Comment
Here are some excerpts from Molly’s columns for The Progressive over the last dozen years. January 1995: Self-description “I don’t have an agenda, I don’t have a program. I’m not a communist or...
...February 2006: Impeachment...
...A year ago, he couldn’t tell the Grecians from the Timorians, and now he’s stuck with the mother of all foreign policy crises...
...Excuse me...
...November 2003: “Call Me a Bush-Hater” Robert Novak and Charles Krauthammer both claim to have “never seen anything like the detestation of Bush...
...This raises some troubling prospects...
...It turns out that a C average is not good enough for the Presidency...
...Inadequate...
...I can think of no finer cause to pause for a spell of pride and joy than this anniversary of one of our oldest freedom-fighting publications...
...How could anyone not be just crazy about George W. Bush...
...June 1998: Failure of Democracy “One reason I really like living in a democracy is that the citizens get what they want...
...April 2003: The Peace Movement “I am very proud of the peace movement in this country, which God knows flung itself together in record time...
...September 2004: Bush and God “Then there’s Bush’s slightly alarming claim to the Amish on July 9 that God speaks through him...
...He neither reads, nor writes, nor speaks well...
...November 2001: 9/11 “My worry is that Bush is painting himself into a corner with his rhetoric...
...And for Lord’s sake, don’t leave your sense of humor behind...
...June 2003: Iraq, I “We knew going in this was going to be the peace from hell, and so far the Administration has made every misstep possible...
...I guess I’m a left-libertarian and a populist, and I believe in the Bill of Rights the way some folks believe in the Bible...
...March 2004: Bush “Not Bright Enough” “He’s not bright enough to be President...
...I was in great hopes that confronting my own mortality would make me deeper, more thoughtful...
...Back home in Texas, the sign outside our neighborhood strip joint says, ‘Hot Babes, Cold Beer, Nuke ’Em, GW.’ ” December 2001: Bush No Giant Among Men “Despite frequent reports from the patriotic news media, I am unpersuaded that since September 11, George W. Bush has become a giant among men...
...It really doesn’t matter who they screw in private, as long as they don’t screw the public...
...Also, when Bush changes his mind, as he frequently does, do we conclude that God had to rethink things after the polls came out...
...Over, under, or through...
...Either the President of the United States is going to have to understand and admit he has done something very wrong, or he will have to be impeached...
...Most campaign consultants have no idea what do with it or about it...
...My response was, ‘Oh, hell, I can’t go on a spiritual journey—I’m constipated.’ ” January 2001: Stolen Election “These Gore people have no idea how to steal an election...
...June 2005: Tom DeLay “The guy smells like a slop jar...
...January 2004: On the Internet and Politics “We are looking at something exceptional in political history with this race...
...it’s a gigantic police operation in the face of a crime beyond all understanding...
...What makes me especially proud is the splendidly American irreverence of it...
...December 2006: Iraq and the Media “The self-important chattering class of Washington insists that you only have credibility as a critic of the war if you were for it in the first place...
...I know you’ve all noticed the widespread grassroots movement surging with people rallying behind banners that say, ‘We want banks and stockbrokers to merge,’ ‘We love this system of campaign financing,’ ‘We want dirtier air and dirtier water,’ ‘We demand tax breaks for the rich,’ ‘We want fewer services for the rest of us,’ ‘Don’t fix our schools,’ ‘More downsizing,’ and ‘Tax breaks for corporations moving to Mexico.’ ” February 2000: Cancer, I “On a personal note: I have contracted an outstanding case of breast cancer, from which I intend to recover...
...What happened to the Democrats...
...How delightful...
...Or fall for that specious old radical crap: ‘Things have to get worse before they can get better.’ The only possible response to that one is, ‘Not with my child’s life.’ Nor is it helpful to sit around hoping that given enough rope, the R’s will hang themselves...
...I’m not a communist or a socialist...
...Mammogram...
...March 2005: To the Barricades “Now is the time for all good citizens to come to the aid of our country, and it won’t help if you all cower in places like Madison and the Upper West Side, having hot fantods over the approach of fascism...
...April 2001: Injustice and Inequality “Sunday-morning chatter announced in horror: ‘People may think the rich can buy their way out of the justice system.’ No shit...
...I’m so sorry, but we are having an honest-to-goodness constitutional crisis as the Testy Kid violates his oath to uphold the laws and Constitution of our country...
...Poppy will still love you.’ ” May 2003: The Myth of the Coalition “So constant is the reiteration of the words ‘coalition,’ ‘coalition forces,’ and ‘coalition position’ that you might assume one actually exists...
...I’m missing a logical link there...
...I’ve had more fun...
...The Great darn Wall of China will not work...
...Gosh, what a puzzle that is...
...And I am...
...Wrong...
...You mean MONEY has something to do with justice in this country...
...June 2006: Immigration “The Fence will not work...
...For a long time, anyone who questioned Bush’s ability to think was pointed to the opinion polls and told that discussing whether or not the President is borderline stupid was bad manners and counterproductive...
...January 2007: Populists and Liberals “Listen, a populist is someone who is for the people and against the powerful, and so a populist is generally the same as a liberal—except we tend to have more fun...
...To the barricades, team...
...October 1995: Deregulation “When last we left that merry band of Republican brothers in Congress, they were deregulating shit on beef...
...The only thing to do is to fight harder and smarter...
...Actually, that is the main problem with Bush...
...October 2005: Katrina “This is a column for everyone who ever said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m just not interested in politics,’ or, ‘There’s nothing I can do about it,’ or, ‘Hey, they’re all crooks anyway.’ . . . I’ve got one word for all of you: Katrina...
...August 2005: The Downing Street Memos and the Media “The New York Times and The Washington Post have both gone way out of their way to deny that the Downing Street Memos (it’s now plural) are news...
...Uh-oh...
...Whine...
...Here are a few of my favorite signs: ‘Drunken frat boy drives country into ditch,’ ‘War begins with Dubya,’ ‘Don’t do it George...
...They used to have some skill at this...
...When I read the first Downing Street Memo, my eyes bugged out and my jaw fell open...
...This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote...
...March 1998: On Clinton’s Sex Scandal, I “I do not believe the President’s sex life is any of our business...
...December 2004: After Bush’s Reelection “I can think of nothing more likely to convince the people not to vote for Republicans again for a long, long time than four more years of George W. Bush...
...I don’t need get-well cards, but I would like the beloved women readers to do something for me: Go...
...Let’s rodeo...
...And now they’re saying, ‘Oh hell, this isn’t news, we knew it all along...
...I’m praying for him...
...Mostly what I pray is, ‘Dear Lord, please don’t let Dubya screw this one up.’ ” December 2001: Foolish Military Strategy “It’s hard to convince people you are bombing that you’re doing it for their own good...
...This is not a war...
...It is about our lives...
...They’ll hang us along with them...
...No fence will work...
...The puzzle is where this depth of feeling comes from,’ mused the ineffable Krauthammer...
...Undocumented immigrants will come anyway...
...It was news to me...
...In the meantime, oligarchy is eating our ass, our dreams, our country, our heritage, our democracy, our justice, and our tax code...
...First they poison you, then they mutilate you, then they burn you...
...Less than rigorous...
...May 2004: The Progressive Turns 95 “I realize the Midwestern progressives who run the venerable rag are more apt to hold a somber symposium on the erosion of our constitutional rights by way of a wing-ding, but you can’t expect a Texan not to pounce on such a splendid excuse...
...March 2006: Enough of the DC Dems “I have had it with the DC Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton...
...After thirty years of political reporting, I have been unable to establish a link between marital fidelity and high performance in public office...
...May 1998: On Clinton’s Sex Scandal, II “With all due respect to the President’s private parts, we do have bigger problems in this country...
...December 2002: Fight Harder “There are three things one must not do in the face of electoral disaster...
...Shit, I’d settle for that again over what we’re looking at now...
...Dubya becomes President, having run as a ‘compassionate conservative,’ and what do we get...
...First of all, I think God has a better grasp of subject-verb agreement than George W. Bush do...
...Been going to Texas prisons for a long time...
...Eritrea and Ethiopia do not a coalition make...
...He used the government for petty political vindictiveness...
...That’s what he said, God speaks through him...
...Damn...
...The very prestigious papers that are now dismissing the Downing Street Memos have already themselves admitted that their pre-war coverage was—I don’t know, you pick the adjective: Slack...
...Anyone who says a fence can fix this problem is a demagogue and an ass...
...Hell’s own conservative and dick for compassion...
...October 2003: Iraq, II “I have a suggestion for a withdrawal deadline: Let’s leave Iraq before we’ve killed more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein did...
...Ninety-five years being right about damn near everything is worth a rattlesnake round-up and boot-scootin...
...August 2006: Republican Corruption “The Republican Party seems to have lost its moral compass ever since Tom DeLay quit...
...I don’t know if these memos represent an impeachable offense, but they strike me as a hell of a lot worse than anything Richard Nixon ever contemplated...
...October 2000: Cancer, II “I just finished with nine months of treatment for cancer...
...Wake me when impending egalitarianism is a problem...
...Oh, I stretch memory way back, so far back, all the way back to—our last President...
...Many lovely people sent books on how to find a more spiritual meaning in life...
...Despair...
...And when it’s over, you’re so glad that you’re grateful to absolutely everyone...
...The Internet is breaking open old power structures and set ways of doing things...
...January 2003: Corporations Cash In “You have to admit: The corporations are getting prompt service from Republicans in return for their donations...
...Done...
...Seen nobody rich on Death Row yet...
...The Testy Kid wants to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it because he is the President and he considers that sufficient justification...
...The trouble is, I’m not a better person...
Vol. 71 • March 2007 • No. 3
