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Book Review of Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?

Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?
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From deep in the heart of Texas comes Molly Ivins, one of the toughest, savviest, and funniest columnists in America today. Molly Ivins writes about national politics; she writes about the "bubbas" of the Great State of Texas; she writes about human folly and whatever else she damn well pleases.

Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? is her first book, and it is filled with the keen, irreverent commentary and hilarious anecdotes that have won her a national following. Her columns score direct hits on political fat cats from the president on down:

On George Bush (41): "Calling George Bush shallow," she writes, "is like calling a dwarf short."

On Congress: "It is silly, vacillating, with no earthly idea what to do unless it has an opinion poll in front of it."

On Dan Quayle's peace mission to Central America: "As one country after another elected not to receive Danny Q., his trip had to be scaled back. They finally let him out to say hidy to the maitre d' at a Taco Bell."

There are also scores of rousing tales about Molly Ivins's home state of Texas, with its own special traditions ("Texans shoot one another a lot," she explains. "You can get five years for murder and ninety-nine for pot possession in this state") and brain-dead politicians (she reports that upon discovering that a former governor was learning to speak Spanish, one official commented, "Now he'll be bi-ignorant"). Of Clayton Williams, the 1990 Republican candidate for governor, Molly writes, "If they'd just shut him up in a box for the duration of the campaign, he'd be governor today."

Molly Ivins has a sharp eye and a sharper pen. Her book is fearless punditry from an American original.