[Dialogue] Fwd: Remembering Molly

Fri Feb 1 18:13:09 EST 2008

____________________________________
 From: Dick email
To: KroegerD
Sent: 2/1/2008 5:00:15 P.M. Central  Standard Time
Subj: Remembering Molly

Susan Lenfestey: What would Molly do?
By SUSAN LENFESTEY  
January 30, 2008 

It's been a year since Molly Ivins died, leaving us to slog through the  
political landscape without her sanity-saving blend of insight, humor and  
outrage. Unlike Maureen Dowd, who delights in snippy wordplay, with Molly you  felt 
the words erupting from her soul, ricocheting off her funny bone and then  
passing through her brain to be arranged in a way that made sense -- an  enormous 
challenge when dealing with the non-sense of the president she called  
"Shrub." 
As Super Tuesday closes in with the fate of -- oh, just about everyone --  at 
stake, I keep wishing I could open my paper and find Molly's take on it  all. 
What fun she would have had with the entire Republican slate, from the  
moribund-on-arrival Fred Thompson to the 12th-century worldview of affable  Mike 
Huckabee to the transformation of "America's Mayor" to America's  meltdown. 
And she wouldn't have let John McCain's resemblance to an ermine -- a  
short-legged weasel who changes color with the seasons -- go unnoticed. 
On the other side I imagine she'd have taken a few jabs at Dennis Kucinich  
for toe-tapping with a UFO and at John Edwards for his pricey girly-man  
haircuts -- yet slapped them a high-five for the truths they dare to speak.  She 
encouraged veracity no matter how eccentric the package; she just couldn't  
tolerate "clever straddling," as she put it. 
She would have donned a hazmat suit to deal with the hydra-like beast  called 
Billary that clawed its way to defeat in South Carolina. She was clear  on 
where she stood on the Clintons, calling Bill "as weak as bus-station  chili" 
and writing in January 2006, "I'd like to make it clear to the people  who run 
the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for  president. 
Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation." 
So as millions of us trudge off to caucuses and primaries next Tuesday, I'm  
wondering: What Would Molly Do? 
Referring to the death of Gene McCarthy in that same 2006 column, she gave  a 
pretty good idea of where she stood. 
"There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can  
provide relief. If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to  speak 
up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure  
junior senator from Minnesota [or Illinois -- my add] with the guts to do  it." 
Well, McCarthy didn't win, but he also wasn't much of a candidate. I knew  
and admired Eugene McCarthy, but I think it's safe to say he was no Barack  
Obama. But by coalescing the young and the antiwar voters, he forced those who  
did win to put an end to America's other mistake of a war. 
So Molly would rail at us not to let Bush Co. -- and any lily-livered  
so-called leader who is up for election -- tell us that this war is no longer  an 
issue. 
With plans for permanent military bases throughout Iraq and likely  
Republican candidate John McCain's comfort with 100 years of occupation -- not  to 
mention the obscene daily loss of life and treasure -- we are a nation that  will 
continue to bleed out until we die. 
So do what Molly would do. Go to your precinct caucus on Feb. 5, not  because 
your candidate's political future depends on it, but because your  nation's 
future depends on the candidate you choose. Go with Molly's words  ringing in 
your ears: "We want to find solutions other than killing people.  Not in our 
name, not with our money, not with our children's blood." 
Susan Lenfestey lives in Minneapolis and writes at the _Clotheslineblog.com_ 
(http://clotheslineblog.com/) .

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