In this time of enmity before the primaries, I've been searching without avail for guidance. I've been looking for unapologetic good sense and the kind of humor that comes from years of stubbornly defending oneself from jackasses. I want someone to puncture the windbags and make me chuckle at my own willingness to get involved in pointless arguments with fools.
I miss Molly Ivins like you wouldn't even believe.
I was looking over my copy of Shrub last night and was remembering how great it used to be to read Molly Ivins column. She was so funny, so smart and so frequently right about everything. And there's no one now who can hold a candle to her. James Wolcott can sometimes provide intelligent snark, but these days he's too fixated on tv, ballet and Jonah Goldberg to turn his gimlet eye on the Democratic race. Sigh.
I wish I could call her up from the beyond to ask her what she thinks of this Democratic candidate or that one. She'd burn the fluffy rhetoric away with a single witticism. As any second grader can tell you, the worst thing in the world is to be made fun of, and Ms. Ivins did it in a way that left the emperor in no doubt about his own nudity.
I wish Molly Ivins were alive today. I like many columnists (like Frank Rich and Amy Goodman)and follow many blogs avidly (this one, Atrios, the aforementioned Wolcott) but still miss how Molly Ivins could cut the BS. A lot of the back-and-forth about candidates I've read recently on this site was exactly the kind of pomposity she excelled in deflating.