Liberal Patriot:

"Molly Ivins was an unabashed patriot, and it drove right-wingers nuts. Conservatives somehow got it fixed in their brains that patriotism meant being in lockstep with their ideology, that dissent was treason. Molly made a career of reminding them otherwise, always careful to point out how cute they were when they acted like fools."

--Gary Cartwright, senior editor, Texas Monthly, 2007. Molly Ivins (1944-2007), a sharp-witted and clear-eyed columnist who died of cancer last year, was an unapologetic liberal. She once observed, "There's nothing you can do about being born liberal -- fish gotta swim and hearts gotta bleed."