The Passing of a Political Commentator

A sad story in the news today is the loss of a great lady of American journalism. Reporter, columnist, author, and political humorist Molly Ivins lost her battle with breast cancer late yesterday afternoon at her home in Austin, Texas.

Her witty and quotable observations on politics, both national and within Texas, exposed many emperors without clothes over the years. While she leaned to the left politically, she skewered the absurdity of politicians of both major parties. Molly cut through the bull and went straight to exposing the self-serving and just plain odd things that politicians do and say. In my opinion, Molly Ivins filled the empty shoes of Will Rogers, using humor, intelligence, and the deft turn of the phrase to make her points about politics.

President Bush, dubbed "Shrub" (for "little Bush") by Molly was a frequent target of her columns. We would all be wise to heed the words of her column of January 11, urging Americans to resist the President's plan to escalate the war in Iraq:

We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war," Ivins wrote. "We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, 'Stop it, now!'

Molly Ivins was 62 years old.