doesn't care much about governing".

He says that although they disagreed on virtually everything else political, he placed some credence in Ms. Ivins' assessment of Bush, and in fact, he found some similarities to another politically-connected, old-money WASP who was then Governor of NJ--Christine Todd Whitman. As he tells it, they both had the lamentable trait of "having been born on third base and thinking that they'd hit a triple"--to paraphrase Jim Hightower.

Rather than restate everything that he said, I will cut to the chase. Mulshine ended his column by saying:

"I recognized Bush as a fraud from the very beginning, and have the writings to prove it. But, I have to confess that on that evening long ago when I was drinking beer with Ivins, I thought that she was exaggerating his deficiencies because of her liberal ideology. But no, she had him pegged. And, I would like to ask the following question of all the neo and wannabe conservatives out there who bought his load of Texas bull: If you dislike liberals so much, why did you support the one guy who would prove them right?"


I think that this requiem for Ms. Ivins from a true conservative is perhaps one of the best statements of how much we lost when this insightful woman passed on. Mr. Mulshine is intelligent enough to acknowledge when those on the other side of the political fence are correct, and clearly, as the events of the past 6 years have shown, Molly Ivins was correct about the current occupant of The White House.

Yes, let's "cut to the chase," shall we?

You took the death of a liberal columnist as an opportunity to write a hit piece on President Bush and tried to pass it off to us as a tribute to the brilliant insightfulness of the deceased. Nice going.

DesertDog,

I lived in NJ for a long time. I don't consider myself liberal at all, and I don't consider Paul Mulshine liberal either. He is more of a libertarian, or an old fashioned conservative, one who resents what he believes to be the religious wing of the party hijacking it from the mainstream. His words, not mine.

quote:

Originally posted by desertdog

[quote
Yes, let's "cut to the chase," shall we?

You took the death of a liberal columnist as an opportunity to write a hit piece on President Bush and tried to pass it off to us as a tribute to the brilliant insightfulness of the deceased. Nice going.

Please re-read what I posted.

I did not "write a hit piece" on Mr. Bush. I was merely quoting a CONSERVATIVE columnist whose requiem to Molly Ivins included his assessment of how accurate and prescient she had been regarding Mr. Bush. Despite their differing political philosophies, Mr. Mulshine was able to see Molly Ivins as a unique person, and he was telling his readers what he admired about her. In the course of his reminiscenses, he restated his well-known personal opinion of Dubya, which is not exactly glowing.

Whether you or I agree with him or not, my point was to show how some people can see past political differences long enough to appreciate the abilities of others. The topic of this post was the passing of Ms. Ivins, and I merely passed along the only column in my daily newspaper that commented on her passing.

I am sorry if you did not like Molly Ivins, but as Paul Mulshine's column shows, not all conservatives hold the same opinions as you do. Perhaps you should write to Mr. Mulshine about your differences with his viewpoints, rather than castigating me for mentioning them.

Tedbear,

Please Re-read what I posted.

I never said I did not like Molly Ivins.
I never said that I was a conservative.
I never said that I agree or disagree with Mr. Mulshine's viewpoint.

I do find it humorus that since some obscure "conservative" journalist points out in one of his columns that he thinks the same way as Ivins did about the President (or as you disrespectfully like to refer to him, Mr. Bush) you decide to use that particular opinion as your basis for how "insightful" she was. Everything you wrote and quoted is someone's opinion, not fact, regardless of how much you would like us to think it is.

So, if your post wasn't a slam on the current administration, why would you finish your post with this little gem:

Mr. Mulshine is intelligent enough to acknowledge when those on the other side of the political fence are correct, and clearly, as the events of the past 6 years have shown, Molly Ivins was correct about the current occupant of The White House.

No matter whether one agrees with this or not, you are projecting your personal opinion of the President on us, not on the stated issue of Molly's passing. I am sorry you do not like President Bush, but don't use someone's death to come on here and promote your political agenda.

Tedbear, you have just written 700 + words in this thread; the subject being "RIP Molly Ivins".
In those 700+ words nowhere did you express your personal feelings or condolences to the passing of Molly Ivins.

Instead you took all of your 700+ words to describe how a supposedly CONSERVATIVE columnist (which he is not) and the deceased Ms. Ivins both hated our President of the United States of America, the Honorable George W. Bush.

Rest in Peace Ms. Ivins, ...........and I apologize for one of our Roadfooders turning your wake into his personal political stance, but then knowing you Ms.Ivins you probably didn't mind a little Bush bashing on your behalf .................
"There are two kinds of humor.
(One kind) makes us chuckle about
our foibles and our shared humanity.
The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule. That's what I do." Molly Ivins in an interview that appeared in People magazine. ...........I think you're off the hook Tedbear.

As a person who cares about truth, I never respected Molly Ivins, because when I started reading her, she had no regard for truth. She held herself out to be a beacon of light, yet her only obvious desire was to be outrageous. She was a hypocrite.

This article puts her in a somewhat better light, written by someone who actually knew her.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulGreenberg/2007/02/07/molly_ivins_then_and_now