Not. Backing. Hillary.
Molly Ivins

AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the
Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for
president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough
clever straddling, enough not offending anyone. This is not a *****
Morris election. 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.

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." Bobby Kennedy -- rough, tough Bobby
Kennedy -- didn't do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines
who liked to quote poetry.

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of
the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake
and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American
people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes
to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor
raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60
percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go
only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the
deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon
spending or raising taxes.

The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to
protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil
companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits
tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining
elementary politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway ("First,
you have to win elections.") Can't you even read the damn polls?

Here's a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes,
"There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party, and it is
between those who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist
left base of the party and those who are attempting to prepare the
party for successful elections in 2006 and 2008."

This supposedly pits Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi,
emboldened by "a string of bad new from the Middle East ... into
calling for premature retreat from Iraq," versus those pragmatic folk
like Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Joe
Lieberman.

Oh come on, people -- get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at
this war -- from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they
continue to dump on us daily.

You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican
machine you have no idea what people are thinking. I'm telling you
right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in
Washington haven't got enough sense to OWN the issue of political
reform, I give up on them entirely.

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.

Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card
just as long as you let them. I've said it before: War brings out the
patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds
on the grounds that dachshunds were "German dogs." They did not,
however, go around kicking German shepherds. The MINUTE someone
impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a
snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means. That,
or you could just ***** on them elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did. Or
eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the
Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless "string of bad
news."

Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as
Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight,
we'll find someone who can.

Not. Backing. Hillary.
Molly Ivins

AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the
Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for
president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough
clever straddling, enough not offending anyone. This is not a *****
Morris election. 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.

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." Bobby Kennedy -- rough, tough Bobby
Kennedy -- didn't do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines
who liked to quote poetry.

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of
the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake
and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American
people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes
to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor
raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60
percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go
only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the
deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon
spending or raising taxes.

The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to
protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil
companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits
tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining
elementary politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway ("First,
you have to win elections.") Can't you even read the damn polls?

Here's a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes,
"There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party, and it is
between those who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist
left base of the party and those who are attempting to prepare the
party for successful elections in 2006 and 2008."

This supposedly pits Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi,
emboldened by "a string of bad new from the Middle East ... into
calling for premature retreat from Iraq," versus those pragmatic folk
like Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Joe
Lieberman.

Oh come on, people -- get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at
this war -- from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they
continue to dump on us daily.

You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican
machine you have no idea what people are thinking. I'm telling you
right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in
Washington haven't got enough sense to OWN the issue of political
reform, I give up on them entirely.

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.

Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card
just as long as you let them. I've said it before: War brings out the
patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds
on the grounds that dachshunds were "German dogs." They did not,
however, go around kicking German shepherds. The MINUTE someone
impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a
snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means. That,
or you could just ***** on them elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did. Or
eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the
Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless "string of bad
news."

Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as
Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight,
we'll find someone who can.

Not. Backing. Hillary.
Molly Ivins

AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the
Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for
president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough
clever straddling, enough not offending anyone. This is not a *****
Morris election. 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.

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." Bobby Kennedy -- rough, tough Bobby
Kennedy -- didn't do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines
who liked to quote poetry.

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of
the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake
and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American
people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes
to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor
raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60
percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go
only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the
deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon
spending or raising taxes.

The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to
protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil
companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits
tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining
elementary politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway ("First,
you have to win elections.") Can't you even read the damn polls?

Here's a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes,
"There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party, and it is
between those who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist
left base of the party and those who are attempting to prepare the
party for successful elections in 2006 and 2008."

This supposedly pits Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi,
emboldened by "a string of bad new from the Middle East ... into
calling for premature retreat from Iraq," versus those pragmatic folk
like Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Joe
Lieberman.

Oh come on, people -- get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at
this war -- from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they
continue to dump on us daily.

You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican
machine you have no idea what people are thinking. I'm telling you
right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in
Washington haven't got enough sense to OWN the issue of political
reform, I give up on them entirely.

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.

Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card
just as long as you let them. I've said it before: War brings out the
patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds
on the grounds that dachshunds were "German dogs." They did not,
however, go around kicking German shepherds. The MINUTE someone
impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a
snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means. That,
or you could just ***** on them elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did. Or
eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the
Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless "string of bad
news."

Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as
Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight,
we'll find someone who can.

Not. Backing. Hillary.
Molly Ivins

AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the
Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for
president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough
clever straddling, enough not offending anyone. This is not a *****
Morris election. 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.

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." Bobby Kennedy -- rough, tough Bobby
Kennedy -- didn't do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines
who liked to quote poetry.

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of
the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake
and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American
people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes
to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor
raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60
percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go
only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the
deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon
spending or raising taxes.

The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to
protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil
companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits
tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining
elementary politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway ("First,
you have to win elections.") Can't you even read the damn polls?

Here's a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes,
"There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party, and it is
between those who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist
left base of the party and those who are attempting to prepare the
party for successful elections in 2006 and 2008."

This supposedly pits Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi,
emboldened by "a string of bad new from the Middle East ... into
calling for premature retreat from Iraq," versus those pragmatic folk
like Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Joe
Lieberman.

Oh come on, people -- get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at
this war -- from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they
continue to dump on us daily.

You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican
machine you have no idea what people are thinking. I'm telling you
right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in
Washington haven't got enough sense to OWN the issue of political
reform, I give up on them entirely.

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.

Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card
just as long as you let them. I've said it before: War brings out the
patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds
on the grounds that dachshunds were "German dogs." They did not,
however, go around kicking German shepherds. The MINUTE someone
impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a
snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means. That,
or you could just ***** on them elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did. Or
eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the
Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless "string of bad
news."

Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as
Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight,
we'll find someone who can.

AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the
Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for
president.

Not. Backing. Hillary.
Molly Ivins

AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the
Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for
president.