Remembering Molly Ivins
Sharp-Witted Liberal Columnist Dies of Cancer at 62

Paul K. Harral
Vice President/Editorial Director, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Thursday, February 1, 2007 12:00 PM

Paul Harral, who worked with columnist Molly Ivins during her nine years at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, was online Thursday, Feb. 1, at noon ET to discuss the Texas icon's life, words and legacy.

Molly Ivins Dies of Cancer at 62, (Post, Jan. 31)

The transcript follows.

Harral was editorial page editor at the Star-Telegram from 1990 to 1996, returned in 1999 and still holds the position. Molly Ivins joined the paper in 1992 after a decade at the then-closing Dallas Times Herald, and left in 2001 to join Creators Syndicate full-time.

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Bethesda, Md.: My favorite all-time Ivins line (and there were so many!) is that Ronald Reagan was so dumb he couldn't pour water out of a boot if he directions were written on the heel. I'm sure gonna miss that woman. I bookmarked her Web site the day I brought home my new PC many years ago, and even though I knew her publication schedule it was the first thing I checked every morning. She really is going to be missed.

Paul K. Harral: People think writing a regular column is easy -- just say what you think. But it is not that easy. I wrote a regular business column three days a week for about a year-and-a-half before I became editorial page editor and I worked all the time -- at home, at parties, at the beach, on the airplane.

The first couple are easy because you write about things you've always wanted to write about. But then -- after three or six or 25 -- you have to move into territory you haven't already formed opinions about. One columnist who writes for me describes it as being like having a big dog in the backyard -- if you don't feed it every day it eats you.

The best opinion is opinion based on solid reporting -- in that way writing a column is no different than news reporting -- but you have to do the reporting. When you do that, the opinion carries an authority that the reader can sense. Without the reporting, column writing is no better than gossip. You may reach the same conclusion through gossip or reporting, but you get there via a different route.

And you have to have a thick skin. Well-written columns make people angry and they'll tell you about it. The longer you write a column, the more difficult it becomes to be fresh and energetic. It's fun -- but it is also work. Hard work.

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Norman, Okla.: With Molly's untimely passing, who out there can pick up her baton and run with it? Here in Oklahoma we are burdened with "The Oklahoman" and all things right-wing -- thank God the Norman paper had the guts to print Molly.

Paul K. Harral: Molly was pretty much an original because she was able to say very harsh things, but with a touch of humor that defused some of the sting.

Molly was funny -- in person, in front of a group, in words -- and that's hard to do on a consistent basis. That's why there are so few humor columnists around. It's easy to cross over a line from funny to mean. And lines delivered in person or on television -- where the audience can see the winks and nods and the facial expression or hear the tone of voice, don't always translate well to print.

There's a series of rules of communication by a professor Osmo Wiio often used to illustrate the problems of communication. They're kind of like Murphy's Laws. One says that if a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in the way that does the most harm. Another is that if communication can fail, it will. A third is that the more communication there is, the higher the chance it will fail.

Editors and writers will argue for half an hour over a word, then when we put it into the newspaper, someone will read a meaning into it that we never even thought about. That's the environment bigfoot columnists work in -- and Molly was good in that environment. Not everyone is.

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Southern California: When Patrick Buchanan delivered his "Culture Wars" speech at the Republican National Convention Molly reported, "It sounded better in the original German." Can you provide some more quotable quips from Molly?

Paul K. Harral: From the Star-Telegram editorial this morning:

She called President Bush "Shrub," and his father "Big George." Texas Gov. Rick Perry showed up as "Goodhair" and "Rick the Reluctant."

Rainstorms were frog-stranglers. Instead of stunned, she was "whomper-jawed."

She overspiced her columns with "sumbitches" that usually, when her more cautious editors got finished, went the way of the periodic "dammittohell."

But to Molly, "dadgummit" sometimes was inadequate to express the necessary depths of outrage -- or the deliciousness of irony.

Some examples:

"If Texas were a sane place, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun."

"When it comes to voting, we in Texas are accustomed to discerning that fine hair's breadth worth of difference that makes one hopeless dipstick slightly less awful than the other."

"It's hard to embarrass Texas (the price of gasoline has gotten so high, women who want to run over their husbands have to carpool now), but it is kind of embarrassing to have a government that decides to cover a $10 billion deficit by taking services away from the poorest, the weakest, the most frail, oldest and youngest Texans."

"Whee, here we go, the Lege is back in session! And many a village is missing its idiot."

"As one who relishes our state's incontrovertibly bizarre political mores, I must confess I love the sheer awfulness of this (congressional redistricting) map. It is, in its own way, totally awesome and worthy of the truly noble tradition of lunacy for which Texas is so noted."

"What a summer for national credulity fitness. My credulity gets a lot of exercise, since I cover Texas politics."

"How they convinced themselves George W. Bush is the Lord's anointed is beyond me. I've known him since high school and watched him closely as a public official for 10 years, and I have yet to see the first sign of it."

"There was the president at his press conference looking just like a turtle on a fence post."

"I wouldn't go calling anyone a liar, but as we say in our quaint Texas fashion, this administration is stuffed with people who are on a first-name basis with the bottom of the deck."

"Not that I'm accusing anyone of lying, of course, but these people are slicker than bus station chili."

"If God keeps hanging out with politicians, it's gonna hurt his reputation."

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New York: This is terribly sad on the human level, but on the journalistic level, I'm mystified at the praise for this woman. How do you characterize a reckless high school-like name-caller as "witty"?

Paul K. Harral: As I mentioned earlier, she used funny names to take the sting out of extremely strong opinion.

Molly was complicated to edit. She wrote what she thought and sometimes in language that I found unacceptable. The challenge then was to work with the copy to satisfy my objections but not to mess with the opinion. She never complained about the editing -- either she agreed with it or she figured that there wasn't much point.

Most of the time we worked it out by telephone -- she worked in Austin and I in Fort Worth -- but sometimes the decision was mine alone.

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Temple, Texas: Molly -- she provided a framework for you to think. I will miss her.

Paul K. Harral: No kidding. That included those who edited her. I grew up in the Texas Panhandle and she reminded me of those strong women who joined with their men to try to make a living out of that poor land.

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Annapolis, Md.: Why was Molly so bitter and angry? She was the figurehead for the bitter, angry leftists it seems.

Paul K. Harral: I don't think she was bitter. Angry, yes. But it's in the eye of the reader. In the south and southwest, when we start a sentence with "Bless his heart...", it means we're about to say something tough. But the introduction lessened the sting ... and I think that's what Molly did.

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Keytesville, Mo.: As someone who grew up in Oklahoma and did graduate work at TCU, I miss Molly Ivins. For those of us with conservative parents, and who later grew to embrace liberalism, she was a breathe of fresh air. What do you think her legacy will be?

Paul K. Harral: Hard to say. The books will live on, of course. And policy wonks will refer to her for a long time to come. Some of the classic columns will stand the test of time. She'll be quoted for a while. But the world moves on ... and I suspect that Molly would have wanted us to do that as well.

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St. Mary's City, Md.: I always had liked the occasional Ivins piece in The Post, but I became a fan after I saw her speak at a State Teachers Association convention -- she had the house rocking. Not only were her columns funny, she had perspectives on issues that I rarely noticed from any other commentator. I have both "Can't Say That, Can She?" and "Nothing But Good Times Ahead." For the chatters here, which of her two books about her old classmate GWB do you recommend?

Paul K. Harral: I hate to admit this ... but I haven't read either. Two or three Molly columns a week was my fix.

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Bowie, Md.: Did she ever put down liberals with silly ideas, like Louis Farrakhan or Cynthia McKinney?

Paul K. Harral: Without checking the files, I don't know that I can respond accurately to this. But she was an equal-opportunity offender in most cases. She was harsh on the Washington press corps and she was always critical of people who promise one thing and deliver another. But she also was a yellow dog Democrat and didn't pretend to be anything else. She came straight at you.

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Providence, R.I.: Today's New York Times obit for Molly Ivins contains this paragraph:

"In 1976, her writing, which she said was often fueled by "truly impressive amounts of beer," landed her a job at The New York Times. She cut an unusual figure in The Times newsroom, wearing blue jeans, going barefoot and bringing in her dog, whose name was an expletive."

What, in fact, was her dog's name?

Paul K. Harral: I don't know. We were more coworkers than close friends ... and she worked in Austin and I in Fort Worth so most of our contact was by telephone. But knowing the stuff I cut out of her columns it likely was very colorful.

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Chevy Chase, Md.: I'm from Austin and remember Molly well. We'd see her at events, walking around the block, and folks loved her. Texas lost two special daughters, and the cause of freedom and liberty took a two-step backstep in Texas ... but there are two Lone Stars in the Heavens tonight: Ann and Molly, yukking it up and laughing at us.

Paul K. Harral: Yep, and they are giving somebody what-for.

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Cambridge, Mass.: What did Molly Ivins think about recent trends in political news coverage and journalism in recent years?

Paul K. Harral: She was livid. She thought the press -- especially the Washington press -- was giving the Bush administration a free ride and was failing to ask the tough questions. She also lamented the decline in staffing in state capitals and other political centers. Her life was politics and policy and she had little time for those she thought did not do it full on.

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New York: Was Molly Ivins really having as much fun as she would have one believe. If so, that's great. (P.S. There are folks out here who remember you from your college days.)

Paul K. Harral: Lord save me from college friends. They know too much.

Yes ... she had a lot of fun with life. One of the Austin staff members recalled that she was something to behold when she laughed ... she laughed all over.

I didn't have much contact with her during her later bouts with cancer, but during the first one I had to practically order her to write about it because so many people were concerned.

But during all those problems -- then and later -- she was unfailingly cheerful. I don't know about these last days, but the last two columns were fiery as the others.

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Westminster, Md.: Molly Ivins was a national treasure and will be deeply missed. What is your suggestion for readers and  fans who wish to do something to honor her? Is there a special cause to contribute to in her memory? Or should those who share her views about the Iraqi war "surge" rededicate their anti-war efforts on her behalf? Thank you.

Paul K. Harral: Sorry ... but I don't have a suggestion. She'd probably say pick something you really care about and support the [deleted by the editor] out of it. I'll ask her editor at Creators about it and perhaps the syndicate can move something on it.

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Washington: Can you give us some idea of what the colorful language Ivins used to describe the chicken-killing festival was?

Paul K. Harral: News-heimers has set in on this. I just don't remember.

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Annapolis, Md.: I wanted to endorse your answer to the person who was "mystified" at the grief over Ms. Ivins. You are right that her humor was the key. In her best work, she made us laugh so hard that we were still laughing when she slipped in her message at the end: while politicians are good fun, they still have a responsibility to protect the weakest parts of our society. (She was less successful when there wasn't enough humor to cover the anger and that may be what the poster was wondering about.)

Paul K. Harral: Agree. I personally thought she was at her best when she was writing humor. Sometimes the really serious columns were unrelenting and difficult to get through.

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Alexandria, Va.: Who are the prominent liberal commentators that her followers can turn to now?

Paul K. Harral: I'm wondering how to replace her column as well. I resist the concept of "liberal" vs "conservative" columnists although it is there of course. Most of the best columnists are somewhat of a mixture -- liberal on this, conservative on that.

Molly was all one way, so I always paired her column with Cal Thomas, who was most predictably to be her opposite. But no one is all left or all right all the time. Depends on where the reader is.

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Somewhere, Texas: Many years ago I was serving in the Texas Lege and Molly was covering it. She wrote of the legislators debating one particularly backward issue something like "legislators lined up at the back mic to speak looked like one of those illustrations of evolution from ape to man." The next day several of us who had participated in the debate lined up in front of Molly, with the legislator in the rear stooped over with knuckles dragging the carpet and those in front of him standing progressively more upright. Molly thought is was a scream and gave the "ape" legislator a huge bear-hug.

Paul K. Harral: Typical of Molly. She didn't take herself too seriously. She was just having fun and doing what she thought she ought to do.

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Oklahoma City, Okla.: I recall when a number of Texas newspapers were trying to land Molly as her home base. Can you shed any light on how the Fort Worth Star-Telegram won her favor?

Paul K. Harral: Oh ... what an opportunity. She always said that it was because Executive Editor Mike Blackman showed up to talk to her about the job in a motorcycle jacket with no tie. He has a column about her hiring and first column posted at www.star-telegram.com (select Molly on the front). But I think it was because we consider ourselves the most Texan city and the most Texan newspaper. It wasn't money, whatever it was.

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Annandale, Va.: I always thought, based on her book "Shrub", that Molly was one of the few journalists who knew what America was getting when George W. Bush became president. Her insights into him as a politician still hold up today. Do you share the opinion that Molly essentially warned everybody what kind of a president Bush would be?

Paul K. Harral: She tried. But even she would have to admit that Bush was a pretty good governor in Texas.

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Atlanta: I love Molly Ivins -- she got me interested in politics at an early age. One of her unusual talents was being able to write a wonderful obituary column in memory of someone, leaving the reader laughing and crying simultaneously. Who do you think will do her the most justice in writing about Molly?

Paul K. Harral: The one I mentioned by Mike Blackman is awfully close. (www.star-telegram.com) It's up now and I'll publish it tomorrow and put it on the syndicates as well.

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La Puente, Calif.: I will miss Molly Ivins writing because it was lively and often on the mark. Will there be some kind of memorial for her?

Paul K. Harral: She'd probably prefer a party but surely someone will organize a memorial. It's not too hard to get something like that started in Austin.

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Arlington, Va.: How much of their mutual antipathy toward each other (she and Bush) was because she was, as my mother used to say, "an unmarried woman?"

Paul K. Harral: I've heard people say stuff like this but I can't imagine that had anything to do with it. I think she personally liked George W. Bush, she just didn't think he ought to be president of the United States. I doubt if there was antipathy on either side -- Bush, in my experience, isn't that kind of person (but I do not know him outside professional contacts).

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Former DNC press person: No real question, just a comment and a memory. Your observation that she was tough on the press corps reminded me of a day when Molly called me out of the blue while I was a press officer at the Democratic National Committee during the Lewinsky scandal and impeachment. As I recall she inquired what the level of news coverage of the scandal was like amongst reporters who themselves were having affairs. I don't really remember how I responded but I do remember thinking how special it was that at least this one writer had objectivity enough to look at herself critically (not that she had an affair or anything like that). I've always considered it a highlight of my career that I got to chat on the phone with her, if only for a few minutes.

Paul K. Harral: That's how she was.

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Ogden, Utah: What can people do to honor Molly? Cripes, that's easy -- fire off an letter to the editor ripping some idiot legislator or lawmaker who needs a new bodily orifice installed. Me, I'm a columnist and I plan to make Sunday's that kind of tribute -- the Utah legislature is in session after all, and we have as many villages missing idiots as Texas...

Paul K. Harral: That's a great idea -- both of them. I was thinking about a personal column on Sunday, but Blackman is a better writer than I am and he pretty much said it all.

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Avondale Est., Ga.: My favorite moment of Molly was the Friday before the 1994 election, when she and Pat Buchanan were on the Washington Journal on C-SPAN -- they agreed on a surprising amount of stuff and the general tone of the discussion was fun and far-reaching and skeptical of politicians generally. It hooked me both on C-SPAN and on Molly's way of dealing with politics. She will be sorely missed.

Paul K. Harral: I used to be able to tell when Molly had been on television -- I never knew in advance and in fact never knew much about anything she was planning to do in advance -- because my voicemail would be full when I checked it in the morning. I used to introduce her to audiences by saying that I was her supervisor in as much as she could be supervised. Mostly I was along for the ride.

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West Lafayette, Ind.: Molly once wrote that you could talk to any Texan by mentioning the Cowboys. I've found that it's equally effective to mention Molly Ivins. About half the time, I get "yeah, isn't she wonderful?" The other half is "I don't agree with a word she says, but isn't she wonderful?" I loved her just for making my small talk easier.

Paul K. Harral: One of my most conservative readers called this morning to say how sorry he was about her death. He said he never agreed with anything she said but he loved the way she said it. I heard that a lot over the years.

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Washington: Your paper is (and now very sadly was) home to two of my favorite columnists, Molly Ivins and Randy Galloway. Though one covered politics and the other sports, both wrote in a style that was hysterical and quite endearing, and both were unlike anyone else I've read. Are there more Texas columnists out there with that kind of individuality and spirit, or did you guys manage to corner the market? Please accept my deepest sympathies.

Paul K. Harral: Thanks. We're a good place to work, especially for Texans -- someone will step up. That's the sobering part of all of this -- Molly Ivins died last night and we still will publish a newspaper, and so will everyone else who printed her. It's a lesson in not taking yourself too seriously and remembering to tell you friends that you love them. There will come a day when it's too late.

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Olney, Md.: I will always remember Molly as the writer who introduced "Shrub" into my vocabulary to distinguish "daddy" President Bush from his son. She wrote from her heart with humor, that was genuine and truthful, and her writings were constructive and not destructive. Her political spirit and love of laughter will deeply be missed, especially as the 2008 Presidential campaign begins.

Paul K. Harral: Agree. Wonder what she would have had to say about the crowds running for president.

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Paul K. Harral: Sorry ... I have to leave to prepare for an editorial board meeting this afternoon on another pressing Texas issue -- school vouchers. Thanks for the questions.

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