Sad news fell upon Progressive America with the passing of Molly Ivins. A woman who wanted to be a newspaper writer since the age of 15, she got her first job at the Houston Chronicle, fielding reader complaints. By sheer perseverance and Texan stubbornness, she finally got a start in writing, and carved herself a niche as one of the most cynical, humorous, and acidic observers of the American political scene.

Some of her finest writing was at the Texas Observer, a surprisingly progressive magazine that kept a sharp eye on the state that many love to hate. Her irreverent and pithy commentaries about “life in the Lege” – the Texas legislature – earned her a measure of fame and popularity, surprisingly even from the denizens of the body she described as “one of the most corrupt, most incompetent, and funniest governing bodies in the nation.” In one of her more memorable commentaries on the Lege she said that it was the nation’s “bad government laboratory” in which all of the worst legislative ideas are first tested before being applied nationwide.

It should be noted that George W Bu$h earned a large measure of her disdain and ridicule while occupying the governor’s office, and history has shown that she was remarkably prescient. Many say that she had no idea of just how bad an executive he would turn out to be because the Texas governor has little power, the position relegating the state’s executive to largely ceremonial duties.

There is a fine tribute to this remarkable lady here.

Thank you, Ms Ivins, and may we find another with as much fire and humor to afflict the comfortable.