Veteran columnist Molly Ivins, a rare and highly irreverent Texas liberal, is back with a collection of columns gathered from a rich and varied career covering some of the best source material a writer with a knack for whimsy could wish for: politicians. In Who Let the Dogs In, Ivins offers her thoughts on politicos from the Reagan era through the administration of George W. Bush (whom she first nicknamed "Shrub" way back in his early Texas days). While Ivins is of the lefty persuasion, she is far from doctrinaire, which helps separate her from the scores of lockstep pundits on either side: she credits Bill Clinton with being a brilliant politician and condemns the policies of Bush as being terrible for average Americans, but also presents stinging criticisms of Clinton's failed initiatives and defends Bush as being smarter than most give him credit for. Her words are strong, her writing is clear, and her thoughts are well organized. Of course, most people remember a Molly Ivins column for the humor, and we get to witness her firing missiles at low-flying targets like Newt Gingrich and Ross Perot and describing Bush's puzzling lead over Al Gore among men in the 2000 campaign, "One guy played football, went to Vietnam, and is notoriously emotionally distant. The other guy was a cheerleader who got into a National Guard unit through family influence, lost money in the oil business, traded Sammy Sosa and is now sliding through a presidential race on charm. Do I not get American men, or what?" Who Let the Dogs In lacks some of the focus of her Shrub and Bushwhacked simply because it's about a whole generation of political characters as opposed to one memorable Texan, but such broader perspective also affords an opportunity to better understand America's recent history and maybe get a few laughs while doing it. --John Moe


From Publishers Weekly
Covering the Reagan years to the present, this collection includes work from three Ivins books (not including Bushwacked) as well as other short published pieces. A proud liberal Texan, Ivins's best stuff hits close to home: she declares her home state "the National Laboratory for Bad Government" and pronounces Bush 43 a product of three Lone Star themes: religiosity, anti-intellectualism and machismo (she thinks the last trait faked). She appreciates the often-dirty art of politics—her heroes include Lyndon B. Johnson, Barbara Jordan and Sam Rayburn, who fought and compromised for the greater good—and praises Bill Clinton in that vein. Of Ronald Reagan, she writes, his charm was "not just that he kept telling us screwy things, it was that he believed them all." She sets her sights on a number of Republicans: Newt Gingrich, she says, had an affair during the Lewinsky drama, and she claims that Rush Limbaugh's satire cruelly attacks the powerless; Bush 41 she deems "a lickspittle even when he has a choice." Though she generally has a gentler touch with Democrats, Ivins is tough on John Kerry in the book's introduction: "[H]e seems to suffer from extreme political caution." Then again, she wants regime change, reminding us, "[T]he next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be in the White House, would you please pay attention?" Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From AudioFile
Terrific jazzy music introduces a five-star performance as Molly Ivins vocally skewers politicians of the last twenty years (Reagan, Bushes I and II, and Clinton), firing zinger after zinger across their bows. In her honeyed Texas twang she delivers an inexhaustible litany of devastating equal opportunity criticism, delightful if you share her views--distressing if you don't. She's always, always witty, discerning, humorous, classy, and wise. It's a tribute to her acute intelligence and wit that you'll think about the inequities, lies, and folderol she points out long after you've finished listening. L.C. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Review
Praise for Bushwhacked:

“Dubose and the razor-tongued Ivins have done their homework, offering a well-researched, comprehensive examination of the dark side of the Bush administration’s agenda, served up with enough saucy language and humor to make it an entertaining read.”
–Rocky Mountain News

“Bushwhacked is primarily an indictment of a radical Republican regime. But it is also a celebration of average citizens and ‘nameless, shirt-sleeve, not-very-well-paid functionaries’ who have taken it upon themselves to blow whistles . . . , file lawsuits . . . , and otherwise fight back.”
–Mother Jones

“Striking . . . Just as the Gilded Age brought forth a golden age of muckraking, our modern descent into money politics has brought forth a new wave of outraged reporters. Ivins and Dubose are worthy heirs of an honorable tradition.”
–The New York Review of Books


From the Inside Flap
The dazzling, inimitable Molly Ivins is back, with her own personal Hall of Fame of America’s most amazing and outlandish politicians–the wicked, the wise, the witty, and the witless–drawn from more than twenty years of reporting on the folks who attempt to run our government (in some cases, into the ground).

Who Let the Dogs In? takes us on a wild ride through two decades of political life, from Ronald Reagan, through Big George and Bill Clinton, to our current top dog, known to Ivins readers simply as Dubya. But those are just a few of the political animals who are honored and skewered for our amusement. Ivins also writes hilariously, perceptively, and at times witheringly of John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, H. Ross Perot, Tom DeLay, Ann Richards, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, and the current governor of Texas, who is known as Rick “Goodhair” Perry.
Following close on the heels of her phenomenally successful Bushwhacked and containing an up-to-the-minute Introduction for the campaign season, Who Let the Dogs In? is political writing at its best.


About the Author
MOLLY IVINS began her career in journalism as the complaint department of the Houston Chronicle. In 1970, she became co-editor of The Texas Observer, which afforded her frequent fits of hysterical laughter while covering Texas legislature.

In 1976, Ivins joined The New York Times as a political reporter. The next year, she was named Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief, chiefly because there was no one else in the bureau.

In 1982, she returned once more to Texas, which may indicate a masochistic streak, and has had plenty to write about ever since. Her column is syndicated in more than three hundred newspapers, and her freelance work has appeared in Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, and Harper’s, and other publications. Her first book, Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?, spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list. Her books with Lou Dubose on George W. Bush, Shrub and Bushwhacked, were national bestsellers.

A three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, she counts as her two greatest honors that the Minneapolis police force named its mascot pig after her and that she was once banned from the campus of Texas A&M.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Who Let the Dogs In? takes us through two decades of political life, from Ronald Reagan, through Big George and Bill Clinton, to our current top dog, known to Ivins readers simply as Dubya. But those are just a few of the political animals who are honored and skewered for our amusement. Ivins also writes hilariously, perceptively, and at times witheringly of John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, H. Ross Perot, Tom DeLay, Ann Richards, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, and the current governor of Texas, who is known as Rick "Goodhair" Perry.

FROM THE CRITICS

Edwin M. Yoder, Jr. - The Washington Post

Some readers of her pungent prose may be distracted by an occasional unladylike locution, but behind the cornpone pose lurks a keen intelligence, a deadly wit and, not least, a passion for factual reporting.

Publishers Weekly

Two decades of Ivins's smart, acerbic political commentary have been harvested for this highly entertaining collection, which includes a new introduction addressing what she calls our country's current "state of open corruptness and intellectual rot." Though a self-described liberal, Ivins is not inflexibly tendentious. Rather, she is a tonic against the mean-spirited pundits found on both sides. She criticizes the Bush administration plenty, but she also reserves some of her sting for Clinton and Kerry. Ivins's delivery is wonderful. Her crisp yet throaty Texan voice is firm and authoritative, but at the same time inviting and homey, and the twinkle in her eye is aurally palpable through the pluck and elfish spunk in her voice. Those who are wary of picking up this audiobook because it's abridged should think again. There's no question that Ivins (Bushwacked, etc.) is a great oral, as well as literary, entertainer, just as there's no denying her genuine concern over the country's current political situation. "Having fun while fighting for freedom," she says, "is one of my life causes." Simultaneous release with the Random hardcover (Forecasts, July 12). (July)n Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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