Molly Ivins, RIP
Posted on January 31, 2007 Posted by John Scalzi 21 Comments
Aw, hell. Molly Ivins has passed on. She was one of the best political columnists around, someone who could turn a phrase so well it’d bite whoever she was writing about right square on the ass; just ask Dubya, who was a favorite target of hers. I’ve long admired her writing and her passion for speaking out about what she thought was right; newspapers are about to get a whole lot less interesting without her.
Here’s a tribute to Molly Ivins at Creator’s Syndicate; here’s her last column.
Aww, Man. I liked her a lot. I liked how, when people would try to box her in to a political identity (liberal, democrat, etc.), she would say something like, “My name is Molly Ivans. That’s the only label I carry.”
Been a fan since Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?, 15 years ago. She was a riot to hear speak, with that whiskey-textured Texas drawl. As I recall she moderated the Franken-O’Reilly pissing contest at BookExpo a few years back. This is very sad.
My reaction exactly. I did get to hear her speak at a conference some years ago. And Pat Schroeder moderated the Franken-O’Reilly pissing contest at BookExpo, Molly was supposed to be the 3rd speaker but barely got a word in edgewise.
Oh, no. I knew she was sick, and was concerned that she hadn’t written many new columns lately, but I didn’t realize it was that bad.
I will miss her.
Ah, too bad. Anyone who took shots at the W and made direct hits every time makes my day. She will be missed.
Damn.
I haven’t missed a columnist this much since Royko died.
Connie: That’s right. I stand corrected.
Aw, damn. Art Buchwald and now Molly Ivins. That’s a whole lot of unfunny right there.
Damn. I’m not even near her political persuasion and I thought she was fab-o. At what she did, there was none better. Hers went to 11.
Wow. Terribly, terribly sad. Molly Ivins was a terrific voice, the kind we need more of, not less.
Verdammt. I saw her name over and over, skimming my LJ friends page, stopped, and said, “Aw, damn.”
You know, for a long time I didn’t know if she was liberal or not. I know that sounds weird, but where I grew up, her column was carried only occasionally and always next to Mona Charen’s. And I read her and just thought she made sense. (In a viciously funny and accurate way, natch.)
Sorry to hear that she’s left us.
We’ll be missing her down in Austin, that’s for sure.
I liked her columns. She was right up there with the also-greatly-lamented Alastair Cooke and his “Letters From America”.
It’s a damned shame. RIP, Molly.
NO way!
I have been reading her as long as I can remember. Somehow, in an effort to be diverse (or at least get more colorful letters to the editor) the Cincinnati Enquirer ran her columns.
The only consolation is how much more mischief and fun she can create now that she’s a ghost.
My favorite Molly Ivins story: she wrote an article after Decca Mitford (Jessica Treuhaft) passed away. In the article, she was talking about how Decca had been called to testify before HUAC. So, she and her husband gently tried to explain to their young daughter that they had to go do this, that they didn’t know what was going to happen, that they might go to prison or a re-education camp…
“CAMP!” their daughter said. “Oh, hooray! I love camp! Let’s all go!”
I read this in a public library in Boston and just fell out of my chair laughing.
RIP, Molly. Go make G-d laugh.
I always loved Molly’s ability to skewer the Texas legislature with a lethal combination of humor and venom, and more than once saw a little of Ohio in her tales of “the lege”.
Would that we had anyone to afflict the comfortable in Columbus as well as she did in Austin. RIP, Molly – and I’ll even steal her line for a sign off:
“I love Ohio, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and only discuss it among consenting adults”
Oh, bloody hell. I really, really loved reading her columns. When “politics as usual” had me depressed, there she was, not missing one iota of the truth, but still capable of making me laugh. And making me still want to stand up and fight. We’ll miss you, Molly.
She was one of the first people to teach me what an op-ed could be. You are already missed, Molly.
She will be missed in our house. I rarely agreed with her politics, but her writing … I don’t think I ever read a column of hers that didn’t have me laughing out loud.
Sidney Sheldon’s dead, too. Hmm, don’t these things traditionally happen in threes?