I wish that Molly was still around so that she could have the pleasure of voting in this Democratic Primary. Contrary to Texas lore, dead folks probably haven't voted here since Lyndon Johnson's first run for the Senate, but I digress.
If Molly were still with us, there would be no doubt whatsoever for whom she would not vote. She stated her intentions clearly in an eerily prescient column published in January 2006.
In a piece entitled I will not support Hillary Clinton for president, she laid it all out for us. Meet me below for some choice excerpts.
Molly started out in her inimitable way:
Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone.... Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.
Here comes one of the eerily prescient parts, only the junior Senator now is from Illinois instead of Minnesota:
The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It's about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.
If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it. In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, "Look, the emperor isn't wearing any clothes."
Molly goes on to rail against the inside the Beltway politicians who ignore the will of the American people even though a clear majority is against the war, for single-payer health care, for preserving the environment, for repealing Bush's tax cuts for the rich, etc. The only difference now is that the majority percentages have only increased since 2006.
Molly correctly predicted that Tom Delay would lose his House seat and went on to exhort Democrats to go for the big reforms:
Do it all, go long, go for public campaign financing for Congress. I'm serious as a stroke about this -- that is the only reform that will work, and you know it, as well as everyone else who's ever studied this. Do all the goo-goo stuff everybody has made fun of all these years: embrace redistricting reform, electoral reform, House rules changes, the whole package. Put up, or shut up. Own this issue, or let Jack Abramoff politics continue to run your town.
Please go read the whole thing for even more inspiration. I don't want to get slapped around for over-quoting. Here are a couple more links to the same column.
Molly Ivins: Not. Backing. Hillary.
CommonDreams link
Then please go forth and vote, for Molly.