I think all of us that read Molly Ivins loved her and lost a piece of ourselves the day she died as sure as had she been a sibling or parent.
Back in the '80's when her column was a weekly regular in my local fishwrap I would, on the days when her column was featured, indulge in one of my favorite activities and rise a half hour early so I could purchase a paper and have have coffee and breakfast with Molly before work.
more below Irene
Reading about Perry today I thought of Molly and sought out some of her always salty, sassy and BS free humorous observations.
Mother Jones Magazine and The Sacramento Bee gave me the fix I needed.
From Mother Jones:
"Molly Ivins August 6"—Creators Syndicate, 2002
During the "grand old slugfest" between incumbent Perry and the Democratic challenger, Tony Sanchez, Ivins highlighted Perry's misleading smear campaign against his opponent, as well as his eyebrow-raising deployment of the word "coincidental":
"This, in turn, brings up the interesting role of coincidence in the life of Gov. Goodhair. Last summer, the Guv appointed an Enron executive to the state's Public Utilities Commission and, the next day, Perry got a check for $25,000 from Ken Lay. He explained this, to everyone's satisfaction, as being "totally coincidental."
And, The Bee:
Jan. 11, 2004
"I have failed to give sufficient recognition to our only governor, Rick "Goodhair" Perry, who is adding to the old je ne sais quoi in truly impressive quantities.
Goodhair gave such an amazing performance at his end-of-the-year news conference that I was forced to call a perfectly reliable reporter for the Dallas Morning News and ask if it was a joke. …
The guv remains convinced that his greatest accomplishment was not raising taxes, even though fees, tuition, fines and everything else that the Leg could find to jack up without calling it a tax was jacked sky-high. …
You may think the guv's had a rough year – three special sessions on top of the regular session just to pass that misbegotten redistricting bill, not counting the two bolts by Democrats and such minor unpleasantness as having to hack $10 billion out of the state budget.
For some, the budget-cutting, aimed mostly at services for desperately needy people, was a painful and even tragic exercise. Especially knocking 250,000 poor children off health insurance.
Fortunately, Gov. Goodhair has a firm grasp on priorities, and when asked his biggest disappointment of the year, he replied: "Aggie football."
Have a chuckle and follow the links for more of Molly's genius.
It's lookin' like Goodhair will be the nominee and, in the parlance of another of the GOP's big state nutters, we need to "Not retreat but reload"...with humor that is.
Molly, we miss ya darlin'...if you are able please watch over us in these trying times and hey, say hello to Ann for us.