Hey Texas. Thank you. You gave us Ann and Molly.

[sheshe2]

You gave us Ann Richards and Molly Ivins.

Ann~

By the time Ms. Richards moved into the Governor's Mansion in Austin in 1991, she had been involved in state and local politics for years, as activist and officeholder, but she had become a national celebrity almost instantly, thanks to a one-liner she delivered as part of her keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. In a voice that rang with the sounds of Waco, her hometown, she ribbed the incumbent vice president, George H. W. Bush. "Poor George," she drawled. "He can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

"She was nobody's fool," then-New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen wrote the next day. "She made them listen and she made them listen good, with precisely those qualities that we often try to iron out of politicians in general and female politicians in particular: a sense of fun, irreverence and general cussedness."

East Coast columnists may have approved, but those were the very qualities that made her suspect back home in Texas. One poll found that a sizeable percentage of older women believed that "women should stay home and take care of the house, and leave running the government to men." Many male Democrats felt the same way, and Texas Republicans were almost apoplectic that she had mocked not only the vice president of the United States but also a fellow Texan. (Barbara Bush began referring to her as "that woman."

Two years later, however, Ms. Richards survived a brawling, bruising Democratic primary, attracted a number of Republican crossover and independent voters in the general election -- including 61 percent of women voters -- and took merciless advantage of the fumble-tongued gaffes and political inexperience of her Republican opponent, West Texas rancher Clayton Williams. In the battle between "Claytie and the Lady," Ms. Richards won with 49.9 percent of the vote.

Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091400591.html


Molly~



Molly Ivins

Political Columnist: 1944 - 2007

"The best way to get the sons of bitches is to make people laugh at them."

To honor a journalist as a truth teller is implicitly to comment on the scarcity of courage and candor in a profession ostensibly dedicated to writing and speaking the truth. Molly Ivins is singular in her profession not only for her willingness to speak truth to power but for her use of humor to lampoon the self-seeking, the corrupt and the incompetent in positions of public trust. Her wit and insight place her squarely in the tradition of America’s great political humorists like Mark Twain.

Read More:http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/molly-ivins

**************************************************

They had the brass and the sass. We have it too. We are getting louder and our voice WILL BE HEARD. Watch out World, we are here. We are here.

Thanks to every man at our side, love you with all of my heart.

[flamin lib]

1. Thank you. It's hard living out here in the hinterlands.

One bright spot tho, Trump will turn the state a deep shade of purple and we are on our way back to the beautiful color of blue we once were. Re-redistricting under the SCOTUS ruling begins in 2020 and gerrymandering will come to an end.

[sheshe2]

2. Love and hugs to the true heart of Texas, flamin lib.

Deep in the heart of Texas you are turning purple, love that color. Yet blue is your true color.

Hugs~

[walkingman]

3. I'm hoping before I'm gone that

I will see Texas "blue" once again. This was a totally different state back then - much more friendly and less obnoxious. Bush/Perry and now Abbott make us all look like imbeciles - that is not the case.