UBER-TEXAN MOLLY IVINS ON THE DEATH
OF HER CLOSE FRIEND ANN RICHARDS

From AlterNet:

At a long-ago political do at Scholz Garten in Austin, everybody who was anybody was there meetin' and greetin' at a furious pace. A group of us got the tired feet and went to lean our butts against a table at the back wall of the bar. Perched like birds in a row were Bob Bullock, then state comptroller, moi, Charles Miles, the head of Bullock's personnel department, and Ms. Ann Richards. Bullock, 20 years in Texas politics, knew every sorry, no good sumbitch in the entire state. Some old racist judge from East Texas came up to him, "Bob, my boy, how are you?"

Bullock said, "Judge, I'd like you to meet my friends: This is Molly Ivins with the Texas Observer."

The judge peered up at me and said, "How yew, little lady?"

Bullock, "And this is Charles Miles, the head of my personnel department." Miles, who is black, stuck out his hand, and the judge got an expression on his face as though he had just stepped into a fresh cowpie. He reached out and touched Charlie's palm with one finger, while turning eagerly to the pretty, blonde, blue-eyed Ann Richards. "And who is this lovely lady?"

Ann beamed and replied, "I am Mrs. Miles."

Click here for the rest.

I posted a few days ago my own thoughts about Ann Richards, but I tend to think of her relationship with Molly Ivins as being very much like the one Duke Ellington had with Billy Strayhorn. That is, they were so close in terms of political artistry, that in many respects they might have been a single composite person. Consequently, in my humble opinion, Ivins has the final word as far as eulogies about Richards go within the public discourse. And this essay does not disappoint; it's quite the celebration, complete with the sharp-as-razors political wit that made them a formidable duo when Richards was governor.

Indeed, after reading this piece, it makes me certain that I need to start using words like "sumbitch" and "whore" much more often when I write and talk about politics. I also need to grow some balls as big as theirs.

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