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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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(applause)

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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Crowd: (cheering)

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(rock music playing)

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All right.
I have come to cheer y'all up

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about the state of politics
in this great nation.

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(cheers and applause)

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And I know you are
in need of cheer.

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And I know you think that
it is looking dark and gloomy.

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Cheer up,
it could always be worse.

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You could be living in Texas.

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Our next guest is one
of the, uh, most outspoken

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political columnists
in the nation.

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A three-time finalist
for the Pulitzer Prize.

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Texas political reporter,
Molly Ivins,

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not only can
but usually does say

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pretty much whatever she wants.

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-What do you make of Dan Quayle?
-I must tell you, honestly,

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I traveled with him
during the '88 campaign.

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I found him dumber
than advertised.

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Audience: (laughs)

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I honestly think
if you put that man's brain

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in a bumblebee,
it would fly backwards.

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(laughs)

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The people
who Molly took apart

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were the right people
to aim at and they knew it.

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People who had power
and misused it.

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Those are the people
who she aimed at.

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Woman: What's your take on Newt?

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(laughter)

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You speak of the draft-dodging,
dope-smoking, deadbeat dad

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who divorced his dying wife?

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(laughter)

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Jim: Meddling the bastards
is about as much fun

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as you can have
with your clothes on,

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and she got great joy
in exposing the bastards.

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I believe that it's fair game
when these guys stand up

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and say something foolish
to lay it right out there.

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And let people get a good look
at what they have elected.

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We got issue in America.

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Too many good docs
are getting out of business.

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Too many OB/GYNs
aren't able to practice

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their love with women
all across this country.

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I accidentally became
an authority on George W. Bush,

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um, kind of like the guy who
climbed Everest, it was there.

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There's an old
saying in Tennessee,

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I know it's in Texas,
probably Tennessee,

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that says, "Fool me once...

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shame on...

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shame on you."

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It fooled me,
we can't get fooled again.

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Any time you do
the kind of work that Molly did,

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there's a price to pay for it.

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Are you beloved by the folks
who read the paper

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or is it split
right down the middle?

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Some hate you, some love you,
how does that go?

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They do polls every year
to find out

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who's the best liked
and most hated columnist

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in the area.
I'm always both.

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David Letterman: (laughs)

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Part of the price is to be
seen constantly as an outsider.

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Man: (on phone) I think of you
as a hateful,

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lying left liberal.

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And the thing
that scares me about you

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is people actually
listen to you.

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Molly: I'm a Texan,
I drive a pickup truck,

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I drink beer, I cuss,

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I hunt, I'm a liberal.

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So what?

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Terry: The political
establishment was afraid of her.

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Nobody wanted to have
the light shone upon them.

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Politics in this country
is not something

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that is done by them.

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It's not those people
in Washington,

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it's not those people
in your State Capitol.

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This country is run by us.

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It is our deal.

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We are the board of directors,
we own it.

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They're just the people
we have hired

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to drive the bus for a while.

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(upbeat music playing)

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(bird cawing)

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Bruce: Molly Ivins, let's start
with Texas and being Texan.

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Can you define what it means
to you to be a Texan?

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Hmm. You know,
I have, over the years,

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tried several times
to explode myths about Texas

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because I think
some of the stereotypes there

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are so useless and silly.

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What happens whenever I try
to do that though

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is I wind up inadvertently
reinforcing the myths.

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I mean,
I always try to tell people

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"Look, the reason the sky
is bigger here

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is 'cause we got no trees."

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Cowboys supposedly stink

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and it is hot nearly
all the damn time.

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Texas observed.

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Man: (singing indistinctly)

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Molly: Texas is a mosaic
of cultures

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which overlap in several parts
of the state and form layers,

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with the darker layers
on the bottom.

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(rattlesnake rattling)

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The cultures are black,
Chicano, Southern,

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freak, suburban
and shit kicker.

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Shit kicker is dominant.

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Texas is not
a civilized place.

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Texans shoot
one another a lot.

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Different colors
and types of Texans

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do not like one another
nor do they pretend to.

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(moos)

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Texas is just like
every place else except more so.

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There's this sort of slightly
pie-eyed exaggeration

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about everything in the state.

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Molly: It is different.

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Forrest: Texas is more America
than America is, you know.

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It's everything about
the American self-identity

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on steroids.

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(rock music playing)

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Texas has always been
the national laboratory

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for bad government.
I mean, if you wanna see

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a bad idea tried,
we've tried it.

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The Texas public policy
is kind of like Hungarian wine.

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It does not travel well.

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You should not try taking it
across the Red River.

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Molly was sort of
prescient when it came

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to describing Texas

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and some of the things
that go on there.

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Well, Carl Parker always said,

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"If you took all the fools
out of the legislature,

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it would not be a representative
body anymore."

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Moose: Whether the government
is necessarily bad

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as she described it, of course,
depends upon your point of view,

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but from hers,
it certainly was,

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and I think there are people
in Texas who hope

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that she hasn't, uh,
predicted it for all of time.

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Molly: We're really
kind of proud and excited,

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those of us who are
Texas traditionalists.

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The, uh, house speaker is under
grand jury investigation.

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(scattered laughter)

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And not that we wish him ill
in any way,

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but it would be such a great
renewal of a fine tradition.

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Uh, we've had, um, five
of our last seven

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have been indicted
for one thing or another.

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And actually, there was a guy
in there who was not indicted,

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um, he was shot to death
by his wife.

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(laughter)

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Although she was indicted,
she was not convicted.

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(laughter)

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Because in Texas, we recognize
public service when we see it.

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(laughter and applause)

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Molly knew how power
was organized in the state

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because she grew up
in the community

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where power lived in Texas,
in River Oaks.

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Andy: We moved to Chevy Chase
in River Oaks,

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and there was a little deal
says, "The Ivins are moving."

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It was all in line of age
and I was there

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with my bats and balls
and things to play with.

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And Molly was next
with her books.

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So even at that age,
already Molly had been tagged

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as being, uh, the bookworm,
the book girl,

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the girl who studied,
the girl who read.

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And I think Sara
was there with makeup,

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and then Mag with pots
and pans,

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and Daddy with the big sack
that said "mortgage"

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on the back.

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Sara: When Molly was born,
Dad named her Mary.

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And my mother said,
"Oh, gosh, that's so common."

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"If it's good enough
for the mother of God,

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it's good enough
for my daughter."

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That's what my dad said.

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Molly changed
her own name.

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She was tired of Mary.

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And Molly fit her
so much better.

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I think I had quite
a happy childhood.

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My recollection
is I spent most of it

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up in trees, reading books.

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Sara: We always called her
"The Mole."

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Andy: Daddy said, "The Mole
was always in her hole,"

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because she was just
a near recluse growing up.

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She'd go up in her room
and read.

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There was a period of time
where Dad adored us

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as little girls,
but I guess that pre-teen years,

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and when Molly was in seventh
and eighth grade,

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horrible years.

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Marty: Her mother would say,
"This is Molly, our smart child

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and this is Sara,
our beautiful child."

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As a result, Molly grew up
thinking she was ugly

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and Sara grew up
thinking that she was dumb.

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Being bigger than your average
human being, um...

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(laughter)

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...kind of made me
ineligible early on

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for the norms
of Southern womanhood.

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(laughter)

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They put me on the basketball
team when I was four.

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(laughter)

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Sara Speights:
She was six-feet tall

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by the time she was 12.

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And it made her painfully shy.

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And she was not only tall,
she was big-boned.

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And by the time
she was 13 or 14,

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she had those marvelous bazooms.

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And that was terribly painful
to her.

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I always felt like a St. Bernard
with a bunch of greyhounds.

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(laughter)

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A Clydesdale amongst
thoroughbreds.

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Growing up in East Texas
in that era,

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your choice of role models
was damn short.

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We had had one woman governor,

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Ma Ferguson.
She succeeded her husband Pa

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after he got impeached
for good cause.

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(laughter)

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Molly: She ran for re-election
on her own

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and she was elected
in her own right.

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Her platform was, uh,
she wanted to outlaw

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the teaching of Latin
in the public schools of Texas,

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on the grounds that the Bible
is written in English

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and if English was good enough
for Jesus,

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00:10:03,561 --> 00:10:05,605
it's good enough for...

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00:10:05,689 --> 00:10:08,608
(laughter)

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Then of course, the only
other role models available

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were the Kilgore Rangerettes.

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In 1956,
that was a big turning point

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in Molly's and my relationship
as sisters, close sisters.

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It was because she went
to a totally private school,

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and I went
to a totally public school.

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Muffie: St. John's was
a private independent school.

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It was racially segregated

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as everything was in those days.

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And Molly came to St. John's
in about the eighth grade.

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Molly was a standout
from the beginning

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in terms of her verbal
sophistication.

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And we could all tell
this really smart girl

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had come to class.

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Marg: There she is.

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Molly and I were both involved
in the journalism activities

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at our high school.

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And we produced, uh, a paper

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that came out biweekly.

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We were both kind of feeling
like outsiders

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at St. John's School.

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Molly: May 9, 1959.

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It is only a few months
before my 15th birthday,

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00:11:33,401 --> 00:11:36,696
and I feel as old as Methuselah,
and just as dead.

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Music, cigarettes,
my Bible comfort me.

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00:11:41,826 --> 00:11:45,330
Writing it all out is still
the greatest comfort I know.

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When I was 15 or 16,

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the only thing I could do
was write.

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00:11:50,835 --> 00:11:52,504
I mean, it's the only talent
I've ever had.

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And the only interest I had,
um, besides literature

250
00:11:56,675 --> 00:11:58,176
was current affairs,

251
00:11:58,218 --> 00:12:01,179
so I just sort of fell naturally
backwards in journalism.

252
00:12:01,596 --> 00:12:04,766
My dream was to become
a famous foreign correspondent.

253
00:12:04,849 --> 00:12:07,936
I think I had seen a movie
starring Humphrey Bogart

254
00:12:08,019 --> 00:12:09,312
in a trench coat.

255
00:12:09,354 --> 00:12:11,523
Who are we puttin'
our papers for? You?

256
00:12:11,690 --> 00:12:13,024
You? You?

257
00:12:14,317 --> 00:12:16,528
It's not enough anymore
to give 'em just news.

258
00:12:16,820 --> 00:12:19,072
They want comics,
contests, puzzles.

259
00:12:19,489 --> 00:12:21,700
They want to know
how to bake a cake, win friends,

260
00:12:21,783 --> 00:12:23,159
and influence the future.

261
00:12:23,410 --> 00:12:26,371
Ergo, horoscopes,
tips on the horses,

262
00:12:26,413 --> 00:12:28,415
interpretation of dreams
so they can win

263
00:12:28,498 --> 00:12:29,874
on the numbers lotteries.

264
00:12:30,208 --> 00:12:34,254
And if they accidentally
stumble on the first page,

265
00:12:35,505 --> 00:12:36,881
news.

266
00:12:37,090 --> 00:12:38,758
Molly: I thought that wandering
around the world,

267
00:12:38,842 --> 00:12:42,220
being paid princely sums
to have fabulous adventures

268
00:12:42,262 --> 00:12:45,515
in exotic places sounded like
a great way to make a living.

269
00:12:45,557 --> 00:12:47,100
And that was what I wanted.

270
00:12:52,522 --> 00:12:54,649
I was lucky enough
to have gone to school in France

271
00:12:54,733 --> 00:12:56,776
when I was younger,
when I was 14.

272
00:12:57,402 --> 00:12:59,070
And I think
that's a wonderful age,

273
00:12:59,154 --> 00:13:00,697
particularly if you grow up
in a place

274
00:13:00,739 --> 00:13:02,282
as provincial as East Texas,

275
00:13:02,490 --> 00:13:06,411
to have your mind just taken
and sort of pulled open

276
00:13:06,453 --> 00:13:09,414
by the realization
that the world is full of people

277
00:13:09,456 --> 00:13:13,168
who aren't very much like you
and everybody you know.

278
00:13:15,962 --> 00:13:18,340
Marcia: I think
her preparation in French

279
00:13:18,423 --> 00:13:21,134
was part of a package
of her ambition

280
00:13:21,426 --> 00:13:23,636
that you couldn't be
a foreign correspondent

281
00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:25,930
if you couldn't speak
another language

282
00:13:25,972 --> 00:13:27,640
and hadn't been around.

283
00:13:27,766 --> 00:13:29,601
Andy: I would always walk
with Molly home

284
00:13:29,684 --> 00:13:33,063
and she would walk pretty fast
and she'd always say,

285
00:13:33,104 --> 00:13:35,732
"I walk fast because I look up
on the horizon,

286
00:13:35,774 --> 00:13:37,442
I look way out."

287
00:13:37,525 --> 00:13:39,819
And, you know, that's kind
of her take on life, too.

288
00:13:39,903 --> 00:13:42,405
She had a vision
that was upward.

289
00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:48,036
Sara: We appeared to be
a healthy, normal family,

290
00:13:48,119 --> 00:13:49,496
and I think we were,

291
00:13:49,579 --> 00:13:52,791
but every family
has their skeletons.

292
00:13:53,041 --> 00:13:55,001
Well, as I got to know
Molly better,

293
00:13:55,085 --> 00:13:59,339
I began to realize
what her family life was like.

294
00:14:00,048 --> 00:14:02,217
Kaye: Her father was autocratic

295
00:14:02,300 --> 00:14:06,638
and he was the master
of the ship to some extent.

296
00:14:07,347 --> 00:14:10,558
Molly: Yeah, my old man,
um, was in the oil business

297
00:14:10,642 --> 00:14:13,353
and, uh, real right wing.

298
00:14:13,687 --> 00:14:17,190
Kaye: Jim Ivins was chairman
of the board of Tenneco Inc.

299
00:14:17,357 --> 00:14:21,820
And Molly swears that she had
heard in her living room

300
00:14:21,986 --> 00:14:26,116
discussions about how to fix
the oil market.

301
00:14:29,786 --> 00:14:32,372
Sara: When Dad came home
from work, by God,

302
00:14:32,455 --> 00:14:37,585
everything should have been
"ship shape in Bristol fashion".

303
00:14:37,669 --> 00:14:41,840
He'd expect a three-course meal,
and they'd have cocktail hour.

304
00:14:42,841 --> 00:14:45,427
Speights: Molly described
to me a routine

305
00:14:45,510 --> 00:14:47,345
in which her father
would come home

306
00:14:47,429 --> 00:14:49,347
and they'd have
a couple of martinis,

307
00:14:49,389 --> 00:14:51,349
and then the sniping
would start.

308
00:14:51,391 --> 00:14:55,353
Sara: He went into a rage
when he drank too much.

309
00:14:56,604 --> 00:14:58,565
Daddy, you would say, "Jump."

310
00:14:58,648 --> 00:15:00,316
And I'd say, "How high?"

311
00:15:00,483 --> 00:15:03,278
And Molly'd say,
"Let me think about this,"

312
00:15:03,403 --> 00:15:06,906
and say,
"Nope, not gonna do it."

313
00:15:07,615 --> 00:15:10,410
Molly dubbed him, "The General."

314
00:15:10,618 --> 00:15:11,870
General Jim.

315
00:15:12,203 --> 00:15:16,374
She began to disagree
with her father about politics

316
00:15:16,458 --> 00:15:19,210
and then what they considered
the radical direction

317
00:15:19,294 --> 00:15:21,546
that she was going
in her thinking.

318
00:15:21,713 --> 00:15:24,174
Molly: It may be
that my politics are the result

319
00:15:24,215 --> 00:15:26,134
of some teenage rebellion

320
00:15:26,217 --> 00:15:29,387
that's just lasted for 35 years.

321
00:15:29,429 --> 00:15:31,473
(laughter)

322
00:15:32,140 --> 00:15:35,560
But I suspect
that, um, they started...

323
00:15:36,436 --> 00:15:40,065
and this is true of
most other liberals, with race.

324
00:15:43,651 --> 00:15:45,528
We all grew up in a Texas

325
00:15:45,570 --> 00:15:48,406
where there was
institutionalized racism.

326
00:15:49,657 --> 00:15:51,409
You couldn't go
to a public building,

327
00:15:51,451 --> 00:15:54,621
you couldn't go to a restaurant
that had black people

328
00:15:54,996 --> 00:15:57,457
unless they were
service people.

329
00:15:57,999 --> 00:15:59,417
I went all the way
through high school

330
00:15:59,501 --> 00:16:02,253
-in segregated schools.
-My high school was huge.

331
00:16:02,295 --> 00:16:04,589
It was 3,000 students.
There were no blacks.

332
00:16:04,631 --> 00:16:07,300
The thing about
growing up anywhere in the south

333
00:16:07,384 --> 00:16:11,262
before the Civil Rights Movement
was that you, sooner or later,

334
00:16:11,304 --> 00:16:13,890
became aware that grown ups
were lying to you.

335
00:16:14,182 --> 00:16:15,642
I remember being told
not to drink

336
00:16:15,725 --> 00:16:17,310
out of that fountain there,
it's dirty.

337
00:16:17,394 --> 00:16:20,188
Well, we lived
in the white side of town.

338
00:16:20,271 --> 00:16:22,148
And the white fountain
was always covered

339
00:16:22,232 --> 00:16:25,360
with chewing gum and little
kids' grubby paws marks.

340
00:16:25,443 --> 00:16:29,447
And the colored fountain was
clearly the cleaner fountain.

341
00:16:29,614 --> 00:16:31,282
People just didn't
talk about it.

342
00:16:31,324 --> 00:16:32,951
It was one of those things
you didn't talk about.

343
00:16:33,034 --> 00:16:35,120
You could read
the newspapers for days

344
00:16:35,203 --> 00:16:37,372
and most places
wouldn't have any coverage

345
00:16:37,455 --> 00:16:38,998
of the Civil Rights Movement.

346
00:16:39,207 --> 00:16:40,959
The East Texas Civil Rights
Movement, we call it,

347
00:16:41,001 --> 00:16:42,627
"Nobody famous ever came."

348
00:16:42,669 --> 00:16:44,421
(laughter)

349
00:16:44,462 --> 00:16:47,132
Martin Luther King never came,
Stokely never came,

350
00:16:47,215 --> 00:16:49,884
freedom writers never came,
CBS never came.

351
00:16:49,968 --> 00:16:51,344
Goddamn.

352
00:16:52,262 --> 00:16:54,639
It was always hot
and we were always scared

353
00:16:54,723 --> 00:16:56,725
and there was nothing
glamorous about it.

354
00:16:57,017 --> 00:17:00,145
I was so scared, I wet my pants
every time I got arrested.

355
00:17:00,311 --> 00:17:02,480
Singer:
♪ I'm going to do it up ♪

356
00:17:04,858 --> 00:17:07,610
Andy: I used to live in
the house, above the garage.

357
00:17:08,028 --> 00:17:09,529
So, I walk in there one time.

358
00:17:09,696 --> 00:17:12,657
And there's a black man
sitting on this black couch

359
00:17:12,699 --> 00:17:14,492
and obviously
it was a friend of Molly's,

360
00:17:14,617 --> 00:17:17,120
which, you know,
it was kind of foreign

361
00:17:17,162 --> 00:17:20,206
to have a black man
in your house as a guest.

362
00:17:20,290 --> 00:17:21,750
We had maids.

363
00:17:23,585 --> 00:17:25,712
Sara: The black guy
was swimming in the pool

364
00:17:25,795 --> 00:17:28,548
-when my father drove up.
-(car door closes)

365
00:17:28,715 --> 00:17:31,384
Oh, my God,
and all hell was raised.

366
00:17:31,468 --> 00:17:33,136
My father and I
had some real lulus.

367
00:17:33,178 --> 00:17:35,221
We got into one
of the screaming matches.

368
00:17:35,305 --> 00:17:37,515
You know what?
This can only happen with people

369
00:17:37,682 --> 00:17:39,100
in your own family.

370
00:17:39,184 --> 00:17:41,561
Sara: I remember him raging,
you know,

371
00:17:41,644 --> 00:17:43,772
about the black man
in the swimming pool

372
00:17:43,855 --> 00:17:47,567
and how much money he spent
on her education

373
00:17:47,650 --> 00:17:51,571
for her to be so bold
as to do this and that.

374
00:17:51,654 --> 00:17:54,074
I screamed at him,
"You are worse than Hitler!"

375
00:17:54,199 --> 00:17:55,658
To which my old man responded,

376
00:17:55,700 --> 00:17:58,244
"And what the hell was so bad
about him?"

377
00:17:58,328 --> 00:17:59,871
(crowd laughs)

378
00:18:00,038 --> 00:18:01,206
Sara:
He was just outraged.

379
00:18:01,539 --> 00:18:03,541
I mean, he was a man
who had risen

380
00:18:03,583 --> 00:18:05,502
to the top of the power world.

381
00:18:05,543 --> 00:18:08,129
He could control everybody
in this big company

382
00:18:08,213 --> 00:18:10,006
but he couldn't control
his own daughter,

383
00:18:10,048 --> 00:18:11,800
and it infuriated him.

384
00:18:12,425 --> 00:18:15,011
So he was mad at her
all the time.

385
00:18:15,053 --> 00:18:17,889
(jazz music playing)

386
00:18:18,139 --> 00:18:23,269
Molly: I wanted very much to go
somewhere up north or back east,

387
00:18:23,353 --> 00:18:26,606
someplace where people talked
about books and ideas

388
00:18:26,690 --> 00:18:30,026
or something besides
the weather and football

389
00:18:30,068 --> 00:18:31,236
all the time.

390
00:18:31,319 --> 00:18:35,365
(jazz music playing)

391
00:18:36,783 --> 00:18:40,078
Sara: Not only my sister
and my mother went to Smith,

392
00:18:40,161 --> 00:18:42,288
my grandmother went to Smith.

393
00:18:42,372 --> 00:18:44,165
(chuckles)
Can you imagine anything,

394
00:18:44,249 --> 00:18:47,127
anything more WASP
than your grandmother,

395
00:18:47,210 --> 00:18:48,586
your mother, and yourself,

396
00:18:48,670 --> 00:18:50,255
all having gone
to the same college.

397
00:18:50,588 --> 00:18:54,259
Anne: Molly,
being a third-generation Smith,

398
00:18:54,634 --> 00:18:58,596
understood the value
of that education.

399
00:18:58,722 --> 00:19:02,183
When you graduate from Smith,
doors open.

400
00:19:02,475 --> 00:19:04,519
Molly: To be a Texan
in Massachusetts,

401
00:19:04,769 --> 00:19:07,772
was to automatically
have about 20 IQ points

402
00:19:07,856 --> 00:19:10,567
subtracted immediately as soon
as you opened your mouth

403
00:19:10,692 --> 00:19:13,403
and to have it sort of assumed
that you were probably

404
00:19:13,445 --> 00:19:14,821
a bit of a barbarian.

405
00:19:14,988 --> 00:19:18,950
She said to me once,
"Anne, I'll always be a Texan."

406
00:19:19,075 --> 00:19:25,248
But she knew how to wear
a Smith gloss, so to speak.

407
00:19:26,166 --> 00:19:28,543
In my day at Smith,
the girls all wore

408
00:19:28,626 --> 00:19:30,462
knee socks and penny loafers

409
00:19:30,545 --> 00:19:34,966
and had those McMillan colored
blouses with circle pins.

410
00:19:35,842 --> 00:19:38,511
I didn't fit in at Smith but
then I'd never fit in anywhere

411
00:19:38,595 --> 00:19:41,348
so that wasn't
an unusual experience.

412
00:19:41,514 --> 00:19:44,142
Anne: I think many of the women
at that time,

413
00:19:44,476 --> 00:19:47,103
brilliant, wonderful women,

414
00:19:47,228 --> 00:19:49,314
were thinking
along the lines of,

415
00:19:49,397 --> 00:19:50,982
"Well, what are my choices?"

416
00:19:51,066 --> 00:19:53,276
I can be a teacher,
I can be a nurse,

417
00:19:53,318 --> 00:19:54,736
I can be a secretary.

418
00:19:54,986 --> 00:19:58,865
Or I can be the wife
of a prominent businessman

419
00:19:58,948 --> 00:20:00,283
or prominent doctor."

420
00:20:00,325 --> 00:20:02,327
Before us were these choices

421
00:20:02,369 --> 00:20:04,371
where they weren't really
that good.

422
00:20:04,621 --> 00:20:07,165
I aspired to be
an intellectual myself.

423
00:20:07,248 --> 00:20:11,127
Um, I had hopes
of becoming a beatnik

424
00:20:11,169 --> 00:20:14,172
but it didn't work out.
It's really hard

425
00:20:14,255 --> 00:20:15,840
to be a beatnik at Smith.

426
00:20:16,966 --> 00:20:21,179
(jazz music playing)

427
00:20:21,638 --> 00:20:23,348
Molly: And I always dreamed
of becoming,

428
00:20:23,431 --> 00:20:26,643
uh, you know, a martyr,
uh, to fearless journalism,

429
00:20:26,685 --> 00:20:29,270
to crusading journalism,
to telling the truth

430
00:20:29,354 --> 00:20:30,730
and damning the consequences.

431
00:20:31,147 --> 00:20:33,066
So I went to work
at The Houston Chronicle,

432
00:20:33,149 --> 00:20:35,527
I had actually been working
there summers as an intern.

433
00:20:35,568 --> 00:20:36,986
That was where I started.

434
00:20:37,904 --> 00:20:39,489
I worked
for The Houston Chronicle

435
00:20:39,531 --> 00:20:41,408
on the city desk as a reporter

436
00:20:41,491 --> 00:20:43,493
and I sat right next
to Molly Ivins.

437
00:20:43,910 --> 00:20:46,621
There was this, you know,
brilliant woman

438
00:20:46,705 --> 00:20:49,958
who was on her way to graduate
school at Columbia University.

439
00:20:50,792 --> 00:20:53,670
If you can just envision a woman
who was that smart,

440
00:20:53,878 --> 00:20:59,217
she spoke this upper income
East Coast dialect

441
00:20:59,300 --> 00:21:01,052
that was inflected
with her French.

442
00:21:01,094 --> 00:21:02,429
She'd lived in France.

443
00:21:02,804 --> 00:21:05,557
The closest I could get to how
Molly Ivins came across

444
00:21:05,598 --> 00:21:07,017
was Jacqueline Kennedy.

445
00:21:09,269 --> 00:21:10,562
Singer: ♪ Yeah ♪

446
00:21:11,062 --> 00:21:14,566
Moose: The late '60s and '70s
was a time when...

447
00:21:14,816 --> 00:21:18,069
those in journalism
went from the people

448
00:21:18,111 --> 00:21:19,738
who had covered World War II,

449
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:23,658
who referred to the government
as "we," to the people

450
00:21:23,742 --> 00:21:25,535
who grew up in the Vietnam era,

451
00:21:25,577 --> 00:21:26,953
in the Civil Rights era,

452
00:21:27,037 --> 00:21:29,330
who referred to the government
as "they."

453
00:21:30,206 --> 00:21:33,293
Molly: I came in the very first
part of the '60s.

454
00:21:33,376 --> 00:21:36,338
We were the ones who worked
in the Civil Rights Movement

455
00:21:36,421 --> 00:21:37,756
and joined the Peace Corps.

456
00:21:37,964 --> 00:21:40,091
Seeing how much things
can change,

457
00:21:40,133 --> 00:21:42,052
and how fast things can change,

458
00:21:42,218 --> 00:21:44,262
and how much
good government can do

459
00:21:44,346 --> 00:21:46,056
in being part of that change.

460
00:21:48,266 --> 00:21:51,603
We told the leadership
of The Chronicle, the editors,

461
00:21:51,686 --> 00:21:56,983
that we wanted to do a piece
about the disparities in race.

462
00:21:58,610 --> 00:22:01,154
It was a major story
about what it was like

463
00:22:01,237 --> 00:22:02,781
to be poor and black in Houston.

464
00:22:02,989 --> 00:22:05,617
And Molly Ivins had done that
with Carlton Carl.

465
00:22:06,076 --> 00:22:09,245
The problem was
The Houston Chronicle was an arm

466
00:22:09,287 --> 00:22:11,039
of the white oligarchy.

467
00:22:11,122 --> 00:22:14,626
And Molly wrote some very,
very pointed articles.

468
00:22:14,668 --> 00:22:16,419
I know The Houston Chronicle
felt that

469
00:22:16,461 --> 00:22:18,380
she had bitten the hand
that had fed them.

470
00:22:18,630 --> 00:22:23,426
One went into journalism,
not to get rich or famous.

471
00:22:23,510 --> 00:22:25,303
Nobody ever thought
you could get rich or famous

472
00:22:25,387 --> 00:22:26,971
working for a newspaper.

473
00:22:27,138 --> 00:22:29,474
You went to work for a newspaper
because you could have fun

474
00:22:29,516 --> 00:22:32,644
and do good and raise hell
and learn all the time.

475
00:22:32,727 --> 00:22:35,814
It was a lot better than selling
shoes or insurance.

476
00:22:36,064 --> 00:22:39,067
Molly had guts.
She was saying to herself

477
00:22:39,484 --> 00:22:42,487
that people of color
in this country

478
00:22:42,570 --> 00:22:44,989
live a life of a certain
kind of hell

479
00:22:45,073 --> 00:22:49,536
and that people in power
were then and are now,

480
00:22:49,661 --> 00:22:52,372
basically white
and, yes, basically male.

481
00:22:52,455 --> 00:22:56,251
And her attitude was, "Damn it!
Somebody has gotta stand up,

482
00:22:56,334 --> 00:23:00,422
look them in the eye
and speak truth," and she did.

483
00:23:00,505 --> 00:23:06,761
(country music playing)

484
00:23:06,845 --> 00:23:10,348
Dan: When Molly is moving
into journalism the first time,

485
00:23:11,224 --> 00:23:14,602
it isn't just a case of
it's predominantly men,

486
00:23:14,853 --> 00:23:16,855
it's overwhelmingly men.

487
00:23:17,689 --> 00:23:19,399
Molly: When I started
in journalism,

488
00:23:19,482 --> 00:23:21,109
my parents
were somewhat horrified.

489
00:23:21,192 --> 00:23:24,738
It was still considered
not a respectable calling.

490
00:23:24,863 --> 00:23:27,198
The old Hildy Johnson
school of reporter

491
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:29,200
was still around,
hats on the back of their heads,

492
00:23:29,242 --> 00:23:32,620
ties askew, Cutty Sark
in a coffee cup, you know,

493
00:23:32,704 --> 00:23:35,081
playing gin rummy
at the city desk.

494
00:23:35,540 --> 00:23:37,834
Women did not have a fair shot.

495
00:23:37,876 --> 00:23:39,794
I mean, you could get hired,

496
00:23:39,878 --> 00:23:41,921
but you would automatically
be sent to,

497
00:23:42,005 --> 00:23:44,007
they then called
the women's sections,

498
00:23:44,049 --> 00:23:45,383
"the snake pit."

499
00:23:45,633 --> 00:23:47,594
You would be sent
to the "snake pit"

500
00:23:47,677 --> 00:23:50,055
to write about food,
fluff, and fashion

501
00:23:50,138 --> 00:23:51,806
for the rest
of your natural life,

502
00:23:51,973 --> 00:23:55,226
if you didn't have an extra
credential, an extra edge,

503
00:23:55,310 --> 00:23:57,145
which is why
I got a master's degree.

504
00:23:57,187 --> 00:23:58,730
Singer: ♪ Hey, hey ♪

505
00:23:59,397 --> 00:24:02,442
♪ Well she was
Walking down the street ♪

506
00:24:03,318 --> 00:24:06,654
Marilyn: Molly had a job offer
at the Minneapolis Tribune.

507
00:24:06,821 --> 00:24:09,699
And I think she came there
because she knew she could do

508
00:24:09,741 --> 00:24:12,577
other kinds of reporting
than women's topics.

509
00:24:12,619 --> 00:24:15,663
Molly: I was the first woman
police reporter in Minneapolis,

510
00:24:15,747 --> 00:24:19,042
not because I was the first
woman reporter they'd hired,

511
00:24:19,084 --> 00:24:21,002
but because I was
the first woman reporter

512
00:24:21,044 --> 00:24:22,253
who was six feet tall.

513
00:24:22,337 --> 00:24:23,755
(laughter)

514
00:24:23,922 --> 00:24:25,090
Molly: And it really does
make a difference

515
00:24:25,173 --> 00:24:26,925
if you tower over your editors.

516
00:24:26,966 --> 00:24:28,593
(laughter)

517
00:24:28,677 --> 00:24:30,220
Molly: No one ever looked
at me and said,

518
00:24:30,261 --> 00:24:32,639
"Oh, you poor, sweet, dainty,
fragile little thing.

519
00:24:32,722 --> 00:24:34,766
We couldn't possibly send you
out to cover a riot."

520
00:24:34,849 --> 00:24:36,976
It was always, "Ivins,
get your ass out there."

521
00:24:37,060 --> 00:24:40,105
(indistinct chatter)

522
00:24:40,188 --> 00:24:45,735
(jazz music playing)

523
00:24:47,696 --> 00:24:50,115
Marilyn: Those late '60s
and early '70s

524
00:24:50,156 --> 00:24:52,117
were not an easy time
for reporters,

525
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:56,371
and Molly and mostly guys
were out there on the street

526
00:24:56,454 --> 00:24:58,123
doing this reporting.

527
00:24:59,249 --> 00:25:01,334
Singer: ♪ You wake up
One morning... ♪

528
00:25:01,418 --> 00:25:03,420
Molly: July 7, 1968.

529
00:25:03,795 --> 00:25:05,338
Dear Mum and Dad,

530
00:25:05,422 --> 00:25:06,923
Gad what a week.

531
00:25:07,048 --> 00:25:09,467
On the glorious 4th,
I got the bejesus blasted

532
00:25:09,509 --> 00:25:11,177
out of me by a 12 cannon.

533
00:25:11,261 --> 00:25:13,722
I got maced
during a small riot

534
00:25:13,805 --> 00:25:15,598
at a George Wallace rally.

535
00:25:15,682 --> 00:25:18,893
No damn fun.
Couldn't see for two hours.

536
00:25:19,269 --> 00:25:20,854
Stupid goddamn cop.

537
00:25:21,146 --> 00:25:23,148
Singer: ♪ You didn't realize ♪

538
00:25:23,189 --> 00:25:25,650
Man: Molly Ivins,
why did the Minneapolis Police

539
00:25:25,692 --> 00:25:28,069
name their mascot pig
after you?

540
00:25:28,611 --> 00:25:30,363
Molly: (laughs)

541
00:25:30,613 --> 00:25:34,617
Um, I've always thought, uh,
accepted that as a great honor.

542
00:25:34,701 --> 00:25:37,954
I'm very proud of it,
but I'm not entirely sure

543
00:25:37,996 --> 00:25:39,706
it was intended
to be flattering.

544
00:25:40,165 --> 00:25:42,709
I had written some stories
about police brutality

545
00:25:42,792 --> 00:25:44,627
when I was a police reporter
in Minneapolis.

546
00:25:44,669 --> 00:25:47,339
(jazz music playing)

547
00:25:47,922 --> 00:25:49,799
Marilyn: Molly
came upon the idea

548
00:25:49,841 --> 00:25:51,509
after being out on the streets

549
00:25:51,634 --> 00:25:55,055
to do a series of articles
about these protesters.

550
00:25:55,138 --> 00:25:59,309
They were the Young Radicals
of the Twin Cities in that time.

551
00:25:59,392 --> 00:26:02,479
(jazz music playing)

552
00:26:03,646 --> 00:26:07,192
Marilyn: But she got herself in
some trouble with the editors.

553
00:26:07,275 --> 00:26:11,404
because it was too personal
and she was too closely tied

554
00:26:11,488 --> 00:26:12,864
to her sources.

555
00:26:13,698 --> 00:26:15,867
Man: Memo regarding Molly Ivins.

556
00:26:16,242 --> 00:26:20,413
The article, to put it bluntly,
was overwritten.

557
00:26:20,747 --> 00:26:23,249
I hate first-person journalism.

558
00:26:23,500 --> 00:26:25,543
Molly needs to learn.

559
00:26:26,127 --> 00:26:28,713
Marilyn: Our city editor,
Frank Premack, said,

560
00:26:28,797 --> 00:26:30,757
"You've done these
Young Radicals but now,

561
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:33,551
what about some
Young Conservatives?"

562
00:26:34,344 --> 00:26:36,680
We were taught
in journalism school,

563
00:26:36,721 --> 00:26:39,432
you had to present both sides

564
00:26:39,516 --> 00:26:42,227
and let the audience decide

565
00:26:42,310 --> 00:26:43,728
what was the truth here.

566
00:26:43,770 --> 00:26:46,398
And she didn't really want
to do that.

567
00:26:46,439 --> 00:26:48,900
First of all, there's no
such thing as objectivity,

568
00:26:48,983 --> 00:26:50,610
and everybody
in journalism knows it,

569
00:26:50,694 --> 00:26:53,822
and I think we hoist ourselves
on our own petard constantly

570
00:26:53,905 --> 00:26:56,032
by pretending
that we're objective,

571
00:26:56,074 --> 00:26:57,742
when there is no such thing.

572
00:26:57,826 --> 00:26:59,911
How you see the world
depends on where you stand

573
00:26:59,994 --> 00:27:01,746
and who you are.
There's nothing any of us

574
00:27:01,830 --> 00:27:03,039
can do about that.

575
00:27:03,248 --> 00:27:05,917
So, my solution has been
to let my readers know

576
00:27:05,959 --> 00:27:08,211
where I stand, and they can take
that with a grain of salt

577
00:27:08,253 --> 00:27:10,880
or a pound of salt,
depending on their preferences.

578
00:27:11,006 --> 00:27:15,427
(upbeat music playing)

579
00:27:15,510 --> 00:27:17,387
Molly: When I left
the Minneapolis Tribune ,

580
00:27:17,429 --> 00:27:20,432
I thought that I was rejecting
establishment journalism

581
00:27:20,473 --> 00:27:23,393
permanently, I mean, the whole
idea of objective reporting,

582
00:27:23,435 --> 00:27:27,439
which I felt was horse-pucky,
um, and the idea that I might

583
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,483
ever go to work for the New York
Times or win the Pulitzer Prize

584
00:27:30,567 --> 00:27:33,611
or have some kind of, you know,
career in journalism

585
00:27:33,695 --> 00:27:37,365
that would get recognition,
um, I was giving all that up

586
00:27:37,449 --> 00:27:40,201
to go back to Texas
and work for this funny little

587
00:27:40,285 --> 00:27:42,871
one-horse newspaper
and help bring about

588
00:27:42,954 --> 00:27:44,706
good things in the world.

589
00:27:44,789 --> 00:27:47,834
(country music playing)

590
00:27:49,461 --> 00:27:52,422
Singer: ♪ I'm going to Texas
And pretty soon ♪

591
00:27:52,464 --> 00:27:54,716
♪ I'll be 'neath
That lone star moon ♪

592
00:27:54,799 --> 00:27:56,801
♪ I got the Texas boogie ♪

593
00:27:57,177 --> 00:28:01,097
Lou: Molly arrived here
from Minnesota in an Oldsmobile

594
00:28:01,139 --> 00:28:03,350
that would only go forward.
It had no reverse.

595
00:28:03,475 --> 00:28:06,853
It was kind of a metaphor
for what she was about.

596
00:28:07,103 --> 00:28:09,356
Making yet another shrewd
career move,

597
00:28:09,439 --> 00:28:13,068
I fifthed my salary to edit
The Texas Observer

598
00:28:13,151 --> 00:28:15,987
and that was my chance to attend

599
00:28:16,029 --> 00:28:18,531
the finest graduate school
of journalism in America,

600
00:28:18,615 --> 00:28:20,367
Ronnie Dugger's Texas Observer.

601
00:28:20,450 --> 00:28:23,244
Ronnie: I was the editor and
founder of The Texas Observer,

602
00:28:23,328 --> 00:28:25,997
which, to be a liberal
in Texas at that time,

603
00:28:26,081 --> 00:28:29,501
was far worse than being
a communist or a child molester.

604
00:28:29,751 --> 00:28:33,338
(jazz music playing)

605
00:28:33,505 --> 00:28:36,466
Kaye: My first initial
impression was that Molly

606
00:28:36,508 --> 00:28:39,719
was huge, I'm very small

607
00:28:40,011 --> 00:28:42,347
and she was six feet

608
00:28:42,430 --> 00:28:46,935
and large-boned
and just a giant personality.

609
00:28:48,353 --> 00:28:51,022
Now, this didn't even seem
strange to us at the time,

610
00:28:51,064 --> 00:28:54,984
it was 1970, but she came
with her own six pack of beer

611
00:28:55,026 --> 00:28:56,569
for the interview.

612
00:28:56,653 --> 00:28:59,030
(jazz music playing)

613
00:28:59,114 --> 00:29:02,951
Kaye: Ronnie had let two
women in their early 20s

614
00:29:03,076 --> 00:29:08,123
edit the only liberal
publication in the state

615
00:29:08,206 --> 00:29:10,959
and one of the few
in the United States.

616
00:29:11,710 --> 00:29:13,670
I remember visiting Molly

617
00:29:13,712 --> 00:29:16,214
when she worked
for The Texas Observer,

618
00:29:16,256 --> 00:29:19,426
and she lived in the tiniest
little shack in Austin.

619
00:29:19,592 --> 00:29:24,347
I just was incredulous
on what little she lived on.

620
00:29:25,056 --> 00:29:29,394
I mean, she lived like a pauper.
I couldn't stand it.

621
00:29:29,477 --> 00:29:31,438
And she had the dog named Shit.

622
00:29:31,563 --> 00:29:34,774
(jazz music playing)

623
00:29:34,858 --> 00:29:39,195
Kaye: Molly and I, we worked
side-by-side every day.

624
00:29:39,946 --> 00:29:41,448
I would get my stories
done early

625
00:29:41,531 --> 00:29:43,324
because I always needed
my sleep,

626
00:29:43,742 --> 00:29:47,037
but Molly would always pull
all-nighters.

627
00:29:47,245 --> 00:29:49,247
Ronnie: Kaye was there
holding down the fort.

628
00:29:49,372 --> 00:29:52,292
And Molly came in
like a house on fire.

629
00:29:52,625 --> 00:29:56,087
She was immediately
the riot of the scene,

630
00:29:56,254 --> 00:29:59,382
making riotous fun
of the legislature.

631
00:29:59,549 --> 00:30:01,843
(upbeat music playing)

632
00:30:02,052 --> 00:30:03,470
Man: Every two years,

633
00:30:03,845 --> 00:30:08,224
181 elected representatives
of the people of Texas

634
00:30:08,308 --> 00:30:10,977
convene here at the State
Capitol in Austin.

635
00:30:11,603 --> 00:30:14,647
Molly: My first session
was in 1971 and I walked

636
00:30:14,731 --> 00:30:17,108
onto the floor of the Texas
House of Representatives

637
00:30:17,150 --> 00:30:19,444
as in it looks sort of
like the first day of school.

638
00:30:19,527 --> 00:30:21,738
There were a hundred
and fifty men,

639
00:30:22,030 --> 00:30:23,531
all slapping each other
on the back

640
00:30:23,615 --> 00:30:25,867
and patting each other
on the butt and meeting

641
00:30:25,950 --> 00:30:27,452
and greeting and carrying on,

642
00:30:27,494 --> 00:30:29,287
and I saw one old boy
dig another old boy

643
00:30:29,329 --> 00:30:31,373
in the ribs with his elbow
and say, "Hey, boy.

644
00:30:31,456 --> 00:30:33,291
You should see what I found
myself last night,"

645
00:30:33,333 --> 00:30:35,794
and she don't talk neither!
Ha ha ha!"

646
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:38,046
And I just, you know,
at first, of course,

647
00:30:38,088 --> 00:30:42,676
I affected to be appalled,
but I can't get better material

648
00:30:42,759 --> 00:30:46,012
than the Texas legislature.
How can I not write it funny?

649
00:30:46,096 --> 00:30:47,806
Cecile: When you're
a progressive in Texas,

650
00:30:47,847 --> 00:30:49,683
if you couldn't laugh
about things,

651
00:30:49,808 --> 00:30:51,267
you weren't gonna last.

652
00:30:51,351 --> 00:30:54,396
Molly was the source
of all information

653
00:30:54,479 --> 00:30:56,856
about how to understand
and to kind of put

654
00:30:56,940 --> 00:30:58,650
into some kind of context

655
00:30:59,025 --> 00:31:02,862
the stupidity of politics
in Texas.

656
00:31:03,113 --> 00:31:05,115
When I first started writing
about these bozos,

657
00:31:05,156 --> 00:31:07,367
and I'd say something
in The Texas Observer like,

658
00:31:07,450 --> 00:31:09,619
you know,
"Representative so and so...

659
00:31:10,036 --> 00:31:13,164
runs on all fours
and has the IQ

660
00:31:13,248 --> 00:31:16,543
of an adolescent pissant."
And, uh, I'd wait for him

661
00:31:16,626 --> 00:31:19,087
to come by with a horse whip,
and all that ever happened was

662
00:31:19,129 --> 00:31:20,922
I'd see him in the capitol
the next day and they'd say,

663
00:31:21,006 --> 00:31:23,008
"Baby, you put my name
in your paper."

664
00:31:23,049 --> 00:31:26,052
She had a sense of humor
that would keep you

665
00:31:26,136 --> 00:31:28,221
from being angry at her
very long

666
00:31:28,304 --> 00:31:30,557
because she would take
that pen and stick in you

667
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:33,143
and make you realize
that you were taking yourself

668
00:31:33,226 --> 00:31:35,395
way too seriously and many times
you didn't know what the heck

669
00:31:35,478 --> 00:31:36,980
you were talking about,
and Molly did.

670
00:31:37,022 --> 00:31:38,523
(upbeat music playing)

671
00:31:38,690 --> 00:31:40,984
Molly: I think of my time
at The Texas Observer,

672
00:31:41,026 --> 00:31:43,194
the way some people think
of their college years

673
00:31:43,236 --> 00:31:45,864
as just this happy, golden,

674
00:31:45,947 --> 00:31:48,283
sunshine-filled,
beer-drenched...

675
00:31:48,366 --> 00:31:49,784
(laughter)

676
00:31:49,868 --> 00:31:51,703
...wonderful, wonderful time.

677
00:31:51,870 --> 00:31:53,705
Having more fun
than the law allows.

678
00:31:53,872 --> 00:31:56,541
(jazz music playing)

679
00:31:56,708 --> 00:32:00,045
Sara: After the legislature
was over, the legislators

680
00:32:00,086 --> 00:32:02,589
often retired to a bar.

681
00:32:02,797 --> 00:32:04,966
The liberals tended
to go to Scholz,

682
00:32:05,050 --> 00:32:06,760
which is a German beer garden

683
00:32:07,385 --> 00:32:10,722
and the Republicans tended to go
to more of a traditional bar

684
00:32:10,764 --> 00:32:11,931
with mixed drinks,

685
00:32:12,223 --> 00:32:15,018
but Molly would go along
and meet them there.

686
00:32:15,393 --> 00:32:17,979
One reason that Molly
was let into that club

687
00:32:18,063 --> 00:32:21,066
is because she'd go drink
with them for hours and hours

688
00:32:21,149 --> 00:32:22,650
and hours on end.

689
00:32:22,734 --> 00:32:25,362
She would stand up
belly-to-belly with them

690
00:32:25,403 --> 00:32:27,655
and drink beer to...
as long as they could.

691
00:32:27,739 --> 00:32:29,908
I saw her drink
a lot of men under the table

692
00:32:29,949 --> 00:32:31,242
just drinking beer.

693
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:37,165
Molly: August 30, 1973,
twenty-nine years old.

694
00:32:38,124 --> 00:32:40,085
Feeling curiously empty...

695
00:32:40,460 --> 00:32:42,128
as though my past were dull

696
00:32:42,212 --> 00:32:44,172
and had all happened
some time ago

697
00:32:44,381 --> 00:32:47,258
across a gulf of drunks.

698
00:32:48,385 --> 00:32:50,929
Came very close
to becoming an alcoholic.

699
00:32:51,221 --> 00:32:52,847
Probably am one.

700
00:32:53,515 --> 00:32:55,558
Possibly Scholz chums
not the best folk

701
00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:59,646
in the world but, God,
I do enjoy having a crowd.

702
00:33:00,563 --> 00:33:03,024
Sara: The alcoholism
drove her crazy

703
00:33:03,316 --> 00:33:06,444
but not necessarily enough
to stop very often.

704
00:33:06,820 --> 00:33:08,530
She wanted to change

705
00:33:08,863 --> 00:33:11,783
but she wanted some other
things more, I mean,

706
00:33:12,158 --> 00:33:15,829
she wanted to write well
and she wanted

707
00:33:15,912 --> 00:33:17,122
to influence people.

708
00:33:17,205 --> 00:33:21,292
(jazz music playing)

709
00:33:21,334 --> 00:33:25,922
Molly: The one figure
in my political education

710
00:33:25,964 --> 00:33:27,424
was John Henry Faulk.

711
00:33:28,299 --> 00:33:30,260
Don: John Henry Faulk
was a native Texan.

712
00:33:30,343 --> 00:33:32,470
He was a humorist
of the Mark Twain

713
00:33:32,512 --> 00:33:36,474
and, you know, the Will Rogers
school of political humor.

714
00:33:36,558 --> 00:33:40,937
Johnny wound up
with a radio show on CBS radio

715
00:33:41,312 --> 00:33:45,150
and eventually made it in CBS
television in the golden era.

716
00:33:45,483 --> 00:33:48,153
Johnny's politics
were very far to the left.

717
00:33:48,278 --> 00:33:50,739
As result, he wound up,
uh, being accused

718
00:33:50,822 --> 00:33:52,282
of, uh, being a communist

719
00:33:52,323 --> 00:33:54,409
and he was blacklisted.

720
00:33:54,492 --> 00:33:57,537
Sara: If you go back
and look at that McCarthy era,

721
00:33:57,620 --> 00:34:00,665
people were scared to death
in this country to do anything

722
00:34:00,790 --> 00:34:03,293
for fear someone might think
they were a communist

723
00:34:03,335 --> 00:34:04,586
and they'd lose their job.

724
00:34:04,669 --> 00:34:07,380
That's what happened
to John Henry.

725
00:34:08,006 --> 00:34:10,717
Molly: He was never able to get
on the air again,

726
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:13,511
but that didn't shut up Johnny.
He kept talking.

727
00:34:13,553 --> 00:34:16,014
He was a great believer
in the First Amendment.

728
00:34:16,056 --> 00:34:17,349
A great believer.

729
00:34:17,640 --> 00:34:19,893
Liz: Molly felt that John Henry
was her mentor,

730
00:34:20,143 --> 00:34:22,604
and I think it was because
of John Henry's devotion

731
00:34:22,687 --> 00:34:26,358
to the ACLU, American Civil
Liberties Union,

732
00:34:26,441 --> 00:34:28,276
and the Bill of Rights

733
00:34:28,902 --> 00:34:32,572
and his ability
to laugh at politicians.

734
00:34:32,655 --> 00:34:35,784
He and Molly
were sort of peas in a pod

735
00:34:35,867 --> 00:34:38,536
on their attitudes
toward freedom of speech.

736
00:34:38,703 --> 00:34:41,706
The point of the First Amendment
is to protect speech

737
00:34:41,748 --> 00:34:45,543
that you don't like, and Molly
learned all of that from John.

738
00:34:45,627 --> 00:34:48,421
She was like a sponge,
uh, around John Henry.

739
00:34:48,797 --> 00:34:50,632
Molly: A man who taught me
how to have fun

740
00:34:50,715 --> 00:34:53,301
while fighting for freedom
was the late John Henry Faulk.

741
00:34:53,885 --> 00:34:57,055
You kinda gotta devote a little
energy and time and thought,

742
00:34:57,138 --> 00:35:02,602
uh, to, uh, making it fun
and all I can say is that, um,

743
00:35:03,103 --> 00:35:06,815
a slightly kinky worldview
and, uh, consumption of beer

744
00:35:06,898 --> 00:35:09,526
-often help in this endeavor.
-(laughter)

745
00:35:09,567 --> 00:35:11,736
And just to give you one
example, a few years ago,

746
00:35:11,778 --> 00:35:13,738
we had a classic situation
down in Texas.

747
00:35:13,822 --> 00:35:17,075
The legislature had taken
a fit of communism and voted

748
00:35:17,117 --> 00:35:20,829
to make Martin Luther King,
Jr.'s birthday a state holiday.

749
00:35:20,912 --> 00:35:24,541
As you can imagine, it upset
the Klan, and of course,

750
00:35:24,582 --> 00:35:26,584
if you are a civil libertarian
like myself,

751
00:35:26,668 --> 00:35:29,379
you naturally have to stand up
for the right of these dimwitted

752
00:35:29,421 --> 00:35:33,925
nincompoops to spew whatever
vicious drivel they want to

753
00:35:33,967 --> 00:35:37,345
because it's their goddamn right
under the First Amendment.

754
00:35:38,555 --> 00:35:40,098
Molly: Wearing their little
pointy hats

755
00:35:40,181 --> 00:35:41,474
on their little pointy heads,

756
00:35:41,683 --> 00:35:43,768
they were met
by several thousand citizens

757
00:35:43,852 --> 00:35:46,271
of Austin lining the sidewalks,
both sides,

758
00:35:46,438 --> 00:35:48,356
who mooned them
as they marched.

759
00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:50,233
(laughter and applause)

760
00:35:50,942 --> 00:35:52,944
It made a real
nice effect, it was kind of like

761
00:35:52,986 --> 00:35:55,780
-a wave at a baseball stadium.
-(laughter)

762
00:35:55,947 --> 00:35:58,199
Roy Head:
♪ Lemme tell you a story ♪

763
00:35:58,783 --> 00:36:00,827
♪ Every man oughta know ♪

764
00:36:00,952 --> 00:36:03,455
Dan: Anytime where
you operate journalistically

765
00:36:03,496 --> 00:36:05,957
at the levels
that Molly operated on,

766
00:36:06,291 --> 00:36:09,127
there's a decision to be made
of what you're going to be,

767
00:36:09,169 --> 00:36:11,796
an insider or an outsider.

768
00:36:11,921 --> 00:36:13,798
Molly: I have always
been something

769
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:16,718
of an outsider journalist
because my political opinions

770
00:36:16,801 --> 00:36:19,637
aren't popular in my home state,
but I have, over the years,

771
00:36:19,679 --> 00:36:21,431
socialized with Texan
politicians.

772
00:36:21,598 --> 00:36:23,767
The advantage
of the insider game

773
00:36:24,142 --> 00:36:25,769
is that you get access.

774
00:36:26,269 --> 00:36:27,604
Access is important.

775
00:36:27,645 --> 00:36:29,147
Can you get an interview
with the president?

776
00:36:29,230 --> 00:36:30,732
Can you get an interview
with the governor?

777
00:36:30,815 --> 00:36:32,984
Can you get an interview
with the Speaker of the House?

778
00:36:33,193 --> 00:36:34,986
Access is overrated.

779
00:36:35,070 --> 00:36:37,697
If you live the inside game
and you are friends

780
00:36:37,781 --> 00:36:39,324
with all the people
that you cover,

781
00:36:39,366 --> 00:36:41,242
and you go
to their dinner parties

782
00:36:41,326 --> 00:36:43,411
and part of your caché
is that you know

783
00:36:43,495 --> 00:36:45,080
where their kids go to school
and maybe your kids

784
00:36:45,163 --> 00:36:47,207
go to the same schools
and you know all the same people

785
00:36:47,290 --> 00:36:48,875
and you circulate
in all the same places,

786
00:36:48,958 --> 00:36:51,336
that's great. You probably
have a great highfalutin' life

787
00:36:51,419 --> 00:36:52,712
among the elite of our country.

788
00:36:52,796 --> 00:36:54,798
That doesn't necessarily
position you well

789
00:36:54,839 --> 00:36:57,967
to astutely cover
the elite of our country.

790
00:36:58,051 --> 00:36:59,969
I already had friends.

791
00:37:00,512 --> 00:37:02,347
They were friends of mine
before they went

792
00:37:02,430 --> 00:37:03,890
into politics and public life.

793
00:37:03,973 --> 00:37:06,267
Ann Richards
was a camping buddy of mine.

794
00:37:06,393 --> 00:37:08,311
Wasn't my fault she
went into politics

795
00:37:08,353 --> 00:37:09,938
and got elected governor.

796
00:37:10,063 --> 00:37:11,356
I already knew her.

797
00:37:11,523 --> 00:37:13,817
You see, Molly
is not afraid of anybody.

798
00:37:14,275 --> 00:37:16,486
And Molly doesn't owe
anybody anything.

799
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:20,198
That makes her
a very powerful force.

800
00:37:20,573 --> 00:37:23,868
Physically, Molly
is not diminutive.

801
00:37:23,952 --> 00:37:25,328
Man: (laughs) Correct.

802
00:37:25,370 --> 00:37:28,415
So, if somebody's
gonna take Molly on...

803
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:31,376
I mean, they're not only
not gonna take her on

804
00:37:31,418 --> 00:37:33,461
because she's gonna win
the day with words

805
00:37:33,545 --> 00:37:34,879
but she could deck 'em.

806
00:37:34,963 --> 00:37:36,589
(laughs)

807
00:37:36,673 --> 00:37:39,843
Of course, it was different
once Mom was in public office,

808
00:37:39,884 --> 00:37:43,346
and Molly was still on
the outside looking in.

809
00:37:43,471 --> 00:37:48,727
I was working very hard
to not ask her for anything,

810
00:37:48,893 --> 00:37:50,603
like, even an interview.

811
00:37:50,729 --> 00:37:53,148
Um, so basically,
I didn't talk to her much

812
00:37:53,231 --> 00:37:54,649
while she was governor.

813
00:37:54,774 --> 00:37:56,568
-No, it really was just awful.
-Don't talk to her.

814
00:37:56,735 --> 00:38:01,197
-She makes it up.
-All: (laughing)

815
00:38:01,740 --> 00:38:04,576
This is the last person
you wanna talk to.

816
00:38:05,326 --> 00:38:06,661
Let me tell you.

817
00:38:06,870 --> 00:38:08,788
Molly Ivins and I have been
through a lot together.

818
00:38:09,330 --> 00:38:13,209
And when she tells a story,
I know that I was there...

819
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:16,004
but it doesn't bear
any resemblance

820
00:38:16,087 --> 00:38:18,465
-to what happened.
-Molly: You know, I believe...

821
00:38:18,548 --> 00:38:20,258
As mom always said,
you know,

822
00:38:20,342 --> 00:38:22,802
it's never your enemies that'll
get you, it's your friends.

823
00:38:22,927 --> 00:38:24,763
Of course, we're here to salute
Ann Richards.

824
00:38:24,804 --> 00:38:27,432
I've known Ann Richards
since both Ann and Exxon

825
00:38:27,474 --> 00:38:28,808
were still humble.

826
00:38:29,100 --> 00:38:31,311
(laughter)

827
00:38:31,394 --> 00:38:33,146
(applause)

828
00:38:33,229 --> 00:38:37,817
They were that rare breed
of tough Texas women

829
00:38:37,901 --> 00:38:40,487
who were also
fantastically funny.

830
00:38:40,570 --> 00:38:43,031
Molly, Molly, Molly, Molly.

831
00:38:44,157 --> 00:38:46,659
The goodwill fashion statement.

832
00:38:46,743 --> 00:38:50,914
(laughter)

833
00:38:54,584 --> 00:38:57,212
I knew that this was
an important event

834
00:38:57,295 --> 00:39:00,632
to Molly tonight
when I walked in and saw

835
00:39:00,674 --> 00:39:02,342
that she had combed her hair.

836
00:39:02,425 --> 00:39:04,052
(laughter)

837
00:39:04,135 --> 00:39:05,637
They didn't hold anything back,

838
00:39:05,762 --> 00:39:09,432
whether it was calling out
racism, calling out sexism,

839
00:39:09,599 --> 00:39:12,894
and they did it in a way
that was incredibly effective.

840
00:39:13,019 --> 00:39:14,854
As you know,
Texas tends to be behind

841
00:39:14,938 --> 00:39:18,900
the cultural curve and, um,
this was in the early '70s,

842
00:39:18,983 --> 00:39:20,819
and the women's movement
had not quite made it

843
00:39:20,860 --> 00:39:24,322
to the shores of the great state
and there was a dinner party

844
00:39:24,364 --> 00:39:25,824
in West Lake Hills.

845
00:39:28,159 --> 00:39:30,537
(laughter)

846
00:39:31,079 --> 00:39:33,665
And our friend, Tony Korioth,
who's a wonderful man

847
00:39:33,707 --> 00:39:35,834
but a terrible sexist, um...

848
00:39:35,875 --> 00:39:37,544
got to talking about
how driving home

849
00:39:37,627 --> 00:39:39,170
from work that evening,
he passed a young lady

850
00:39:39,212 --> 00:39:42,382
on the street who had the most
remarkable set of jugs

851
00:39:42,507 --> 00:39:44,384
he and Tony Korioth
had ever witnessed

852
00:39:44,467 --> 00:39:46,136
in all his long years
of jug watching.

853
00:39:46,469 --> 00:39:49,556
And he described in great detail
how they wiggled and jiggled,

854
00:39:49,639 --> 00:39:51,182
and bounced and jounced.

855
00:39:51,224 --> 00:39:52,976
And indeed, the whole sight
had been so fascinating,

856
00:39:53,018 --> 00:39:54,352
you know, he drove
around the block,

857
00:39:54,436 --> 00:39:55,770
took a second gander,

858
00:39:55,979 --> 00:39:57,188
and again described how they
wiggled and jiggled,

859
00:39:57,230 --> 00:39:58,481
and bounced and jounced.

860
00:39:58,732 --> 00:40:00,567
Um, you women
will remember that

861
00:40:00,650 --> 00:40:03,111
in those days,
we had a wonderful social skill

862
00:40:03,194 --> 00:40:05,447
when men introduce topics
like that into conversation.

863
00:40:05,488 --> 00:40:07,949
We would gaze off
into the middle distance,

864
00:40:08,116 --> 00:40:10,035
pretending not to be there.

865
00:40:11,036 --> 00:40:13,329
And, uh, all the women
at the table were gazing off

866
00:40:13,371 --> 00:40:15,749
into the middle distance,
pretending not to be there,

867
00:40:15,832 --> 00:40:18,126
when suddenly Ann Richards said
in clarion tones,

868
00:40:18,209 --> 00:40:20,879
"Well, girls, have you seen
any good dicks lately?"

869
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:24,090
(laughter)

870
00:40:24,174 --> 00:40:26,217
(jazz music playing)

871
00:40:26,301 --> 00:40:29,888
Kaye: Molly always freelanced,
even at The Observer.

872
00:40:31,723 --> 00:40:33,433
She did a whole lot
of freelancing

873
00:40:33,516 --> 00:40:38,396
for The New York Times
and they were interested in her.

874
00:40:38,772 --> 00:40:40,899
John: When I was the editor
at The Times Book Review

875
00:40:41,066 --> 00:40:43,693
in the early 1970s
and was reading Molly

876
00:40:43,735 --> 00:40:47,864
down in Texas and saying
this extraordinary voice

877
00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,033
is something
that we have to have.

878
00:40:50,075 --> 00:40:52,118
Molly: I had been asked to join
The New York Times.

879
00:40:52,202 --> 00:40:55,038
It was for me a chance to see
daily journalism practiced

880
00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:56,373
at a level of excellence

881
00:40:56,539 --> 00:40:58,416
I don't think you can see
anywhere else.

882
00:40:58,458 --> 00:41:05,048
(jazz music playing)

883
00:41:06,675 --> 00:41:10,970
This very tall,
unusual woman with an accent

884
00:41:11,054 --> 00:41:14,099
unlike any we had heard
in the news room up to that time

885
00:41:14,182 --> 00:41:17,394
arrived and began to walk around
the premises

886
00:41:17,435 --> 00:41:18,770
without any shoes on,

887
00:41:19,020 --> 00:41:21,606
and she had a dog who's name
you couldn't say there,

888
00:41:21,690 --> 00:41:23,108
but it was actually Shit.

889
00:41:23,233 --> 00:41:24,859
Marcia: When Molly
went to The Times,

890
00:41:24,943 --> 00:41:27,362
she imagined herself
as being able to write

891
00:41:27,445 --> 00:41:29,698
about things of importance.

892
00:41:29,781 --> 00:41:31,157
I was sitting in the
New York City Times

893
00:41:31,241 --> 00:41:33,410
one day when I noticed
a whole lot, a knot

894
00:41:33,451 --> 00:41:34,994
of editors up around the desk,

895
00:41:35,078 --> 00:41:38,039
uh, having a great scrum
of concern, you could tell.

896
00:41:38,123 --> 00:41:40,750
It looked sorta like an ant hill
that you just been stepped on.

897
00:41:40,875 --> 00:41:43,920
And you may recall that
Elvis Presley died untimely,

898
00:41:44,045 --> 00:41:46,339
and they are completely
unprepared.

899
00:41:46,423 --> 00:41:48,341
They didn't have anybody
who knew

900
00:41:48,425 --> 00:41:50,343
about Elvis Presley's
kind of music.

901
00:41:50,802 --> 00:41:52,595
So, they're looking across
a whole acre

902
00:41:52,679 --> 00:41:55,056
of reporters and, uh,
you could see them decide,

903
00:41:55,140 --> 00:41:59,519
"Ah-ha, Ivins. She talks funny.
She'll know about Mr. Presley."

904
00:41:59,602 --> 00:42:01,021
(upbeat music playing)

905
00:42:01,187 --> 00:42:04,107
Molly: So, I wound up writing
Elvis' obituary

906
00:42:04,190 --> 00:42:06,151
for The New York Times.
I had to refer to him throughout

907
00:42:06,192 --> 00:42:08,111
as Mr. Presley.
It was agonizing.

908
00:42:08,153 --> 00:42:10,238
That's the style
at The New York Times.

909
00:42:10,321 --> 00:42:12,198
And the next day,
they sold more newspapers

910
00:42:12,282 --> 00:42:14,743
than they did after John Kennedy
was assassinated,

911
00:42:14,826 --> 00:42:16,453
so that even the editor of
The New York Times

912
00:42:16,494 --> 00:42:17,996
who had not quite, you know,

913
00:42:18,079 --> 00:42:20,165
been culturally attuned
to Elvis,

914
00:42:20,248 --> 00:42:22,167
decided that we should
send someone

915
00:42:22,250 --> 00:42:23,960
to report on the funeral,
and now,

916
00:42:24,002 --> 00:42:26,880
I drew that assignment,
what a scene it was.

917
00:42:27,547 --> 00:42:30,133
Molly: Elvis Presley's fans
came to Memphis today

918
00:42:30,216 --> 00:42:32,010
by the thousands and thousands

919
00:42:32,093 --> 00:42:34,346
to get a last glimpse
of their idol.

920
00:42:35,472 --> 00:42:38,892
They stood for hours,
waiting to see the plump corpse

921
00:42:38,975 --> 00:42:41,561
of the great rock 'n roll
singer neatly laid out

922
00:42:41,644 --> 00:42:42,896
in a cream-colored suit.

923
00:42:43,355 --> 00:42:46,941
Memphis was awash with genuine
emotion for three days.

924
00:42:47,275 --> 00:42:50,195
It is too easy
to dismiss it as tasteless.

925
00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:53,948
It is not required that love
be in impeccable taste.

926
00:42:54,032 --> 00:42:55,867
When I've been standing
in the checkout line

927
00:42:55,909 --> 00:42:57,202
at the grocery store,

928
00:42:57,285 --> 00:42:58,953
and if I really need
to impress people,

929
00:42:59,037 --> 00:43:02,707
I just let fall that I covered
Elvis' funeral...

930
00:43:03,208 --> 00:43:06,795
and, uh, boy, people just
practically draw back with awe.

931
00:43:06,878 --> 00:43:09,714
It may yet turn out to be
my greatest claim to fame.

932
00:43:13,259 --> 00:43:16,888
Victor: The paper was being run
by Abe Rosenthal at the time,

933
00:43:16,930 --> 00:43:21,685
who was very difficult,
I think, a controlling boss.

934
00:43:21,726 --> 00:43:23,186
Abe Rosenthal,

935
00:43:23,311 --> 00:43:26,648
he actually called her
into his office one time

936
00:43:26,690 --> 00:43:29,567
and said that she was not
showing proper respect

937
00:43:29,609 --> 00:43:31,027
for The New York Times.

938
00:43:31,152 --> 00:43:34,614
It's true, um, I was
specifically told that, um,

939
00:43:34,698 --> 00:43:36,783
I did not dress well,
I'd laugh too loud,

940
00:43:36,866 --> 00:43:38,368
and I walked around
without my shoes on,

941
00:43:38,410 --> 00:43:41,162
walked around bare foot
at The New York City Times,

942
00:43:41,246 --> 00:43:42,747
goddamn.

943
00:43:42,872 --> 00:43:46,084
And then she got exiled
out to Denver,

944
00:43:46,251 --> 00:43:48,920
uh, to a one person bureau,
Molly.

945
00:43:49,045 --> 00:43:51,923
I was, um, Rocky Mountain Bureau
Chief for The Times.

946
00:43:51,965 --> 00:43:54,092
I was the chief and the bureau.

947
00:43:54,300 --> 00:43:55,969
(laughter)

948
00:43:56,052 --> 00:43:59,055
And I had, uh, ran out in
Mountain West for three years,

949
00:43:59,097 --> 00:44:01,182
having a wonderful time
covering all the mountain states

950
00:44:01,266 --> 00:44:03,101
from the Canadian to
the Mexican border, I loved it.

951
00:44:03,184 --> 00:44:05,103
Loved... a great way to
work for The New York Times

952
00:44:05,145 --> 00:44:06,771
is to be at least
a thousand miles away

953
00:44:06,813 --> 00:44:08,773
from New York. Uh...

954
00:44:08,815 --> 00:44:10,275
made a feature story
for Mountain West,

955
00:44:10,316 --> 00:44:12,235
that a fellow had "a beer gut
that belonged

956
00:44:12,277 --> 00:44:13,486
in the Smithsonian."

957
00:44:14,195 --> 00:44:16,031
It turned up the next day
in The New York Times

958
00:44:16,114 --> 00:44:19,117
as "a man
with a protuberant abdomen."

959
00:44:19,159 --> 00:44:20,994
(laughter)

960
00:44:21,077 --> 00:44:23,246
Which I felt did not
have the same ring.

961
00:44:23,288 --> 00:44:24,622
(laughter)

962
00:44:24,706 --> 00:44:26,791
That every time
she tried to do

963
00:44:26,833 --> 00:44:29,419
what was the reason
they hired her for,

964
00:44:29,461 --> 00:44:32,964
it ran afoul
of some unstated principle.

965
00:44:33,006 --> 00:44:34,966
On another occasion,
also writing a feature story

966
00:44:35,050 --> 00:44:36,509
for Mountain West, I said,

967
00:44:36,593 --> 00:44:38,261
"The fellow squawked like a
two-dollar fiddle."

968
00:44:38,470 --> 00:44:40,805
For reasons I shall never
understand, it was changed to

969
00:44:40,847 --> 00:44:43,308
"an inexpensive
musical instrument."

970
00:44:43,350 --> 00:44:46,144
(laughter)

971
00:44:46,186 --> 00:44:49,939
Linda: They wanted Molly
for the unique voice.

972
00:44:49,981 --> 00:44:54,110
The Texas twang,
the iconic class,

973
00:44:54,152 --> 00:44:56,988
but then they wanted her
to fit in to The Times

974
00:44:57,030 --> 00:45:00,492
and, as we say in Texas,
that dog don't hunt.

975
00:45:01,034 --> 00:45:03,495
To write for that newspaper
is to die the death

976
00:45:03,578 --> 00:45:04,913
of a thousand cuts.
At any rate...

977
00:45:04,996 --> 00:45:08,458
-(jazz music playing)
-(chicken clucking)

978
00:45:08,500 --> 00:45:11,836
Molly: I was out west and, uh,
I was writing a feature story

979
00:45:11,878 --> 00:45:13,505
about this little town
in New Mexico

980
00:45:13,588 --> 00:45:15,632
where everybody raises chickens.

981
00:45:15,924 --> 00:45:18,426
And about once a year
they all get together,

982
00:45:18,510 --> 00:45:21,346
everybody brings their chickens,
and starting at sun-up,

983
00:45:21,429 --> 00:45:23,556
they kill chickens,
pluck chickens

984
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:25,517
and dress chickens
all day long while drinking beer

985
00:45:25,558 --> 00:45:27,394
and listening to
country and western music,

986
00:45:27,477 --> 00:45:30,188
and everybody sits
at long tables

987
00:45:30,230 --> 00:45:32,691
and they all work together
and have a real fine time.

988
00:45:32,857 --> 00:45:34,442
And, um...

989
00:45:35,443 --> 00:45:39,239
I did, uh, put a line
in my story

990
00:45:39,322 --> 00:45:42,033
describing this event
as a gang pluck.

991
00:45:42,242 --> 00:45:47,372
(laughter)

992
00:45:49,374 --> 00:45:52,293
A line knew I would not make
The Times.

993
00:45:53,336 --> 00:45:55,880
But I used to put things
like that in my stories

994
00:45:55,922 --> 00:45:58,299
to keep the guys
on the copy desk amused.

995
00:45:58,383 --> 00:45:59,384
And, um...

996
00:46:00,051 --> 00:46:02,470
indeed, it never appeared
in The New York Times,

997
00:46:02,554 --> 00:46:04,097
but word of it got around

998
00:46:04,180 --> 00:46:06,391
and it came to the attention
of Abe Rosenthal.

999
00:46:07,100 --> 00:46:09,227
Charles: This was a woman
who hated authority

1000
00:46:09,310 --> 00:46:14,691
and that made you singularly
inappropriate to get ahead

1001
00:46:14,774 --> 00:46:16,151
and prosper at
The New York Times.

1002
00:46:16,317 --> 00:46:18,361
Finally Mr. Rosenthal got to
the root of his ire,

1003
00:46:18,403 --> 00:46:20,488
he said, "But you wrote
that story about that community

1004
00:46:20,572 --> 00:46:23,241
chicken slaughter out West."
I said, "Yes, sir, I did."

1005
00:46:23,366 --> 00:46:25,744
He said, "You tried to call it
a gang pluck."

1006
00:46:25,785 --> 00:46:28,413
(laughter)

1007
00:46:28,496 --> 00:46:32,500
I said, "Well, I thought
it was a good line."

1008
00:46:33,001 --> 00:46:36,046
-He said, "Gang pluck."
-(laughter)

1009
00:46:36,087 --> 00:46:40,383
I said, "Well, Abe,
it's a play on words."

1010
00:46:40,425 --> 00:46:46,765
(laughter)

1011
00:46:46,848 --> 00:46:50,060
-He said, "Gang pluck."
-(laughter)

1012
00:46:50,477 --> 00:46:54,147
That is a play on "gang fuck."
You were trying to make

1013
00:46:54,230 --> 00:46:56,524
our readers think of the word
"Fuck."

1014
00:46:56,608 --> 00:47:00,737
(laughter)

1015
00:47:00,779 --> 00:47:04,366
And I say, "Damn, Abe,
you are a hard man to fool."

1016
00:47:04,449 --> 00:47:07,535
(laughter)

1017
00:47:07,619 --> 00:47:09,537
That's how I got...

1018
00:47:09,746 --> 00:47:16,044
(upbeat music playing)

1019
00:47:17,796 --> 00:47:19,547
♪ On the road again... ♪

1020
00:47:19,631 --> 00:47:22,133
Molly: I got a call from, uh,
the Dallas Times Herald,

1021
00:47:22,175 --> 00:47:24,010
and what they said
was, "Come home,

1022
00:47:24,094 --> 00:47:26,346
and we will give you
absolute freedom.

1023
00:47:26,471 --> 00:47:29,182
You can write whatever you want,
about whatever you want to

1024
00:47:29,265 --> 00:47:31,267
and you can say
whatever you want to."

1025
00:47:31,351 --> 00:47:32,894
And, you know,
in the newspaper business

1026
00:47:32,977 --> 00:47:34,521
it don't get a lot
better than that.

1027
00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:39,359
Molly: It seems to me
that in a country marked

1028
00:47:39,442 --> 00:47:42,654
by an extraordinary degree
of mobility,

1029
00:47:42,862 --> 00:47:46,950
one is almost lucky these days
to have a sense of place.

1030
00:47:47,242 --> 00:47:48,702
Ronnie Dugger always says,

1031
00:47:48,785 --> 00:47:50,829
"Home is where you understand
the son bitches."

1032
00:47:51,037 --> 00:47:53,456
-And...
-(laughter)

1033
00:47:53,498 --> 00:47:56,167
I understand
the son bitches in Texas.

1034
00:47:56,710 --> 00:48:00,797
Plus, one feels one can make
a difference in Texas,

1035
00:48:00,839 --> 00:48:03,675
as someone who is remotely
of the liberal persuasion.

1036
00:48:03,717 --> 00:48:05,510
What the hell they need
with one more liberal

1037
00:48:05,552 --> 00:48:08,054
in Berkeley, California,
for God's sake.

1038
00:48:09,514 --> 00:48:12,225
Damn, it's good to be
back home again.

1039
00:48:12,517 --> 00:48:16,229
Marty: When she went back
to Texas, she consciously

1040
00:48:16,354 --> 00:48:20,275
constructed this persona
of a good old girl

1041
00:48:20,358 --> 00:48:22,652
with a really strong,
Texas accent.

1042
00:48:22,777 --> 00:48:25,196
In the beginning,
it might have been a put on,

1043
00:48:25,363 --> 00:48:27,949
but as time went by,
it became her.

1044
00:48:28,033 --> 00:48:29,868
Man: What is a bubba?

1045
00:48:30,035 --> 00:48:32,037
Molly: A bubba is a Texas
good old boy,

1046
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:34,706
also known as a red neck,
a cedar chopper

1047
00:48:34,789 --> 00:48:36,166
or a shit kicker.

1048
00:48:36,249 --> 00:48:37,709
He goes to Baptist Church
on Sunday morning,

1049
00:48:37,792 --> 00:48:40,712
he gets drunk on Saturday night,
he plays 'D-I-V-O-R-C-E'

1050
00:48:40,754 --> 00:48:41,880
on his car radio.

1051
00:48:42,213 --> 00:48:44,716
Bubba hated seatbelts,
Bubba gets mad

1052
00:48:44,758 --> 00:48:47,719
when you try to tell him
he cannot drink and drive.

1053
00:48:47,886 --> 00:48:49,804
I can walk where I wanna walk...

1054
00:48:49,888 --> 00:48:52,140
-And I can walk where I want...
-You sure can, help yourself.

1055
00:48:52,223 --> 00:48:53,850
-And...
-Molly: You will often hear,

1056
00:48:53,892 --> 00:48:56,478
uh, people doing house debate
on the house floor say,

1057
00:48:56,561 --> 00:48:58,730
"We can't vote for this bill,
Bubba wouldn't like it."

1058
00:48:58,813 --> 00:49:01,149
You think Bubba is tough,
you oughta meet his wife.

1059
00:49:01,274 --> 00:49:03,735
I remember one time
I was in a honky-tonk

1060
00:49:03,777 --> 00:49:06,196
and, uh, there was a lady there
wearing a blouse

1061
00:49:06,237 --> 00:49:07,739
of a such a bright pink

1062
00:49:07,989 --> 00:49:10,283
that when you close your eyes
you could still see the color.

1063
00:49:10,367 --> 00:49:11,951
And it had many ruffles
down the front

1064
00:49:12,035 --> 00:49:14,287
and a lot of very fine
rhinestone buttons.

1065
00:49:14,454 --> 00:49:16,289
And I was looking
at this confection

1066
00:49:16,373 --> 00:49:20,460
in some, uh...
some, uh, bemusement.

1067
00:49:20,543 --> 00:49:24,297
And I said to her, "Golly,
where did you get that blouse?"

1068
00:49:24,381 --> 00:49:26,424
And she picked up that
hint of condescension,

1069
00:49:26,466 --> 00:49:28,218
she turned right back
and said to me,

1070
00:49:28,259 --> 00:49:31,513
"Honey, it come from
a couturier, JC Penney."

1071
00:49:32,764 --> 00:49:34,224
Don't mess with Bubbette.

1072
00:49:34,599 --> 00:49:37,435
Molly Ivins captured this
East Texas dialect

1073
00:49:37,519 --> 00:49:39,396
and this Bubba talk,
as she would call it.

1074
00:49:39,437 --> 00:49:41,731
And if you took that out,
you'd be taking the soul

1075
00:49:41,773 --> 00:49:43,149
out of her columns.

1076
00:49:43,525 --> 00:49:45,443
Molly, I grew up in Texas and
it's so good to hear you talk.

1077
00:49:45,527 --> 00:49:47,946
Bless your heart. Ain't it nice
to hear someone speak normally.

1078
00:49:47,987 --> 00:49:49,948
(laughter)

1079
00:49:50,031 --> 00:49:52,283
Lou: Molly developed
that extraordinary voice.

1080
00:49:52,325 --> 00:49:54,452
It was her professional
Texan voice.

1081
00:49:54,619 --> 00:49:56,287
I mean, it's sort of like
where Samuel Clemens

1082
00:49:56,371 --> 00:49:57,747
became Mark Twain.

1083
00:49:57,789 --> 00:50:01,126
It's where Molly Ivins
became Molly Ivins.

1084
00:50:01,167 --> 00:50:04,004
(upbeat music playing)

1085
00:50:04,087 --> 00:50:07,465
(applause)

1086
00:50:08,299 --> 00:50:10,135
Molly: Last session,
the big issue in Texas

1087
00:50:10,218 --> 00:50:12,220
was we had to reform
the penal code.

1088
00:50:12,303 --> 00:50:15,515
We have in House of
Representatives in Texas...

1089
00:50:16,182 --> 00:50:17,767
a state representative,
Warren Chisum,

1090
00:50:17,809 --> 00:50:20,812
who is a bible-thumping dwarf
from Pampa, Texas.

1091
00:50:20,854 --> 00:50:22,272
(laughter)

1092
00:50:22,480 --> 00:50:24,983
Warren immediately leaped
to his seat, moved to reinstate

1093
00:50:25,066 --> 00:50:27,318
homosexual sodomy
into the penal code.

1094
00:50:27,527 --> 00:50:30,071
I will read this to you,
it's quite offensive to me

1095
00:50:30,155 --> 00:50:31,614
to have to read it
in public.

1096
00:50:31,823 --> 00:50:34,451
The person commits an offense
if a person engages

1097
00:50:34,492 --> 00:50:36,661
in the sexual act
involving a sexual organ

1098
00:50:36,745 --> 00:50:39,164
of one person
with the anus of another.

1099
00:50:39,330 --> 00:50:42,083
Then some constitutional
scholar explains to Warren

1100
00:50:42,167 --> 00:50:44,002
that unless he also moves
to reinstate

1101
00:50:44,085 --> 00:50:45,503
heterosexual sodomy,

1102
00:50:45,545 --> 00:50:48,006
this deal's gonna be held
unconstitutional.

1103
00:50:48,340 --> 00:50:50,508
So, Warren...
leaps to his feet again, moves

1104
00:50:50,592 --> 00:50:52,635
to reinstate
heterosexual sodomy.

1105
00:50:53,178 --> 00:50:55,764
And an interesting debate
ensued.

1106
00:50:55,847 --> 00:50:57,307
(laughter)

1107
00:50:57,599 --> 00:50:59,851
Debra Danburg: Mr. Chisum,
you're trying to criminalize

1108
00:50:59,934 --> 00:51:01,353
behavior between

1109
00:51:01,394 --> 00:51:03,355
people of the opposite sex,
is that correct?

1110
00:51:03,438 --> 00:51:05,398
-Uh, that's right.
-Even if they're married?

1111
00:51:05,482 --> 00:51:07,192
More especially
if they're married.

1112
00:51:07,400 --> 00:51:10,820
Even if they slip,
is that right Mr. Chisum?

1113
00:51:11,029 --> 00:51:13,323
(laughter)

1114
00:51:13,365 --> 00:51:15,700
Warren: A violation of law
is a violation of law.

1115
00:51:16,409 --> 00:51:18,078
And they probably would hang you
for doing this

1116
00:51:18,161 --> 00:51:19,537
in my county if they caught you.

1117
00:51:19,788 --> 00:51:21,623
Molly: So in the end,
all the guys in the house,

1118
00:51:21,706 --> 00:51:23,541
'cause probably everybody would
thing they was perverts

1119
00:51:23,583 --> 00:51:25,919
if they didn't vote for this,
and they did, and reinstated

1120
00:51:26,002 --> 00:51:27,587
heterosexual sodomy.

1121
00:51:27,754 --> 00:51:30,006
Warren was at the front mic
with his, uh,

1122
00:51:30,048 --> 00:51:31,675
great ally...
the two of them

1123
00:51:31,716 --> 00:51:33,426
high-fivin' and slappin'
each other on the back,

1124
00:51:33,510 --> 00:51:35,512
having a big celebration
and the press box

1125
00:51:35,553 --> 00:51:37,097
called over the sergeant
at arms

1126
00:51:37,180 --> 00:51:38,264
and says, "Sergeant,
you have to go over

1127
00:51:38,348 --> 00:51:39,974
and reprimand both those men."

1128
00:51:40,058 --> 00:51:42,352
Because under the provisions
of the amendments just passed

1129
00:51:42,394 --> 00:51:44,312
by representative Chisum,
it is now illegal for

1130
00:51:44,396 --> 00:51:45,563
a prick to touch an asshole

1131
00:51:45,647 --> 00:51:48,692
-in this state.
-(laughter)

1132
00:51:51,736 --> 00:51:55,490
Sara: You know, Molly's fame
grew over a period of time.

1133
00:51:55,573 --> 00:51:59,077
I mean, she'd sort became
famous down at the capital,

1134
00:51:59,160 --> 00:52:01,246
then she sort of became
famous around Texas,

1135
00:52:01,371 --> 00:52:04,416
but it mostly started
when she started writing

1136
00:52:04,499 --> 00:52:06,167
her syndicated column.

1137
00:52:06,292 --> 00:52:07,836
Our next guest
is one of the, uh,

1138
00:52:07,919 --> 00:52:11,297
most outspoken political
columnists in the nation today.

1139
00:52:11,381 --> 00:52:13,133
And we have a collection
of her writing.

1140
00:52:13,216 --> 00:52:14,926
It can be found in this
just published book

1141
00:52:15,010 --> 00:52:18,638
entitled, "Molly Ivins
Can't Say That, Can She?"

1142
00:52:18,763 --> 00:52:20,432
Well, let's talk about
the title of the book here.

1143
00:52:20,515 --> 00:52:22,142
"Molly Ivins Can't Say That,
Can She?"

1144
00:52:22,225 --> 00:52:23,643
What is that referring to?

1145
00:52:23,852 --> 00:52:25,603
Oh, when I first started
writing my political column,

1146
00:52:25,645 --> 00:52:27,731
I felt impelled to describe
the performance

1147
00:52:27,772 --> 00:52:31,276
of a local congressman
by saying "If his IQ slips

1148
00:52:31,359 --> 00:52:33,153
any lower, we'll have to
water him twice a day."

1149
00:52:33,236 --> 00:52:34,446
-Letterman: Right.
-(laughter)

1150
00:52:34,487 --> 00:52:35,864
It upset a
lot of his supporters

1151
00:52:35,947 --> 00:52:37,782
and, uh, they cancelled
their subscriptions

1152
00:52:37,824 --> 00:52:40,285
and threatened to start
boycotts, and so my paper

1153
00:52:40,368 --> 00:52:42,829
took out billboards
all around Dallas, Texas,

1154
00:52:42,912 --> 00:52:45,290
that said, "Molly Ivins
can't say that, can she?"

1155
00:52:45,331 --> 00:52:48,460
(upbeat music playing)

1156
00:52:48,626 --> 00:52:51,796
Man: Molly Ivins is attracting
national attention.

1157
00:52:52,964 --> 00:52:54,591
That's because her first book

1158
00:52:54,632 --> 00:52:57,302
has hit The New York Times'
best seller list.

1159
00:52:57,469 --> 00:53:00,096
She credits the Texas material
but there seems to be

1160
00:53:00,138 --> 00:53:02,807
plenty for her to work with
across state lines.

1161
00:53:02,974 --> 00:53:06,019
We need women like you
in the senate, Molly.

1162
00:53:06,102 --> 00:53:08,688
-Woman: Why don't you run?
-You know what they could

1163
00:53:08,772 --> 00:53:11,149
hang me with if I ran
for governor.

1164
00:53:11,191 --> 00:53:13,485
-(laughter)
-(applause)

1165
00:53:15,445 --> 00:53:19,282
Molly Ivins appeared
in between 300 and 400 papers

1166
00:53:19,324 --> 00:53:20,825
at the height of her popularity.

1167
00:53:20,950 --> 00:53:23,453
She was in papers, I mean,
all over the country.

1168
00:53:23,495 --> 00:53:25,830
She had a nationwide audience.

1169
00:53:26,122 --> 00:53:30,335
Harold: You've got legendary
broadcast journalists,

1170
00:53:30,418 --> 00:53:33,797
but how many legendary
print journalists are there

1171
00:53:33,838 --> 00:53:36,174
who would have gotten
treated like a rock star

1172
00:53:36,466 --> 00:53:39,469
on a rally stage
when introduced,

1173
00:53:39,594 --> 00:53:42,013
that's a real shortlist,
but Molly Ivins

1174
00:53:42,097 --> 00:53:43,807
has got to be at the top of it.

1175
00:53:44,724 --> 00:53:46,726
Man: Every Tuesday, Thursday,
and Sunday,

1176
00:53:46,810 --> 00:53:49,145
you'll see something in the
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

1177
00:53:49,187 --> 00:53:51,022
you'll never see on TV.

1178
00:53:51,064 --> 00:53:52,816
Molly Ivins uncensored.

1179
00:53:52,857 --> 00:53:55,193
Molly: We were talking about
Texas politicians that day.

1180
00:53:55,485 --> 00:53:58,279
That motley assortment of
dweebs and dorks,

1181
00:53:58,571 --> 00:54:00,782
twerps and bozos in Austin.

1182
00:54:00,865 --> 00:54:01,908
(beeps)

1183
00:54:02,158 --> 00:54:03,159
Love it.

1184
00:54:03,576 --> 00:54:06,329
Harold: But on the downside,
you know,

1185
00:54:06,371 --> 00:54:08,665
maybe some of the things
she said did cost her.

1186
00:54:08,873 --> 00:54:10,875
Your say in your foreword
that the Herald's

1187
00:54:10,959 --> 00:54:13,712
taken substantial heat
for publishing your stuff.

1188
00:54:13,795 --> 00:54:15,547
How bad has it been
over the years?

1189
00:54:15,880 --> 00:54:19,009
Well, uh,
I don't look at the letters

1190
00:54:19,050 --> 00:54:22,053
written on big chief tablets
in red crayon.

1191
00:54:22,137 --> 00:54:23,346
Those, I find, are...

1192
00:54:23,388 --> 00:54:24,556
-(laughing)
-...thorns that will

1193
00:54:24,639 --> 00:54:26,599
discourage you
if you peruse them.

1194
00:54:27,684 --> 00:54:31,354
Betsy: The bags of mail
that we received weekly

1195
00:54:31,396 --> 00:54:34,399
from her syndicate
had letters

1196
00:54:34,441 --> 00:54:36,901
to the editors saying,
"I hate Molly Ivins,

1197
00:54:36,985 --> 00:54:40,363
get her out of this paper.
I'm gonna get rid

1198
00:54:40,405 --> 00:54:42,615
of my subscription,
she's horrible."

1199
00:54:42,699 --> 00:54:46,119
Man: You're no Will Rogers,
okay? I've read you and you'll

1200
00:54:46,202 --> 00:54:50,081
take anything and warp, twist,
and distort it to suit

1201
00:54:50,123 --> 00:54:51,624
your agenda.

1202
00:54:51,791 --> 00:54:53,960
Molly: For years, I've been
a maverick and an outsider,

1203
00:54:54,044 --> 00:54:57,422
and the resident reprehensible
communist here in Texas.

1204
00:54:57,505 --> 00:54:58,882
-Morning.
-Woman: Ivins, I heard you

1205
00:54:58,923 --> 00:55:01,092
-one night on Booknotes.
-Yes.

1206
00:55:01,134 --> 00:55:03,345
Woman: I listened
about five minutes.

1207
00:55:03,428 --> 00:55:05,055
-Mm-hmm.
-Woman: Well, I'll tell you.

1208
00:55:05,096 --> 00:55:08,099
This is something I have
wanted to say for a long time.

1209
00:55:08,224 --> 00:55:11,603
You are a left-winged,
mean-spirited, blind

1210
00:55:11,686 --> 00:55:13,563
and democratic jackass.

1211
00:55:14,147 --> 00:55:19,444
Betsy: She received really
nasty, nasty things.

1212
00:55:21,905 --> 00:55:25,575
There was one case
that they did talk

1213
00:55:25,617 --> 00:55:28,036
to the authorities about it.

1214
00:55:29,412 --> 00:55:32,540
Harold: Molly got death threat.
She got threatening letters.

1215
00:55:32,624 --> 00:55:35,043
You got to have a thick skin
if you're going to be

1216
00:55:35,126 --> 00:55:36,378
in the public eye.

1217
00:55:36,503 --> 00:55:37,921
That's something
I've been thinking about lately.

1218
00:55:37,962 --> 00:55:39,631
I think there's two different
kinds of humor.

1219
00:55:39,714 --> 00:55:42,300
There's a kind of wonderful
gentle humor,

1220
00:55:42,384 --> 00:55:44,052
Garrison Keillor does it,

1221
00:55:44,135 --> 00:55:45,470
that draws people together

1222
00:55:45,553 --> 00:55:48,056
and makes us recognize
our common humanity

1223
00:55:48,139 --> 00:55:50,225
and foibles
and how silly we all are.

1224
00:55:50,308 --> 00:55:53,228
And it really unifies people.
Then there's another kind

1225
00:55:53,311 --> 00:55:56,314
of humor that holds people up
to contempt and ridicule.

1226
00:55:56,356 --> 00:55:57,857
That's what I do.

1227
00:55:57,982 --> 00:56:00,276
What was unique about her
was that she was not afraid

1228
00:56:00,318 --> 00:56:01,569
to be angry.

1229
00:56:01,861 --> 00:56:05,615
But she did it in a way
that, you know, made a case.

1230
00:56:05,699 --> 00:56:07,325
She made a case
that she was doing it

1231
00:56:07,367 --> 00:56:08,660
because it was deserved.

1232
00:56:08,827 --> 00:56:10,203
And she made you laugh
while she was doing it.

1233
00:56:10,286 --> 00:56:11,788
You remembered
her one liners and...

1234
00:56:12,163 --> 00:56:14,290
I just don't know anybody else
who does that now.

1235
00:56:14,332 --> 00:56:16,167
I mean, I wish.
I wish I could do that.

1236
00:56:16,292 --> 00:56:17,919
Crowd: (chanting)

1237
00:56:18,003 --> 00:56:22,424
Patrick: Friends, this election
is about a religious war

1238
00:56:22,507 --> 00:56:24,467
going on in this country.

1239
00:56:25,010 --> 00:56:28,138
It is a cultural war
and the Buchanan brigades

1240
00:56:28,179 --> 00:56:32,017
are enlisted all the way
to a great Republican

1241
00:56:32,100 --> 00:56:33,518
comeback victory in November.

1242
00:56:33,560 --> 00:56:36,062
Crowd: (cheering)

1243
00:56:36,146 --> 00:56:38,898
Molly: Bush was challenged
by Patrick Buchanan,

1244
00:56:39,232 --> 00:56:41,735
I know that many of you
did not care for the tenor

1245
00:56:41,818 --> 00:56:44,863
of Pat's speech
at the Republican convention.

1246
00:56:45,030 --> 00:56:47,115
I personally think it probably
sounded better

1247
00:56:47,198 --> 00:56:48,742
in the original German.

1248
00:56:48,825 --> 00:56:50,160
(laughter)

1249
00:56:50,243 --> 00:56:52,912
Ronnie: I think she was
willingly cruel

1250
00:56:52,996 --> 00:56:54,873
against people
she was making fun of.

1251
00:56:55,081 --> 00:56:58,501
I noticed in a book
I was reading from, uh,

1252
00:56:58,543 --> 00:56:59,878
of hers the other day

1253
00:57:00,003 --> 00:57:02,881
that she said, uh,
in her acknowledgements,

1254
00:57:02,964 --> 00:57:05,675
"And thank you very much,
my targets.

1255
00:57:05,884 --> 00:57:07,385
You make it all worthwhile.

1256
00:57:07,469 --> 00:57:09,095
And without you,
I wouldn't be anywhere."

1257
00:57:09,179 --> 00:57:10,305
She had targets,

1258
00:57:10,388 --> 00:57:11,890
and she was mean to them.

1259
00:57:12,098 --> 00:57:14,017
Molly: I never worry about
biting the hand that feeds me.

1260
00:57:14,100 --> 00:57:17,187
You know, I think you're much
better off telling the truth.

1261
00:57:17,354 --> 00:57:19,814
Why would I, you know,
why... I've never worried about

1262
00:57:19,898 --> 00:57:21,399
offending the powers that be.

1263
00:57:21,483 --> 00:57:23,943
The point was not really
that she was funny.

1264
00:57:24,194 --> 00:57:26,654
She was a shock
to the political culture.

1265
00:57:26,863 --> 00:57:29,282
I'll tell you frankly, American
politics at this point

1266
00:57:29,366 --> 00:57:30,784
is corrupt.

1267
00:57:30,950 --> 00:57:34,245
What we have is a system
of legalized bribery.

1268
00:57:34,329 --> 00:57:36,247
Well, the oldest saying
in politics, of course, is

1269
00:57:36,289 --> 00:57:38,667
"You got to dance with them
what brung you."

1270
00:57:38,958 --> 00:57:41,169
Molly: And these people get
elected to public office,

1271
00:57:41,252 --> 00:57:43,380
none of them go into public life

1272
00:57:43,421 --> 00:57:45,507
to, you know, become whores.

1273
00:57:46,049 --> 00:57:48,134
But the fact is,
they can't get elected

1274
00:57:48,218 --> 00:57:49,678
without special interest money,

1275
00:57:49,761 --> 00:57:52,138
and when they get in office,
they dance with them

1276
00:57:52,222 --> 00:57:53,473
what brung them.

1277
00:57:53,807 --> 00:57:56,559
They vote with the people
who gave them the money.

1278
00:57:56,601 --> 00:57:58,103
(bell dinging)

1279
00:57:58,395 --> 00:58:00,730
Anthony: Molly saw it coming
and she saw what would happen

1280
00:58:00,772 --> 00:58:02,774
if big business gets
and open check book.

1281
00:58:02,857 --> 00:58:04,526
Corporations are people,
my friend.

1282
00:58:04,609 --> 00:58:07,612
Everything corporations earn
ultimately goes to people.

1283
00:58:07,654 --> 00:58:09,114
-Man: (laughs)
-Where do you think it goes?

1284
00:58:09,155 --> 00:58:11,449
Dan: Politicians want to create
a narrative,

1285
00:58:11,950 --> 00:58:14,786
and Molly Ivins threatened
the narratives.

1286
00:58:14,953 --> 00:58:16,788
One of the mistakes we make
when we try to talk

1287
00:58:16,830 --> 00:58:19,249
about politics in this country
is we keep pretending

1288
00:58:19,290 --> 00:58:22,669
that the political spectrum
runs from right to left.

1289
00:58:22,961 --> 00:58:23,795
It doesn't.

1290
00:58:23,837 --> 00:58:25,171
It runs from top to bottom.

1291
00:58:25,422 --> 00:58:27,757
We live in a country
where the richest one percent

1292
00:58:27,799 --> 00:58:30,093
of the people in this nation
control forty percent

1293
00:58:30,135 --> 00:58:31,469
of the total wealth.

1294
00:58:31,594 --> 00:58:33,805
And those numbers get worse
every year.

1295
00:58:36,474 --> 00:58:38,351
Molly: The middle class
has been getting shafted

1296
00:58:38,435 --> 00:58:39,644
for years now.

1297
00:58:39,978 --> 00:58:42,188
People look around it
and they really are frightened,

1298
00:58:42,272 --> 00:58:43,356
they're confused.

1299
00:58:43,440 --> 00:58:45,275
(indistinct chanting)

1300
00:58:45,316 --> 00:58:48,653
Molly: And some of that
is being deliberately milked

1301
00:58:48,737 --> 00:58:52,574
by a particularly ugly
kind of demagogic politics.

1302
00:58:52,657 --> 00:58:54,659
I will build a security fence.

1303
00:58:54,743 --> 00:58:57,245
Crowd: (chanting)
Build the wall! Build the wall!

1304
00:58:57,328 --> 00:58:59,622
Molly: People saying,
"Well, it's all because of

1305
00:58:59,664 --> 00:59:01,291
illegal Mexican immigrants."

1306
00:59:01,458 --> 00:59:04,919
(laughs) I'm just sitting here
going, "Do what?"

1307
00:59:05,003 --> 00:59:07,839
We need to fix this system
so that when people get elected

1308
00:59:07,922 --> 00:59:10,508
to public office,
they have no one to dance with

1309
00:59:10,550 --> 00:59:11,926
but us.

1310
00:59:12,177 --> 00:59:14,804
Because we're the people
who brung them to the show.

1311
00:59:18,266 --> 00:59:21,686
(tractor revving)

1312
00:59:23,646 --> 00:59:25,231
Andy: I'm not political.

1313
00:59:25,398 --> 00:59:28,276
Basically, I'd call Molly up
and say who am I supposed

1314
00:59:28,360 --> 00:59:29,402
to vote for?

1315
00:59:30,195 --> 00:59:31,863
So, anytime
that somebody goes,

1316
00:59:31,905 --> 00:59:34,199
"Oh, I, you know, I don't agree
with what she said,

1317
00:59:34,240 --> 00:59:36,326
what your sister says
is a bunch of bullshit."

1318
00:59:36,368 --> 00:59:39,120
Well, you know, buddy,
you're the one that's the idiot.

1319
00:59:39,204 --> 00:59:41,206
You hadn't read everything
that she's written then.

1320
00:59:41,289 --> 00:59:43,416
She had opinions
on everything.

1321
00:59:43,541 --> 00:59:46,127
And not necessarily
were they all over here

1322
00:59:46,169 --> 00:59:47,379
in the total left.

1323
00:59:47,671 --> 00:59:49,881
I mean, she had some opinions
that went up to the middle

1324
00:59:49,964 --> 00:59:51,883
and over a little bit
to the right

1325
00:59:51,925 --> 00:59:53,885
just because there were common
sense opinions.

1326
00:59:53,968 --> 00:59:57,889
In my opinion, the Democratic
leadership is, um, gutless

1327
00:59:57,972 --> 00:59:59,766
to an extraordinary extent.
I just find them

1328
00:59:59,849 --> 01:00:01,226
incredibly wishy-washy.

1329
01:00:01,267 --> 01:00:03,561
I have a friend down
in Texas, Jim Hightower,

1330
01:00:03,645 --> 01:00:04,896
who always says,
"Why would you wanna be

1331
01:00:04,979 --> 01:00:06,356
in the middle of the road?

1332
01:00:06,398 --> 01:00:07,941
There's nothing in the middle
of the road

1333
01:00:08,024 --> 01:00:09,401
but yellow stripes
and dead armadillos."

1334
01:00:09,442 --> 01:00:12,445
Molly could be very rough
on progressives,

1335
01:00:12,570 --> 01:00:15,865
including my old boss,
Bill Clinton, who loved her.

1336
01:00:16,157 --> 01:00:17,826
Lou: You know, Bill Clinton
would call Molly

1337
01:00:17,909 --> 01:00:19,744
at late hours of the night,
and Molly was critical

1338
01:00:19,828 --> 01:00:21,121
of Bill Clinton.

1339
01:00:23,998 --> 01:00:25,792
Bill Clinton: The nature
of the poverty population

1340
01:00:25,875 --> 01:00:27,127
is so different now

1341
01:00:27,377 --> 01:00:30,338
that I am convinced,
we have got to be willing

1342
01:00:30,422 --> 01:00:33,049
to experiment, to try
to work to find ways

1343
01:00:33,091 --> 01:00:35,427
to break this cycle
of dependency that keeps

1344
01:00:35,510 --> 01:00:36,886
dragging folks down.

1345
01:00:37,095 --> 01:00:39,431
And I've spoken to a
number of other, uh, Democrats

1346
01:00:39,597 --> 01:00:41,266
and some think I'm right
and some don't.

1347
01:00:41,558 --> 01:00:44,102
Woman: Today's sermon
is for the brethren and sistren

1348
01:00:44,144 --> 01:00:45,103
in the media.

1349
01:00:45,437 --> 01:00:47,605
The reporting
on the welfare reform bill

1350
01:00:47,647 --> 01:00:48,773
has been awful.

1351
01:00:49,441 --> 01:00:51,776
It would shove at least
one million more

1352
01:00:51,860 --> 01:00:53,570
American children into poverty.

1353
01:00:53,611 --> 01:00:56,865
(indistinct chatter)

1354
01:00:57,073 --> 01:00:59,117
Molly: And for the first time
in my adult life

1355
01:00:59,159 --> 01:01:02,954
I am planning not to vote
for President.

1356
01:01:03,580 --> 01:01:08,126
Clinton, then normally
the one I would have voted for,

1357
01:01:08,168 --> 01:01:12,714
in signing the so called
Welfare Reform Bill,

1358
01:01:12,839 --> 01:01:15,175
hurt children for his own
political advantage

1359
01:01:15,258 --> 01:01:18,553
and somebody has to hold
a grudge about that.

1360
01:01:18,636 --> 01:01:20,221
And I do.

1361
01:01:20,305 --> 01:01:23,725
Kaye: Molly had a very strong
sense of injustice.

1362
01:01:24,184 --> 01:01:29,272
She hated anybody who would
in effect kick a cripple.

1363
01:01:31,149 --> 01:01:33,902
We live in a world
where the shit flows downhill.

1364
01:01:33,985 --> 01:01:36,237
And the people on the bottom
are drowning in it.

1365
01:01:36,696 --> 01:01:38,740
And there are a whole lot
of people in this country

1366
01:01:38,782 --> 01:01:41,659
who are going along
with their noses

1367
01:01:41,743 --> 01:01:43,203
barely above water.

1368
01:01:43,536 --> 01:01:49,668
And every time there is just
the slightest, little change

1369
01:01:49,751 --> 01:01:51,336
in their circumstances,

1370
01:01:51,378 --> 01:01:52,629
if they lose healthcare,

1371
01:01:52,671 --> 01:01:54,714
or if they lose
a minimum wage job,

1372
01:01:54,798 --> 01:01:56,675
then they sink back down.

1373
01:01:57,175 --> 01:01:59,803
It's the people at that level
that I think of

1374
01:01:59,886 --> 01:02:02,806
when I say "Okay,
I'm gonna vote for, you know,

1375
01:02:02,847 --> 01:02:04,974
the crook instead
of the idiot,"

1376
01:02:05,016 --> 01:02:06,893
or the idiot
instead of the crook,

1377
01:02:06,976 --> 01:02:09,396
depending on how
we're going that year.

1378
01:02:10,021 --> 01:02:16,319
Um, but, um, it seems to me
that both candidates

1379
01:02:16,361 --> 01:02:19,364
have now so richly
displayed their indifference

1380
01:02:19,447 --> 01:02:21,991
to the fate of people at the
bottom of the heap, that, um,

1381
01:02:22,033 --> 01:02:24,327
I don't think
it makes much difference.

1382
01:02:25,578 --> 01:02:28,540
Man: So, you're exercising
your right not to vote?

1383
01:02:28,581 --> 01:02:30,041
Mm-hmm, I am.

1384
01:02:30,417 --> 01:02:34,921
And I don't want something
on the ballot that says,

1385
01:02:35,005 --> 01:02:36,339
"None of the above."

1386
01:02:36,381 --> 01:02:38,049
I want something on the ballot
that says,

1387
01:02:38,091 --> 01:02:40,093
"It makes me vomit."

1388
01:02:43,930 --> 01:02:44,931
-Hi, darling.
-Hi.

1389
01:02:45,015 --> 01:02:46,391
You need some books signed?

1390
01:02:48,393 --> 01:02:50,854
Lou: The private Molly
was a complex woman,

1391
01:02:50,895 --> 01:02:52,355
at times I think lonely.

1392
01:02:52,564 --> 01:02:55,483
She was surrounded by people
but lived always by herself.

1393
01:02:55,567 --> 01:02:58,737
Writing is a very
solitary pursuit of course.

1394
01:02:58,820 --> 01:03:00,905
And you sit there
all by yourself

1395
01:03:00,947 --> 01:03:01,990
with your little machine,

1396
01:03:02,073 --> 01:03:04,451
typing away for years on end.

1397
01:03:04,576 --> 01:03:06,995
And then, once you have a book,
they make you go out

1398
01:03:07,078 --> 01:03:09,456
-and...
-(laughter)

1399
01:03:09,539 --> 01:03:13,293
Ellen: Molly was shy,
which people are always shocked

1400
01:03:13,376 --> 01:03:14,502
to discover.

1401
01:03:15,503 --> 01:03:18,340
It wasn't easy for her
to cope

1402
01:03:18,381 --> 01:03:19,507
with the pressure

1403
01:03:19,758 --> 01:03:23,636
and the intensity
of her increasing popularity.

1404
01:03:24,262 --> 01:03:26,639
Kaye: More and more people
wanted her to be

1405
01:03:26,890 --> 01:03:28,516
the Molly Ivins.

1406
01:03:29,225 --> 01:03:33,813
Myra: I think there are times
when she became the persona

1407
01:03:33,897 --> 01:03:36,066
that people wanted her to be.

1408
01:03:36,441 --> 01:03:38,860
It was a need to supply
the laughter

1409
01:03:38,943 --> 01:03:40,862
and make other people
feel good.

1410
01:03:41,321 --> 01:03:44,115
It surely must've been
wearing for her.

1411
01:03:44,491 --> 01:03:46,534
Man: During the last couple
of decades,

1412
01:03:46,618 --> 01:03:49,871
the role of women in journalism
has changed a lot.

1413
01:03:50,288 --> 01:03:53,249
But while women have
more parity in the news room,

1414
01:03:53,291 --> 01:03:55,460
it's still very hard
on private lives, uh...

1415
01:03:55,543 --> 01:03:57,045
-Molly: Yeah.
-...nearly, half of women

1416
01:03:57,128 --> 01:03:58,838
-journalists are unmarried.
-Molly: Right.

1417
01:03:58,922 --> 01:04:00,173
Why is that?

1418
01:04:00,256 --> 01:04:02,133
The potential for trouble
is very strong

1419
01:04:02,217 --> 01:04:04,219
if you screw,
either your colleagues,

1420
01:04:04,302 --> 01:04:06,638
your sources,
or your competition.

1421
01:04:06,971 --> 01:04:08,598
What that means is,

1422
01:04:08,640 --> 01:04:11,601
since practically everybody
you know is either a colleague,

1423
01:04:11,643 --> 01:04:13,144
a competitor, or a source,

1424
01:04:13,603 --> 01:04:17,148
that, you know, when the plumber
comes to fix the sink,

1425
01:04:17,190 --> 01:04:20,402
-you're taking a close look.
-(laughter)

1426
01:04:20,819 --> 01:04:23,196
Your options are limited.

1427
01:04:23,321 --> 01:04:25,156
There were some men in her life.

1428
01:04:25,240 --> 01:04:28,326
Um, I don't know that
that's everybody's business

1429
01:04:28,493 --> 01:04:31,496
but I knew lots of men
who are very attracted to Molly.

1430
01:04:31,579 --> 01:04:34,082
And the going joke was
they couldn't out drink her.

1431
01:04:34,207 --> 01:04:36,418
You write about men,
you like men that

1432
01:04:36,501 --> 01:04:38,753
are heavy drinkers
and womanizers.

1433
01:04:38,837 --> 01:04:41,297
-Oh, no. (laughs)
-No?

1434
01:04:41,339 --> 01:04:44,009
I said I like men
who like whisky and women.

1435
01:04:44,050 --> 01:04:46,011
-Oh, okay.
-(laughs) That is different

1436
01:04:46,094 --> 01:04:47,804
from saying you like
heavy drinkers

1437
01:04:47,846 --> 01:04:49,180
and womanizers.

1438
01:04:49,222 --> 01:04:51,599
Do you regret not
uh, having a family,

1439
01:04:51,683 --> 01:04:52,726
doing other things?

1440
01:04:52,809 --> 01:04:54,310
Um, yeah.

1441
01:04:54,352 --> 01:04:57,063
I've... I think that not having
children is something

1442
01:04:57,147 --> 01:04:59,107
I will always regret,
on the other hand I don't think

1443
01:04:59,190 --> 01:05:00,734
it's gonna ruin my life.

1444
01:05:01,359 --> 01:05:06,364
I don't know, I just, um,
just never...

1445
01:05:06,698 --> 01:05:09,200
uh, somebody asked me once
why I never got married, in fact

1446
01:05:09,284 --> 01:05:11,703
the direct question was
"Why are you an old maid?"

1447
01:05:11,745 --> 01:05:13,496
(laughter)

1448
01:05:13,663 --> 01:05:15,999
And the easy answer
is no one I had liked

1449
01:05:16,041 --> 01:05:18,251
a whole lot ever asked me.

1450
01:05:18,501 --> 01:05:20,879
And it seems it's kind of silly
to get married to someone

1451
01:05:20,920 --> 01:05:22,213
who you didn't like a whole lot.

1452
01:05:22,422 --> 01:05:24,466
She didn't believe
they could be attracted to her.

1453
01:05:24,549 --> 01:05:27,052
Molly didn't think
she was lovable.

1454
01:05:27,594 --> 01:05:30,055
And that was the saddest part
of all.

1455
01:05:30,221 --> 01:05:32,557
And I think she was partly
afraid that if

1456
01:05:32,640 --> 01:05:35,393
she became too involved
in a relationship

1457
01:05:35,477 --> 01:05:38,021
that some men
would try to control her.

1458
01:05:38,104 --> 01:05:40,857
And she really believed
in what she was doing.

1459
01:05:41,107 --> 01:05:44,527
(dramatic music playing)

1460
01:05:47,530 --> 01:05:49,532
Man: There is some thought
that, God help us,

1461
01:05:49,574 --> 01:05:51,743
the next president
of the United States...

1462
01:05:51,826 --> 01:05:53,078
Oh.

1463
01:05:53,203 --> 01:05:55,413
...might be the current governor
of Texas.

1464
01:05:55,455 --> 01:05:57,624
-This here is possible.
-man: And since we know

1465
01:05:57,707 --> 01:05:59,376
-so little about the man...
-Mm-hmm.

1466
01:05:59,417 --> 01:06:02,087
...I was hoping
that you might fill us in.

1467
01:06:02,170 --> 01:06:05,590
-Yeah, I'd be happy to. Um...
-(laughter)

1468
01:06:06,841 --> 01:06:09,719
...George W., uh,
whom they call either Dubya,

1469
01:06:09,761 --> 01:06:10,970
by his middle name, that's

1470
01:06:11,054 --> 01:06:14,391
-D-U-B-Y-A, Dubya, um...
-(laughs)

1471
01:06:15,225 --> 01:06:17,185
Or shrub, the little Bush.

1472
01:06:17,268 --> 01:06:18,978
-Man: (laughter)
-Um...

1473
01:06:19,062 --> 01:06:21,231
(applause)

1474
01:06:21,272 --> 01:06:25,068
In 1999, Molly and Lou Dubose
wrote the first book

1475
01:06:25,110 --> 01:06:26,736
they wrote about George Bush.

1476
01:06:26,778 --> 01:06:30,490
It was called, "Shrub:
The Short But Happy

1477
01:06:30,573 --> 01:06:33,159
Political Life
of George W. Bush."

1478
01:06:33,284 --> 01:06:35,787
Lou: The point of Shrub
was we wanted to tell

1479
01:06:35,829 --> 01:06:38,331
what was behind the image
of George W. Bush.

1480
01:06:38,456 --> 01:06:40,959
-Woman: Hey, Mr. Bush.
-George W. Bush: You bet 'ya.

1481
01:06:41,001 --> 01:06:42,544
-Shake his hand, yay.
-Hey, buddy.

1482
01:06:42,627 --> 01:06:43,795
Bush: Thank you all.

1483
01:06:43,837 --> 01:06:45,380
-Man: Yeah.
-Molly: He's real affable.

1484
01:06:45,463 --> 01:06:47,424
As we would say
in our quaint Texas fashion,

1485
01:06:47,465 --> 01:06:48,967
he's just affable out the ass.

1486
01:06:49,050 --> 01:06:51,803
-(laughter)
-Um, and he wanders

1487
01:06:51,845 --> 01:06:54,472
around the state being affable,
East, West, North, and South.

1488
01:06:54,556 --> 01:06:57,475
You cannot find
hardly anybody who dislikes him.

1489
01:06:57,767 --> 01:06:58,935
Including me.

1490
01:06:59,644 --> 01:07:02,188
Lou:
It was George Bush's policies,

1491
01:07:02,272 --> 01:07:04,941
it was what he did
to the little people,

1492
01:07:05,025 --> 01:07:06,317
that Molly wanted to get at.

1493
01:07:06,401 --> 01:07:09,237
My guiding principle
will be government

1494
01:07:09,320 --> 01:07:13,616
if necessary
but not necessarily government.

1495
01:07:13,658 --> 01:07:15,285
(applause)

1496
01:07:15,326 --> 01:07:17,245
Molly: There's a lot of ways
to look at George W.

1497
01:07:17,328 --> 01:07:19,831
And I look at him and mostly
what I see is Texas.

1498
01:07:20,123 --> 01:07:21,666
Unlike his daddy,
who is of course

1499
01:07:21,708 --> 01:07:24,669
a classic example
of an upper class elite

1500
01:07:24,753 --> 01:07:26,755
Eastern WASP, uh, W is

1501
01:07:26,838 --> 01:07:30,175
culturally identified with the
state of Texas very strongly.

1502
01:07:30,800 --> 01:07:34,262
And the characteristics I see
that strike me

1503
01:07:34,346 --> 01:07:37,557
as so familiar are
anti-intellectualism...

1504
01:07:38,600 --> 01:07:41,186
religiosity, by which I mean
not just belief

1505
01:07:41,353 --> 01:07:43,396
but the public display
of belief...

1506
01:07:43,938 --> 01:07:45,732
and machismo.

1507
01:07:47,317 --> 01:07:49,110
And, uh, they're all attractive

1508
01:07:49,194 --> 01:07:50,987
to fairly large swaths
of voters.

1509
01:07:52,113 --> 01:07:54,699
Man: She had this knowledge
in the back of her head

1510
01:07:54,783 --> 01:07:57,202
that when George W. Bush
was elected president

1511
01:07:57,243 --> 01:07:58,787
that, you know,
they're gonna try this

1512
01:07:58,870 --> 01:08:00,705
on a national scale,
and here's what happens.

1513
01:08:00,955 --> 01:08:04,417
Welcome to the White House,
the way I see it is...

1514
01:08:05,251 --> 01:08:06,878
mi casa es su casa.

1515
01:08:06,961 --> 01:08:08,421
(applause)

1516
01:08:08,505 --> 01:08:10,048
Molly: There's an old
country western song

1517
01:08:10,131 --> 01:08:11,841
called
"Lubbock (On Everything)".

1518
01:08:12,217 --> 01:08:14,386
And sometimes I think that
what we are now watching

1519
01:08:14,469 --> 01:08:16,846
is Texas On Everything.

1520
01:08:17,347 --> 01:08:20,892
Molly understood that
this was going to metastasize.

1521
01:08:20,975 --> 01:08:23,478
That Texas politics were gonna
become the politics

1522
01:08:23,561 --> 01:08:27,565
of the nation, which I think is,
by and large, true.

1523
01:08:40,245 --> 01:08:43,873
Molly Ivins on the road,
promoting her book called,

1524
01:08:43,957 --> 01:08:45,250
"Shrub."

1525
01:08:45,625 --> 01:08:47,544
Uh, if you don't mind me asking,
I know it's been on the papers,

1526
01:08:47,585 --> 01:08:49,462
you're kind of going through
your own personal battle.

1527
01:08:49,546 --> 01:08:51,506
Molly: I am and it's going
real well.

1528
01:08:51,589 --> 01:08:54,509
Uh, I have a case of cancer
and, uh, I'm in...

1529
01:08:54,676 --> 01:08:56,511
almost up to round four
of chemotherapy.

1530
01:08:56,594 --> 01:08:59,723
She'd been diagnosed with a
really nightmare-ish kind of

1531
01:08:59,764 --> 01:09:03,727
breast cancer that very, very,
very few women survive

1532
01:09:03,768 --> 01:09:04,894
even a year.

1533
01:09:05,103 --> 01:09:07,605
This extraordinary amount of

1534
01:09:07,647 --> 01:09:10,108
love and support,
and sympathy and prayer

1535
01:09:10,191 --> 01:09:11,901
I've gotten
is really remarkable.

1536
01:09:11,943 --> 01:09:13,278
And sometimes I feel guilty

1537
01:09:13,319 --> 01:09:14,904
because I really don't feel
that bad.

1538
01:09:15,238 --> 01:09:17,282
Molly being Molly, she was...

1539
01:09:17,323 --> 01:09:18,950
made fun of her own disease.

1540
01:09:18,992 --> 01:09:22,954
Molly said the doctors told her
the tumor was large

1541
01:09:23,121 --> 01:09:25,206
with undefined edges,

1542
01:09:25,290 --> 01:09:27,208
and she said
she was gonna name it "Newt."

1543
01:09:27,292 --> 01:09:28,626
Molly: "Uh, I'm telling you,

1544
01:09:28,835 --> 01:09:30,503
you can laugh your way
through cancer, it is possible."

1545
01:09:30,587 --> 01:09:31,629
Man: Yeah.

1546
01:09:31,880 --> 01:09:34,341
When Molly first found out
that she had cancer,

1547
01:09:34,424 --> 01:09:37,385
I'll be honest,
my great fear was

1548
01:09:37,469 --> 01:09:39,596
that Molly wouldn't take it
seriously enough.

1549
01:09:39,763 --> 01:09:43,641
I was hopeful at the beginning
that, um, since I had

1550
01:09:43,683 --> 01:09:45,769
a serious illness
and was being forced

1551
01:09:45,810 --> 01:09:49,230
to confront my own mortality,
that I would become a deeper

1552
01:09:49,314 --> 01:09:51,608
-and more thoughtful person.
-(laughter)

1553
01:09:51,649 --> 01:09:54,361
Uh, but all that happened
was that, I learned

1554
01:09:54,444 --> 01:09:56,279
that you cannot go on
a spiritual journey

1555
01:09:56,321 --> 01:09:58,031
when you're constipated.

1556
01:09:59,240 --> 01:10:01,826
Marcia: She definitely
didn't take care of herself.

1557
01:10:01,951 --> 01:10:03,370
She'd be the first to tell you.

1558
01:10:03,578 --> 01:10:05,163
You don't send sympathy
notes or cards,

1559
01:10:05,205 --> 01:10:08,333
God bless you, just make sure
that if you are a woman,

1560
01:10:08,416 --> 01:10:12,671
you go get your damn
mammogram done.

1561
01:10:12,796 --> 01:10:15,298
I think all of us that
were in her inner circle

1562
01:10:15,340 --> 01:10:18,551
were concerned
that she didn't stop drinking.

1563
01:10:18,635 --> 01:10:20,637
And sometimes, she drank more.

1564
01:10:20,845 --> 01:10:23,515
Marcia: Having her wine,
smoking her cigarette.

1565
01:10:23,556 --> 01:10:25,225
And I said,
"Molly, what are you doing?"

1566
01:10:25,308 --> 01:10:26,810
She said, "Why should I quit?

1567
01:10:26,851 --> 01:10:29,145
I mean, I've already got
fucking cancer.

1568
01:10:29,229 --> 01:10:30,730
The only thing I enjoy?

1569
01:10:30,814 --> 01:10:32,190
I'm not gonna quit."

1570
01:10:32,315 --> 01:10:34,651
She always said that she was
afraid if she stopped drinking

1571
01:10:34,693 --> 01:10:36,486
she wouldn't be funny anymore.

1572
01:10:36,903 --> 01:10:40,532
Woman: I like Mrs. Ivins
because she's funny.

1573
01:10:40,907 --> 01:10:47,205
And I don't think... and she is,
despite her personal problems,

1574
01:10:47,747 --> 01:10:51,376
she is showing a love of life
that is an example

1575
01:10:51,459 --> 01:10:52,585
for all of us.

1576
01:10:52,877 --> 01:10:55,296
And I say to you now,
that everything

1577
01:10:55,380 --> 01:10:57,465
is going to be all right.

1578
01:10:58,091 --> 01:11:00,051
I'm for George Bush.

1579
01:11:00,218 --> 01:11:01,428
(camera shutters clicking)

1580
01:11:01,511 --> 01:11:03,388
-Teacher: Good morning.
-Good morning.

1581
01:11:03,722 --> 01:11:05,515
-Teacher: Ready?
-Children: Yeah.

1582
01:11:05,598 --> 01:11:06,683
Yeah.

1583
01:11:06,725 --> 01:11:07,892
(laughter)

1584
01:11:08,101 --> 01:11:09,936
Woman: Okay. Get ready
to read the words on this. Okay?

1585
01:11:10,103 --> 01:11:13,440
(dramatic music playing)

1586
01:11:14,899 --> 01:11:16,026
Man: Oh, shit.

1587
01:11:16,067 --> 01:11:17,569
(indistinct chatter)

1588
01:11:17,610 --> 01:11:21,031
(dramatic music playing)

1589
01:11:27,662 --> 01:11:29,998
Molly: No matter whether
you like George W. or not,

1590
01:11:30,081 --> 01:11:31,750
the last thing in the world
you would've wished

1591
01:11:31,833 --> 01:11:34,252
on this poor guy was
a major foreign policy crisis

1592
01:11:34,294 --> 01:11:35,712
in his first year.

1593
01:11:35,754 --> 01:11:37,964
Uh, to say foreign policy
was not his forté,

1594
01:11:38,048 --> 01:11:39,466
is to put it mildly.

1595
01:11:39,591 --> 01:11:42,093
I think it's hard for people
to remember

1596
01:11:42,135 --> 01:11:45,555
what it was like in 2002, 2003.

1597
01:11:45,597 --> 01:11:47,724
That was the peak
of the madness

1598
01:11:47,766 --> 01:11:52,103
of George Bush
as the great heroic leader

1599
01:11:52,812 --> 01:11:55,732
when it was un-patriotic to
suggest that maybe this case

1600
01:11:55,774 --> 01:11:57,776
for war wasn't so great.

1601
01:11:58,109 --> 01:11:59,819
The stories we were being told

1602
01:11:59,903 --> 01:12:03,365
were so different from
what was obviously true

1603
01:12:03,448 --> 01:12:04,991
to anybody with eyes,
but very few people

1604
01:12:05,075 --> 01:12:06,576
in the news media
were willing to say it.

1605
01:12:06,618 --> 01:12:09,579
It was very scary to be
a Bush critic.

1606
01:12:10,538 --> 01:12:12,749
Molly: November 19, 2002.

1607
01:12:12,957 --> 01:12:15,460
The greatest risk for us
in invading Iraq

1608
01:12:15,585 --> 01:12:18,129
is probably what happens
after we win.

1609
01:12:18,213 --> 01:12:19,964
Paul: She caught on
before anybody

1610
01:12:20,048 --> 01:12:22,467
about the mismanagement
of the occupation.

1611
01:12:22,676 --> 01:12:25,095
Molly: There is a batty
degree of triumphalism loose

1612
01:12:25,136 --> 01:12:26,513
in this country right now.

1613
01:12:26,596 --> 01:12:30,016
Paul: Molly as the
quintessential outsider

1614
01:12:30,100 --> 01:12:31,559
was speaking out and saying,

1615
01:12:31,643 --> 01:12:34,145
"What's going on is not
the picture you're being given."

1616
01:12:34,229 --> 01:12:36,231
Molly: January 16, 2003.

1617
01:12:36,314 --> 01:12:39,150
Can you say horrible
three way civil war?

1618
01:12:39,234 --> 01:12:40,819
October 7, 2003.

1619
01:12:40,902 --> 01:12:43,363
Good thing we won the war,
because the peace

1620
01:12:43,446 --> 01:12:44,823
sure looks like a quagmire.

1621
01:12:44,906 --> 01:12:47,659
The fact is
that Iraq is a disaster.

1622
01:12:47,909 --> 01:12:51,496
I don't want it to get worse
but I do think that

1623
01:12:51,579 --> 01:12:54,457
the spin we are getting
from the White House

1624
01:12:54,499 --> 01:12:56,126
that everything is just lovely

1625
01:12:56,167 --> 01:12:58,753
and we're going to create
a beacon of democracy

1626
01:12:58,837 --> 01:13:01,089
in that poor benighted
part of the world

1627
01:13:01,172 --> 01:13:03,633
is such happy horseshit,

1628
01:13:04,050 --> 01:13:06,594
uh, that I can hardly stand to
listen to it,

1629
01:13:06,678 --> 01:13:08,096
and I've spent years

1630
01:13:08,179 --> 01:13:10,390
listening to members
of the Texas legislature.

1631
01:13:10,473 --> 01:13:11,891
Crowd: (laughter)

1632
01:13:12,142 --> 01:13:14,811
Paul: Molly never was afraid
to say it as it was.

1633
01:13:14,894 --> 01:13:17,480
At a time when that's
a frightening thing to do.

1634
01:13:18,106 --> 01:13:20,692
Linda: She was working
on the second Bush book.

1635
01:13:20,775 --> 01:13:22,694
There was a burglary
at her house

1636
01:13:22,736 --> 01:13:24,696
and what they stole
was her laptop

1637
01:13:24,738 --> 01:13:26,489
with her draft on it.

1638
01:13:26,698 --> 01:13:28,742
And I've been in Texas
long enough,

1639
01:13:28,825 --> 01:13:31,661
and I've been in the political
circle long enough,

1640
01:13:31,703 --> 01:13:34,289
that I was very suspicious
about that.

1641
01:13:34,748 --> 01:13:36,791
-How you doing?
-I'm doing great.

1642
01:13:37,208 --> 01:13:38,835
Harold: I do think
she was censored,

1643
01:13:38,877 --> 01:13:40,795
and there were
major daily publications

1644
01:13:40,879 --> 01:13:42,547
in this country who were

1645
01:13:42,672 --> 01:13:46,259
buying her column
and not running it.

1646
01:13:46,343 --> 01:13:47,635
They wouldn't run it,

1647
01:13:47,719 --> 01:13:49,137
they wouldn't let
the other paper run it.

1648
01:13:56,144 --> 01:13:58,480
Terry: She was not
in the Houston Chronicle.

1649
01:13:58,730 --> 01:14:01,941
To not have the leading woman
of letters

1650
01:14:02,025 --> 01:14:05,487
published in the largest
newspaper in Texas,

1651
01:14:05,570 --> 01:14:07,155
you bet there's censorship here.

1652
01:14:08,323 --> 01:14:11,868
Muffie: I went to see
the editor of the Chronicle

1653
01:14:12,035 --> 01:14:16,122
because this editor
would not run Molly

1654
01:14:16,206 --> 01:14:17,540
in the print version,

1655
01:14:17,582 --> 01:14:20,502
and I looked around
and there were pictures

1656
01:14:20,585 --> 01:14:22,545
all over his walls

1657
01:14:22,587 --> 01:14:25,882
of him and George H.W. Bush.

1658
01:14:26,466 --> 01:14:29,094
And it took him
about one nanosecond

1659
01:14:29,135 --> 01:14:32,597
to say no,
not as long as he was editor.

1660
01:14:32,764 --> 01:14:34,432
He couldn't stand her.

1661
01:14:34,974 --> 01:14:37,435
Molly: I wanna suggest to
y'all what's going on here.

1662
01:14:37,477 --> 01:14:39,771
Um, I had an old friend,
bless his heart,

1663
01:14:39,813 --> 01:14:42,232
the late John Henry Faulk,
down in Texas.

1664
01:14:42,273 --> 01:14:43,566
(applause)

1665
01:14:43,692 --> 01:14:44,651
Yeah, some people remember
Johnny Faulk.

1666
01:14:44,734 --> 01:14:46,111
God bless you.

1667
01:14:46,152 --> 01:14:47,862
Before he ever went
into the showbusiness

1668
01:14:47,946 --> 01:14:50,323
and had the big success,
John Henry, uh,

1669
01:14:50,407 --> 01:14:51,700
was in law enforcement.

1670
01:14:51,783 --> 01:14:54,035
He was a captain
in the Texas Rangers.

1671
01:14:54,536 --> 01:14:58,581
His friend, Boots Cooper,
who was seven, was the sheriff.

1672
01:14:58,623 --> 01:15:00,291
Johnny was six at the time.

1673
01:15:00,375 --> 01:15:03,461
And one day, Johnny's mama,
having two such fine deputies

1674
01:15:03,545 --> 01:15:04,921
there on the property,
said to them,

1675
01:15:04,963 --> 01:15:06,798
"Boys, I want you all
to go down the hen house

1676
01:15:06,881 --> 01:15:08,717
and get that chicken snake
out of the hen house."

1677
01:15:08,800 --> 01:15:10,760
They were of the age
and of a size

1678
01:15:10,802 --> 01:15:12,595
where they had to stand
on tiptoe

1679
01:15:12,637 --> 01:15:15,348
and see if there's a snake
up on the second shelf.

1680
01:15:15,640 --> 01:15:17,142
And there was.

1681
01:15:17,392 --> 01:15:19,144
Now,
I myself have never been

1682
01:15:19,185 --> 01:15:20,979
nose to nose
with a chicken snake,

1683
01:15:21,021 --> 01:15:23,565
but I always took Johnny's word
that it will just scare

1684
01:15:23,648 --> 01:15:25,817
the living shit out of you.

1685
01:15:26,192 --> 01:15:29,070
And it scared Johnny and Boots
so bad they both tried to get

1686
01:15:29,154 --> 01:15:31,614
out of the hen house
at the same time,

1687
01:15:31,823 --> 01:15:34,451
doing considerable damage
to both themselves

1688
01:15:34,492 --> 01:15:37,078
and the hen house door
in the process.

1689
01:15:37,245 --> 01:15:40,373
They came trailing back up
to the porch, all shame faced.

1690
01:15:40,457 --> 01:15:41,666
Ms. Faulk looked at them
and said,

1691
01:15:41,708 --> 01:15:44,210
"Boys, boys,
what is wrong with you?

1692
01:15:44,294 --> 01:15:45,503
You know perfectly well

1693
01:15:45,545 --> 01:15:47,172
a chicken snake
will not hurt you."

1694
01:15:47,589 --> 01:15:49,174
And that's when
Boots Cooper said

1695
01:15:49,257 --> 01:15:51,259
this really semi-immortal thing.

1696
01:15:51,676 --> 01:15:53,011
He said, "Yes, ma'am.

1697
01:15:53,094 --> 01:15:55,347
But there's some things
that'll scare you so bad

1698
01:15:55,430 --> 01:15:56,890
you'll hurt yourself."

1699
01:15:56,973 --> 01:15:59,142
(laughter)

1700
01:16:02,062 --> 01:16:04,314
Now, don't you know
that that's what we do

1701
01:16:04,356 --> 01:16:07,275
in this country over and over.

1702
01:16:07,525 --> 01:16:09,903
We get so scared,
so, so scared

1703
01:16:09,986 --> 01:16:12,655
of some real menace,
we don't make 'em up,

1704
01:16:12,864 --> 01:16:17,202
so scared of communism
or crime or drugs,

1705
01:16:17,660 --> 01:16:19,371
illegal aliens,

1706
01:16:19,412 --> 01:16:20,872
terrorism,

1707
01:16:21,039 --> 01:16:24,209
that we think
we can make ourselves safer...

1708
01:16:25,001 --> 01:16:26,961
by making ourselves less free.

1709
01:16:27,420 --> 01:16:31,174
That is a logical proposition
that won't hold a drop of water.

1710
01:16:31,675 --> 01:16:34,594
But it's amazing how consistent
that response is

1711
01:16:34,678 --> 01:16:36,513
in American history.

1712
01:16:36,554 --> 01:16:39,182
And we are in
another such time,

1713
01:16:39,516 --> 01:16:43,770
so frightened that we think
we can make ourselves safer

1714
01:16:43,853 --> 01:16:46,731
by damaging our own freedoms.

1715
01:16:46,940 --> 01:16:51,820
Now, when you make yourself
less free, you're not safer.

1716
01:16:51,903 --> 01:16:53,655
You're just less free.

1717
01:16:53,738 --> 01:16:55,073
(applause)

1718
01:16:55,156 --> 01:16:57,659
Victor: I don't think
one has to think of her

1719
01:16:57,742 --> 01:17:00,787
as some political prophet

1720
01:17:00,912 --> 01:17:04,749
in order to appreciate
what she did so well.

1721
01:17:04,916 --> 01:17:06,876
But the truth was,
that she was...

1722
01:17:07,002 --> 01:17:08,503
that she was a prophet

1723
01:17:08,712 --> 01:17:12,924
and saw the truth about things
at their core in a way that

1724
01:17:12,966 --> 01:17:15,593
uh, way outlives her.

1725
01:17:15,885 --> 01:17:20,849
(jazz music playing)

1726
01:17:25,145 --> 01:17:29,107
Lou: There was an event
in July of 2005.

1727
01:17:29,190 --> 01:17:31,568
It was an A-list event
of people, for politicians

1728
01:17:31,609 --> 01:17:36,740
from around the country, and
Molly got astoundingly drunk.

1729
01:17:37,615 --> 01:17:40,160
And she encountered
Nancy Pelosi...

1730
01:17:40,660 --> 01:17:43,580
and had a bit of advice
for Nancy Pelosi,

1731
01:17:43,621 --> 01:17:45,415
which I think was good advice,

1732
01:17:45,540 --> 01:17:47,625
which was you need
a speech coach,

1733
01:17:47,709 --> 01:17:49,711
you need to lower it
a few registers

1734
01:17:49,753 --> 01:17:53,173
because you have a tendency
to sound shrill.

1735
01:17:53,923 --> 01:17:56,634
Probably something that
should've been said in private.

1736
01:17:57,302 --> 01:18:01,514
Woman: Molly was just
alcoholic of the worse sort

1737
01:18:01,598 --> 01:18:03,141
for 40 years or something.

1738
01:18:03,183 --> 01:18:07,437
She had a terrible history
of disgracing herself

1739
01:18:07,479 --> 01:18:10,982
and of absolutely
being the life of the party

1740
01:18:11,066 --> 01:18:12,776
and everybody's
favorite person

1741
01:18:12,817 --> 01:18:14,486
and then she'd tip
over the edge.

1742
01:18:14,736 --> 01:18:18,490
Lou: Alcohol was a professional
tool for Molly, initially.

1743
01:18:18,531 --> 01:18:20,533
I don't know
that it weakened her writing,

1744
01:18:20,617 --> 01:18:22,452
but it made it difficult
for her to work.

1745
01:18:22,494 --> 01:18:24,829
I mean, you can't drink
two bottles of wine every night,

1746
01:18:24,913 --> 01:18:27,916
get up and crank out a column
without some pain.

1747
01:18:27,999 --> 01:18:30,543
The professional tool
that sort of unlocked

1748
01:18:30,627 --> 01:18:33,505
the temple for her
became something of a curse.

1749
01:18:33,546 --> 01:18:34,839
And she knew that.

1750
01:18:35,215 --> 01:18:39,886
Molly you've had a fair share
of, uh, of loss this year.

1751
01:18:40,470 --> 01:18:42,972
Those losses must've hit you
pretty hard.

1752
01:18:43,807 --> 01:18:46,101
(waves crashing)

1753
01:18:46,184 --> 01:18:48,978
Molly: Dear beloveds,
I started this column

1754
01:18:49,020 --> 01:18:51,523
at approximately
8:00 PM, April 19

1755
01:18:51,606 --> 01:18:53,650
knowing that my father
had advanced cancer

1756
01:18:53,692 --> 01:18:57,112
and anticipating that
sometime in the next six months

1757
01:18:57,195 --> 01:18:59,364
an obit would be required.

1758
01:19:00,281 --> 01:19:03,159
(bird squawking)

1759
01:19:03,201 --> 01:19:04,536
(phone trilling)

1760
01:19:04,619 --> 01:19:06,413
Molly: I received
a phone call informing me

1761
01:19:06,496 --> 01:19:09,374
that my father had put a bullet
through his brain...

1762
01:19:09,457 --> 01:19:10,917
(gunshot)

1763
01:19:11,042 --> 01:19:13,962
...about 8:20,
seven sentences into the column.

1764
01:19:16,631 --> 01:19:19,592
I used to... I've been
to shrinks, uh, in my lifetime

1765
01:19:19,676 --> 01:19:22,721
'cause, um, I'm clearly not
in touch with my emotions

1766
01:19:22,804 --> 01:19:24,014
and it's like, you're supposed

1767
01:19:24,055 --> 01:19:25,557
to be in touch
with your emotions.

1768
01:19:25,640 --> 01:19:29,227
And, uh... I would say
on the whole that, uh,

1769
01:19:29,310 --> 01:19:31,855
after that little run of,
uh, people dying there

1770
01:19:31,896 --> 01:19:33,231
one right after other,

1771
01:19:33,398 --> 01:19:35,358
just, sometimes it's really nice
not to be in touch

1772
01:19:35,400 --> 01:19:38,528
with your emotions,
just to not hear from them.

1773
01:19:38,570 --> 01:19:40,864
(applause)

1774
01:19:40,905 --> 01:19:43,074
Molly started drinking more

1775
01:19:43,241 --> 01:19:47,120
and telling me
that she was drinking less.

1776
01:19:47,996 --> 01:19:52,042
But she was drinking alone
and crying.

1777
01:19:52,667 --> 01:19:55,337
And very miserable.

1778
01:19:55,628 --> 01:19:59,174
I felt like, as a friend, uh,
I had to do something.

1779
01:19:59,591 --> 01:20:03,011
So, I called Ann Richards
who was a lifetime drunk

1780
01:20:03,094 --> 01:20:06,139
as she described herself,
but a sober alcoholic.

1781
01:20:06,431 --> 01:20:10,602
My name is Ann Richards
and I'm an alcoholic.

1782
01:20:11,061 --> 01:20:13,521
Man: Did you discover
that you had a problem

1783
01:20:13,605 --> 01:20:17,400
with alcohol by yourself?
Did you wake up one day...

1784
01:20:17,442 --> 01:20:19,194
Oh, no, no. No, no, no.

1785
01:20:19,361 --> 01:20:21,946
We had what was called
an intervention,

1786
01:20:22,155 --> 01:20:25,950
where they tell you exactly
what you did,

1787
01:20:26,117 --> 01:20:28,495
and then they end up by saying

1788
01:20:28,578 --> 01:20:30,163
"And I know
you would not have done that

1789
01:20:30,246 --> 01:20:31,623
if you'd not been drinking."

1790
01:20:31,790 --> 01:20:33,917
Yeah, it's tough.
It's traumatic.

1791
01:20:37,337 --> 01:20:38,963
Lou: Ann said to me,
I've been out

1792
01:20:39,047 --> 01:20:40,465
of the drunk business
for a long time,

1793
01:20:40,507 --> 01:20:43,093
but I've got contacts
in that world.

1794
01:20:43,134 --> 01:20:45,553
I'm gonna get you
the best help.

1795
01:20:47,263 --> 01:20:49,182
Kaye: There we are, you know,
knocking on her door

1796
01:20:49,265 --> 01:20:50,975
at 9:00 one morning.

1797
01:20:51,017 --> 01:20:53,895
And she opened the door
and said, well,

1798
01:20:53,978 --> 01:20:55,980
this looks like an intervention.

1799
01:20:56,064 --> 01:20:57,565
I mean, I told her...

1800
01:20:59,150 --> 01:21:01,111
I didn't care
that she was famous

1801
01:21:01,152 --> 01:21:03,321
and she didn't need
to be any more famous,

1802
01:21:03,405 --> 01:21:06,116
she needed
to take care of herself.

1803
01:21:06,324 --> 01:21:12,455
I think it was an incredibly
huge relief for Molly to stop.

1804
01:21:12,497 --> 01:21:16,126
She said to me,
when she came back...

1805
01:21:17,168 --> 01:21:21,673
you don't know how close I was
to the final "fuck it."

1806
01:21:21,923 --> 01:21:26,928
That was in August of 2005.

1807
01:21:27,554 --> 01:21:33,476
And in November
is when the cancer returned.

1808
01:21:33,518 --> 01:21:35,437
Molly:
So, I talked to the doc.

1809
01:21:35,645 --> 01:21:39,107
He says the shit is back,
under my right arm,

1810
01:21:39,149 --> 01:21:42,694
down my left hip,
upper quadrant of my left lung.

1811
01:21:43,403 --> 01:21:46,698
There is something liberating
about knowing you are dying.

1812
01:21:47,157 --> 01:21:49,993
A curiously emancipatory effect.

1813
01:21:50,118 --> 01:21:51,619
Nothing left to lose.

1814
01:21:52,162 --> 01:21:53,913
You know,
I knew she was struggling.

1815
01:21:54,456 --> 01:21:57,250
We were walking up this hill
that we have here,

1816
01:21:57,334 --> 01:21:59,377
and, you know, she barely
made it up the hill

1817
01:21:59,419 --> 01:22:02,672
and we had to stop and rest and
we were laughing about the fact

1818
01:22:02,714 --> 01:22:05,050
that it's, you know...
how many times have we said,

1819
01:22:05,133 --> 01:22:07,093
"God just get me well

1820
01:22:07,177 --> 01:22:09,179
and I won't do anything
wrong again."

1821
01:22:09,554 --> 01:22:11,890
Woman: It was probably the
scariest possible time for her

1822
01:22:11,973 --> 01:22:15,643
to get sober, it was when she
was facing her own mortality,

1823
01:22:15,727 --> 01:22:19,189
but she wanted to face it,
the way she faced everything,

1824
01:22:19,230 --> 01:22:23,860
which was with her head high
and her eyes open.

1825
01:22:23,902 --> 01:22:26,571
(cheering)

1826
01:22:29,282 --> 01:22:31,117
Molly: Louise Labé,
that was so beautiful.

1827
01:22:31,201 --> 01:22:33,286
I trust it will be read
at my funeral.

1828
01:22:33,787 --> 01:22:37,999
Which, by the way, is not, uh,
coming anytime soon.

1829
01:22:38,083 --> 01:22:39,250
I thought...

1830
01:22:39,292 --> 01:22:42,420
(cheering and applause)

1831
01:22:44,422 --> 01:22:47,926
I wanted to call this evening
"A Tribute to Molly Ivins:

1832
01:22:47,967 --> 01:22:50,095
Not Dying Yet Again."

1833
01:22:50,428 --> 01:22:53,264
Um, seemed like a good plan.

1834
01:22:53,348 --> 01:22:55,558
Marcia:
She was one tough cookie.

1835
01:22:55,600 --> 01:22:57,310
I mean, we all saw it,

1836
01:22:57,394 --> 01:23:00,021
various people can tell you
about seeing her give

1837
01:23:00,397 --> 01:23:02,607
huge talks where she couldn't
even stand up.

1838
01:23:02,941 --> 01:23:06,236
I do think that, uh,
those of us who care about,

1839
01:23:06,277 --> 01:23:10,031
you know, such ephemera
as the Bill of Rights.

1840
01:23:10,323 --> 01:23:13,785
Um, it's a good time to dig in.

1841
01:23:13,868 --> 01:23:15,829
It's a good time to talk loud.

1842
01:23:15,912 --> 01:23:17,997
It's a good time
to remember a few things

1843
01:23:18,081 --> 01:23:20,291
about how to fight
these sorry bastards.

1844
01:23:20,667 --> 01:23:23,461
Patriotic bullies back
in World War I,

1845
01:23:23,545 --> 01:23:27,007
uh, used to run around
kicking dachshunds

1846
01:23:27,298 --> 01:23:30,343
on the grounds
that they were German dogs.

1847
01:23:30,552 --> 01:23:33,096
Now, I tell you something
about people like that.

1848
01:23:33,221 --> 01:23:35,974
They don't go around kicking
German Shepherds.

1849
01:23:36,016 --> 01:23:39,227
(laughter)

1850
01:23:39,602 --> 01:23:42,230
You know, she wasn't dying,
she was living.

1851
01:23:42,313 --> 01:23:44,691
At the very last moment
of her life

1852
01:23:44,774 --> 01:23:47,986
she was living and she was
fully invested in the game.

1853
01:23:48,069 --> 01:23:49,529
Man: Molly Ivins, good morning.

1854
01:23:49,612 --> 01:23:51,072
You're writing another book,
and how often a week

1855
01:23:51,156 --> 01:23:52,449
are you writing a column?

1856
01:23:52,490 --> 01:23:54,034
I'm writing a column
twice a week.

1857
01:23:54,117 --> 01:23:56,036
Um, I'm not traveling much
at all

1858
01:23:56,119 --> 01:23:57,871
but I am working on a book

1859
01:23:57,954 --> 01:24:01,499
and it's about what's happening
to the Bill of Rights,

1860
01:24:01,541 --> 01:24:04,169
what's happening to civil
liberties in this country.

1861
01:24:04,210 --> 01:24:05,670
Why are you motivated
to do that?

1862
01:24:05,754 --> 01:24:09,883
I have for many years, uh,
devoted a free speech

1863
01:24:09,966 --> 01:24:11,843
every month
to the first amendment.

1864
01:24:11,968 --> 01:24:13,345
I've met some real heroes,

1865
01:24:13,428 --> 01:24:16,681
people who stand up
for freedom

1866
01:24:16,765 --> 01:24:19,351
in ways that are difficult
and uncomfortable

1867
01:24:19,434 --> 01:24:21,770
in small communities.

1868
01:24:23,855 --> 01:24:26,483
I went out to see her a few
days before she died.

1869
01:24:26,524 --> 01:24:30,528
We spent a lot of time in bed
taking naps with her dog Fanny.

1870
01:24:30,737 --> 01:24:32,572
And her brother Andy
was around.

1871
01:24:32,655 --> 01:24:35,492
We had a dinner party
with a lot of her best friends.

1872
01:24:35,533 --> 01:24:39,037
She was in the bed, and I was
leaning up against her,

1873
01:24:39,120 --> 01:24:40,580
kind of kissing her,
kissing her,

1874
01:24:40,663 --> 01:24:42,248
I was just mwah, mwah,
mwah, mwah,

1875
01:24:42,332 --> 01:24:43,708
kissing her like that.

1876
01:24:43,792 --> 01:24:45,293
And she was going like,

1877
01:24:45,502 --> 01:24:47,545
she appreciated it, you know,
she was like, oh, you know,

1878
01:24:47,587 --> 01:24:49,631
somebody, these other people
were there but,

1879
01:24:49,714 --> 01:24:51,216
you know,
she liked that so much.

1880
01:24:51,299 --> 01:24:52,967
I realized like, son of a bitch,

1881
01:24:53,051 --> 01:24:56,179
I should've been doing this
a long time before.

1882
01:24:56,221 --> 01:24:58,390
I should've been hugging her
and kissing her

1883
01:24:58,473 --> 01:25:00,308
much more than what I had.

1884
01:25:03,520 --> 01:25:05,814
You know, I was standing there
when she died.

1885
01:25:08,900 --> 01:25:11,528
Man: We just received late
word from Texas

1886
01:25:11,861 --> 01:25:15,031
that legendary journalist
and author, Molly Ivins,

1887
01:25:15,073 --> 01:25:18,451
has died after a seven-year
fight with breast cancer.

1888
01:25:18,785 --> 01:25:22,247
Molly Ivins, dead tonight
at age 62.

1889
01:25:22,580 --> 01:25:26,251
♪ Your sweet and shiny eyes ♪

1890
01:25:26,292 --> 01:25:30,463
♪ Are like the stars
Above Laredo ♪

1891
01:25:30,547 --> 01:25:34,509
You know, Larry Goodwin
once said the country is lonely.

1892
01:25:36,094 --> 01:25:38,096
♪ To me ♪

1893
01:25:38,430 --> 01:25:40,390
I felt like
the country was lonely

1894
01:25:40,432 --> 01:25:41,933
when they lost Molly.

1895
01:25:42,100 --> 01:25:46,271
♪ In my sweet dreams we are ♪

1896
01:25:46,438 --> 01:25:48,440
♪ In a bar ♪

1897
01:25:48,523 --> 01:25:50,442
♪ And it's my birthday ♪

1898
01:25:50,483 --> 01:25:52,318
In the words of that song,

1899
01:25:52,402 --> 01:25:54,904
"When I die I don't know whether
I'm going to heaven.

1900
01:25:55,280 --> 01:25:59,284
I don't know whether
they'll let reporters in,

1901
01:25:59,868 --> 01:26:01,286
but if they don't

1902
01:26:01,619 --> 01:26:03,538
just take me back to Texas.

1903
01:26:03,621 --> 01:26:06,166
Texas is as close as I've been."

1904
01:26:06,958 --> 01:26:08,126
Now...

1905
01:26:08,585 --> 01:26:10,795
Molly had that in her,
she loved Texas.

1906
01:26:10,879 --> 01:26:13,214
If she loved the place
and loved the people so much,

1907
01:26:13,298 --> 01:26:15,050
why was she so hard on them?

1908
01:26:15,133 --> 01:26:16,634
It's because she loved them.

1909
01:26:17,969 --> 01:26:20,388
There was an Emile Zola line
that said,

1910
01:26:20,472 --> 01:26:23,016
"If you ask me what I came in
to this world to do,

1911
01:26:23,099 --> 01:26:24,642
I came to live out loud."

1912
01:26:24,726 --> 01:26:28,271
And I always felt
that no one lived out loud

1913
01:26:28,396 --> 01:26:31,399
more beautifully
than Molly Ivins.

1914
01:26:31,816 --> 01:26:33,985
Well, I figured there's only
three possible reactions

1915
01:26:34,069 --> 01:26:36,321
to most politics,
you can laugh, you can cry,

1916
01:26:36,404 --> 01:26:37,655
or you can throw up.

1917
01:26:37,739 --> 01:26:39,324
I find that throwing up
is bad for you,

1918
01:26:39,366 --> 01:26:40,825
you might as well laugh.

1919
01:26:41,076 --> 01:26:42,660
♪ Young and wild ♪

1920
01:26:42,744 --> 01:26:49,125
♪ We drove 900 miles
Of the Texas highway ♪

1921
01:26:49,167 --> 01:26:52,003
Lou: After Molly died,
I began to get phone calls.

1922
01:26:52,087 --> 01:26:55,215
And there was one common theme
in all these messages

1923
01:26:55,298 --> 01:26:57,300
that I got after Molly's death.

1924
01:26:58,843 --> 01:27:01,971
"Two times a week
in Missoula, Montana..."

1925
01:27:02,013 --> 01:27:04,265
or in some other small town,

1926
01:27:04,391 --> 01:27:07,143
"Molly Ivins made me feel like
I was not crazy.

1927
01:27:07,477 --> 01:27:09,437
You know,
I'm isolated by geography,

1928
01:27:09,521 --> 01:27:11,523
I am among political extremists,

1929
01:27:11,606 --> 01:27:14,234
and what I believe is ridiculed,

1930
01:27:14,317 --> 01:27:16,986
but twice a week,
I read Molly's column

1931
01:27:17,028 --> 01:27:19,280
and I realized that
no, I wasn't crazy."

1932
01:27:19,364 --> 01:27:20,782
Man: (over phone)
Are the American people

1933
01:27:20,865 --> 01:27:24,160
just so stupid that
it is beyond hope?

1934
01:27:24,202 --> 01:27:26,079
I mean, what is the story?

1935
01:27:26,162 --> 01:27:27,539
I never blame the people.

1936
01:27:27,622 --> 01:27:29,374
Um, and in fact,
I think the American people

1937
01:27:29,416 --> 01:27:31,376
have a great deal
more common sense

1938
01:27:31,459 --> 01:27:33,586
than almost all politicians,
and certainly

1939
01:27:33,670 --> 01:27:37,590
than all political consultants
ever give them credit for.

1940
01:27:37,882 --> 01:27:41,011
Lou: You know, writers are lucky
if they have readers.

1941
01:27:41,052 --> 01:27:44,639
Molly was beyond fortunate
because she didn't have readers,

1942
01:27:44,723 --> 01:27:47,350
she had constituents
all over the country.

1943
01:27:47,392 --> 01:27:50,061
I bring to you our own,
Molly Ivins.

1944
01:27:50,228 --> 01:27:53,064
(cheering)

1945
01:27:54,941 --> 01:27:58,153
I just wanna urge you all,
as you get out there

1946
01:27:58,236 --> 01:27:59,571
and freedom fight
and raise hell,

1947
01:27:59,612 --> 01:28:01,489
have a good time.
Have a good time

1948
01:28:01,573 --> 01:28:03,241
while you're fighting
for freedom.

1949
01:28:03,867 --> 01:28:06,411
First of all,
we don't always win

1950
01:28:06,494 --> 01:28:08,913
and it might be the only fun
you'll ever have.

1951
01:28:08,955 --> 01:28:10,373
(laughter)

1952
01:28:10,415 --> 01:28:13,418
And second of all,
it's a better way to live.

1953
01:28:13,752 --> 01:28:14,753
Thank you.

1954
01:28:14,836 --> 01:28:16,421
(cheering)

1955
01:28:17,047 --> 01:28:20,175
Democracy depends on the people
doing the heavy lifting,

1956
01:28:20,300 --> 01:28:23,595
and that was her lasting
lesson we wanted to draw on.

1957
01:28:23,720 --> 01:28:27,515
November is coming,
November is coming.

1958
01:28:27,599 --> 01:28:29,517
November is coming.

1959
01:28:29,601 --> 01:28:30,852
Let me tell you something.

1960
01:28:30,935 --> 01:28:33,313
When Americans
really get stirred up,

1961
01:28:33,396 --> 01:28:34,731
when we stand up
on our hind feet

1962
01:28:34,773 --> 01:28:37,734
and really speak out,
they listen to us.

1963
01:28:37,776 --> 01:28:41,321
Close them out,
close them out, close them out.

1964
01:28:41,404 --> 01:28:42,781
Molly: Don't forget that.

1965
01:28:42,864 --> 01:28:45,408
In fact, tell you a secret
about politicians,

1966
01:28:45,492 --> 01:28:47,410
they're scared to death of us.

1967
01:28:47,952 --> 01:28:49,329
All right y'all, use it.

1968
01:28:49,412 --> 01:28:52,624
(upbeat music playing)