HOW DUMB IS MOLLY IVINS?

Try, if you can, to make any sense of the latest ramblings from the Bush-hating Texan. I guess she has one micro-point – about the gag rule for abortions abroad leading to possible increases in unwanted pregnancies – but the rest sounds like a drunk falling off his stool at the bar. She lampoons Rick Berke of the New York Times for tracking continuing Democratic Party denial that they actually lost the election. Her evidence for the absurdity of Berke’s piece is that a friend of hers is still in denial about Bush’s victory. Then she claims that, “the profoundly dumb people in Washington are going around saying, “Recessions are good for you.” I love this line of argument, especially from pundits who make more than $1 million a year.” Man, I’d love to be that pundit. But which million-dollar plus pundit has said something along those lines? Where? Oh, never mind. Then there’s this odd peroration: “The working people who never got ahead at all in the ’90s are the very ones who will be losing their jobs now, and the fatuous complacency with which the prospect is being greeted is another example of a disconnect so enormous that it’s funny.” Is she unaware of the recession-busting effort to slash taxes on Capitol Hill? Does she know that Greenspan has just cut rates again? And is this Clinton-Gore supporter who spent most of last year saying that Bush would wreck the prosperity now saying no ordinary people benefited? Has she looked at any economic data to support her claim? Oh, never mind, again. Arguing with someone like Ivins is not a felicitous experience. I wouldn’t care except that Ivins’ main claim to fame is her constant invocation of W’s alleged stupidity. But if W is stupid, what does that make Ivins?