The photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez from the Austin American-Statesman and picked up by AP, is of Molly Ivin's niece, the literary agent Margot Maley Hutchison (email, bio).
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Looking at Hutchison laugh as she tells stories about her aunt at the February 4 memorial service, I'd have like to have heard what she said. The stuff the press recounted was pretty bland. Maybe I can ask Pogoer (Wes Eichenwald), a fellow Ivins fan, who being in Austin actually stopped on by the church.
Hutchison, named after Molly's mother, is the daughter of Molly's sister, Sara. You can find video and the story from KVUE, Austin about the church service, and video, story from News 8 Austin about the party afterwwards at Scholz Garten, where Molly infamously had crashed a no-press party for Clinton by borrowing a tee shirt from the owner's daughter and serving the Prez a beer. The Texas Observer has a tribute site up and Ron Weddington, who litigated Roe v. Wade with his then-wife Sarah, recounts this story:
Molly’s audacious pursuit of a story was illustrated when just-elected Bill Clinton had a luncheon with politicians, movie stars and big contributors in January, 1993 at the famous Austin watering hole, Scholz Garten. The press was excluded and Molly was beside herself as she sat outside the banquet room with those of us who hadn’t been invited. I suggested that she pose as a waitress, never dreaming she would do it.There are no separate permalinks per entry, so I can't even begin to tell you how to find it online.
But she did. The proprietor’s daughter, Stacy Bales, provided a Scholz’s tee shirt and a tray of beer and Molly managed an interview with Bill before security escorted her out. (Not one of the Secret Service’s finer moments)
Molly later quoted Bill as saying that he felt like a dog who had been chasing a car and then caught it. What to do now?
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I hadn't planned to write about Molly Ivins again, until I stopped by Aldon Hynes's blog Orient Lodge and found a post based, in part, on our email back and forth: "Random Stuff: Media, Games, Wind, Coal and psychology" that mentions resources I provided him on MTR. While there I read his "Amanda Update" about the John Edward's campaign's blogmaster who quit after being assailed by the right.
My take on the situation made me think of Ivins and I posted the following as a comment on her entry at Salon.com.*
Although I'm a progressive activist who blogs regularly and has enjoyed some of Shakespeare's Sister's and Atrios's posts, I'm not an avid follower of all the stylish blogs, referring more regularly to the more fact-based, say Confined Spaces and Secrecy News . And after reading a few entries at Pandagon, I'll admit to preferring the less coarse, but equally hard-hitting non-blog writing of the late Molly Ivins.
So, this whole debacle with the R's could have blown over without my noticing it, like a tornado over in the next county. Then I read an entry by a colleague who's involved himself in political blogmastering. He's from a generation older than the 30-somethings and he's more scruffy than the khaki-wearers that Marcotte writes about as being the guys whom folks imagine when they think of bloggers who join campaigns.
Marcotte writes she was aware the she "didn't exactly fit the image." My question: how is that image to change if folks like Marcotte quit, allowing themselves to be driven out of a job by the "noise machine."
My advice: toughen up, gal! Your narrative leaves me wondering what candidate would want to stand behind someone only to have her quit?
Remember, the New York Times's Abe Rosenthal had to fire Molly Ivins to get her out of the big boys club. And she bragged forever after about not having shown "due respect and deference to the great dignity" of that paper. Her offense? She had called a chicken slaughtering festival in New Mexico a “gang pluck.”
More on Ivins tomorrow...
