February 1, 2007 6:51 AM

A voice for reason, decency, and Texas common sense goes silent

Molly Ivins Dies of Cancer at 62

Noted Texas liberal Molly Ivins dies

Columnist, author Molly Ivins dies

Molly Ivins Tribute

Stand Up Against the Surge (Ivins’ final column)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Best-selling author and columnist Molly Ivins, the sharp-witted liberal who skewered the political establishment and referred to President Bush as “Shrub,” died Wednesday after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 62….The writer, who made a living poking fun at Texas politicians, whether they were in her home base of Austin or the White House, revealed in early 2006 that she was being treated for breast cancer for the third time. More than 400 newspapers subscribed to her nationally syndicated column, which combined strong liberal views and populist-toned humor. Ivins’ illness did not seem to hurt her ability to deliver biting one- liners….”I’m sorry to say (cancer) can kill you but it doesn’t make you a better person,” she said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News in September, the same month cancer claimed her friend former Gov. Ann Richards.

It was probably 15 years ago when I first saw Molly Ivins. I was living in Portland, OR, at the time, and she gave a lecture at a church in downtown Portland. I’d always admired her biting sense of humor and her commitment to Progressive ideals. Though I knew little of Texas politics at the time, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening’s whirlwind tour through the comedy goldmine that I’ve come to know as the political landscape in the Great State of Texas. Now that I’ve lived here for ten years, I can see that Ivins barely scratched the surface.

I was a fan of Ivins long before I saw her in Portland, to the consternation of at least a few of my regular readers. I think what I admired most about Ivins was her take on politics, both in Texas and nationally. She would skewer anyone who ranked sufficiently high on her criteria for political lunacy (hence her dubbing Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © “Shrub”). She was such a common sense personality that she didn’t need to pontificate to make her point. Her wit, her homespun Texas-bred sense of humor, and her command of the English language made her one of a kind. There were many Right-wing pundits who dissed her as an uppity bitch, but perhaps Ivins’ greatest strength was that she never took herself seriously.

MOLLY IVINS TRIBUTE
BY ANTHONY ZURCHER

Goodbye, Molly I.

Molly Ivins is gone, and her words will never grace these pages again — for this, we will mourn. But Molly wasn’t the type of woman who would want us to grieve. More likely, she’d say something like, “Hang in there, keep fightin’ for freedom, raise more hell, and don’t forget to laugh, too.”

If there was one thing Molly wanted us to understand, it’s that the world of politics is absurd. Since we can’t cry, we might as well laugh. And in case we ever forgot, Molly would remind us, several times a week, in her own unique style.

Shortly after becoming editor of Molly Ivins’ syndicated column, I learned one of my most important jobs was to tell her newspaper clients that, yes, Molly meant to write it that way. We called her linguistic peculiarities “Molly-isms.” Administration officials were “Bushies,” government was in fact spelled “guvment,” business was “bidness.” And if someone was “madder than a peach orchard boar,” well, he was quite mad indeed.

Of course, having grown up in Texas, all of this made sense to me. But to newspaper editors in Seattle, Chicago, Detroit and beyond — Yankee land, as Molly would say — her folksy language could be a mystery. “That’s just Molly being Molly,” I would explain and leave it at that.

But there was more to Molly Ivins than insightful political commentary packaged in an aw-shucks Southern charm. In the coming days, much will be made of Molly’s contributions to the liberal cause, how important she was as an authentic female voice on opinion pages across the country, her passionate and eloquent defense of the poorest and the weakest among us against the corruption of the most powerful, and the joy she took in celebrating the uniqueness of American culture — and all of this is true. But more than that, Molly Ivins was a woman who loved and cared deeply for the world around her. And her warm and generous spirit was apparent in all her words and deeds.

Indeed. Ivins called it as she saw it, and she did it in her own inimitable way, which was neither condescending nor insulting. It was, however, funny as hell and spot on.

To say that Molly Ivins was one of a kind wouldn’t begin to do justice to the life she led, the lives she touched, and the power and clarity of her voice. For me, she could make sense of the nutty Texas political landscape like no one else…and I will miss her terribly. We’ll not see her like again.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 1, 2007 6:51 AM.

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