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Pious Perverts See other Pious Perverts Articles Title: Bush mourns his toughest critic Molly Ivins was not only a popular and elegant writer, but also the most fervent and dedicated critic of President Bush, a fellow Texan whom she had reduced to a single word with her book, Shrub. Which has made the president's public mourning of her passing all the more gracious. "Molly Ivins was a Texas original,'' said Bush, who originally came from a line of Connecticut Yankees who had adopted the Lone Star state as home and became something of an original himself, managing partner of the Texas Rangers, governor and finally, of course, president. And Bush, who had conceded in a radio interview just this week that "I'm not that good at pronouncing words,'' has saluted Ivins for "her passionate belief in the power of words, and her ability to turn a phrase.'' Ivins, a best-selling author, widely circulated newspaper columnist and fierce critic of the president, lost a struggle with cancer yesterday. She was 62. "Molly Ivins was a Texas original,'' the president said in a statement released by the White House late last night. "She was loved by her readers and by her many friends, particularly in Central Texas. "I respected her convictions, her passionate belief in the power of words, and her ability to turn a phrase,'' the president said. "She fought her illness with that same passion. Her quick wit and commitment to her beliefs will be missed. Laura and I send our condolences to Molly Ivins’ family and friends.'' The columnist's convictions included a belief that Bush, a certain failure in the Texas oil business which had secured his own father's fortune, had taken advantage of the favors of friends to accumulate his own riches in Texas before seeking the presidency. At a time when the younger Bush was just emerging on the national stage, Ivins, the leading co-author of Shrub, chronicled the favors that had parlayed the loans of Bush family friends into a stake in the Rangers that eventually made Bush $15 million and enabled him to embark on a political career, first as governor and ultimately as president. As recently as January, Ivins had encouraged readers of her column to rise up against the president's deployment of new troops in Iraq. "We are the people who run this country,'' Ivins wrote in her Jan. 11 column. "We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war.'' One of the ironies of the unrelenting criticism that the late, liberal columnist had for the self-styled "compassionate conservative'' who is president is that Bush had modeled himself as a peace-maker in Texas, willing to work across party lines for the good of his state. He came to Washington with that same instinct, promising to be "a uniter, not a divider,'' yet relied on a Republican majority to ramrod an economic agenda and ultimately a wartime strategy. And even now, with a divided government, Bush is struggling for a way to work with Democratic leaders who have become determined as Ivins was to stop the war in Iraq. Bush now confronts "the Democrat majority,'' as the president said with a slip of the tongue in his State of the Union address. What had he meant by saying Democrat instead of Democratic, interviewer Juan Williams asked the president during an interview with National Public Radio this week. Nothing, Bush said – insisting he hadn't meant to say that. "That was an oversight then,'' he said. "I didn’t even know I did it. "I didn't mean to be putting fingernails on the board – I meant to be saying why don’t we show the American people we can actually work together? There is a lot of politics in Washington – in my judgment, needless politics,'' the president said. "And it’s almost like, if George Bush is for it, we’re against it, and I – and if he’s against it, we’re for it. And the American people don’t like that. "So the idea that somehow I was trying to needle the Democrats, it’s just – gosh, it’s probably Texas,'' Bush said. "Who knows what it is. But I’m not that good at pronouncing words anyway.'' Not as good as Ivins was at penning them, that's for sure. And those who know George W. Bush also know that he just might have meant it, when he said he will miss her.
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