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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / RIP Ann Richards

RIP Ann Richards

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Ann Richards passed after a long bout with cancer:

Former Gov. Ann Richards, the witty and flamboyant Democrat who went from homemaker to national political celebrity, died Wednesday night after a battle with cancer, a family spokeswoman said. She was 73.

She died at home surrounded by her family, the spokeswoman said. Richards was found to have esophageal cancer in March and underwent chemotherapy treatments.

The silver-haired, silver-tongued Richards said she entered politics to help others _ especially women and minorities who were often ignored by Texas’ male-dominated establishment.

“I did not want my tombstone to read, ‘She kept a really clean house.’ I think I’d like them to remember me by saying, ‘She opened government to everyone,'” Richards said shortly before leaving office in January 1995.

She was governor for one term, losing her re-election bid to Republican George W. Bush.

I am sure I had strong opinions about Ann Richards at one point in time, but I really don’t have much to say now because those feelings seem to have faded as she was no longer on the national stage. My condolences to her family.

And yes, I am posting this at 4 am because I have insomnia.

Reader Interactions

21Comments

  1. 1.

    ImJohnGalt

    Bah, I see your insomnia and raise you a 30-hour workday.

    Gotta love being a business-owner.

    That said, R.I.P., Anne. I loved listening to you speak.

  2. 2.

    LoafingOaf

    Ann Richards, January 15, 2004, on Larry King Live:

    RICHARDS: Of course, the result [of invading Iraq] was not bad. I think the deaths of 500 Americans is bad. I think spending $100 billion when we’re cutting back on public education, public health, environment, every other domestic policy you can think of — I think that’s bad, committing another $87 billion to trying to keep the peace over there. And by the way, I don’t think they’re going to stay over there. I think Bush is going to get out of there this summer, come hell or high water. I think he feels like he can’t go into this next election with that many troops. I think he’s going to declare, By gosh, we’ve elected all these people. We’re going to turn it back over to them.

    And I think we need to stay in Iraq until we get this job done, once we’ve gone over there.

    In 2004, Ann Richards first endorsed Howard Dean, and then John Kerry. Both Dean and Kerry would have prematurely pulled out of Iraq (John Kerry because he decides matters of war based on what he thinks will help the short-term amibitions of John Kerry), whereas George W. Bush has had the backbone to not cut and run. Ann Richards thought Bush wouldn’t have the courage to stay in Iraq because Ann Richards hung around un-principled people like Bill Clinton and John Kerry too much.

    But that’s all water under the bridge now. I didn’t care for her politics and never found her “zingers” to be nearly as “witty” as Democrats pretended they were. But she seemed like a decent person in her private life and cancer is always terribly sad, so my condolences to her family.

  3. 3.

    Peter

    But that’s all water under the bridge now.

    Didn’t stop you from throwing out your own little “zingers” at the corpse though, did it?

    Mr. Cole expressed his condolences and left it at that. That was the decent thing to do. In this matter you could learn from his example.

  5. 5.

    Mr Furious

    Oh, and oaf? I’m pretty sure we can come up with a lot more inaccurate quotes and predictions from 2004 from the people actualy running the War. Jerk.

  6. 6.

    Mr Furious

    “Poor George, he can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

    “I am delighted to be here with you this evening because after listening to George Bush all these years, I figured you needed to know what a real Texas accent sounds like.”

    [1988 keynote address, Democratic National Convention]

    Those are both pretty good zingers. Here’s a page of Richards’ quotes. Most of which are just solid, insightful comments and not “zingers.”

  8. 8.

    Andrew

    If Texans weren’t such homophobic assholes, Rove’s whisper campaign might not have gained traction and Bush might never have won the governorship.

    Fucking Texas.

  9. 9.

    moflicky

    as much as I disliked her politics, I liked her as a person. she was funny, poked mercilously at her opponents yet could also poke fun at herself.

    she was a pistol, and will be missed.

  11. 11.

    The Other Steve

    whereas George W. Bush has had the backbone to not cut and run.

    Honestly, it’s not backbone that’s stopping him.

    It’s fear.

    He’s afraid of admitting he was wrong. We see this all the time in IT projects. Someone starts up a new project to build such and such application. Pretty soon you’ve spent $10 mil and it doesn’t look like your getting any where. Rather than reevaluate what it is you are doing and think perhaps there is a different way to solve the problem, you keep going with the project. In many cases you increase the number of people on the project to try to finish it up faster, thereby increasing your burn rate.

    Now you’ve got $30 mil. invested. Well you can’t stop now, because you’ve got $30 mil in sunk costs. You have to keep going.

    Eventually after sinking $50 mil. into the project someone questions the sanity of that business leader, they get fired, they scrap the project and the business takes a hit in their 10K.

    A successful business does something different. They start lot’s of small projects, spend a small amount on them and then they evaluate the possibility of success. If it’s looking good they invest more. If not, they scrap it and try something different.

    It’s the sign of a strong leader when you can admit “Well that didn’t work.”

    A coward worries about the perception of failure.

    Thomas Edison: “I have not failed, I’ve discovered a thousand ways which do not work.”

    Thomas Watson(IBM): “If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.”

  12. 12.

    Elliot Essman

    While I am one of those who was almost never politically congruent with Ann Richards, she was one of the ones I did not switch off. Perhaps integrity in politics is more important than point of view.

  13. 13.

    Zifnab

    Honestly, this country wouldn’t be nearly as bad a place if it was Anne Richards in the White House rather than Son of Bush. Texas hasn’t been the same since she left office. She will be missed.

  14. 14.

    Mike in SLO

    My favorite Ann Richards quote was during the commerical she did with Bob Dole during the Superbowl after both of them lost their races, his to Clinton, hers to W. Dole says to her ‘So What about those Cowboys?’ referring to their dismal season after so many years being on top of the NFL. Her reply, “They never lost when I was governor!”

    You gotta love her! A great American has passed… Condolences to Texas.

  15. 15.

    Jess

    An interviewer once asked Richards what she did when no one was looking, and she answered “Mess with Texas!” I can just imagine her sly grin when she said it…a very cool human being!

  16. 16.

    mrmobi

    she won cheers when she reminded delegates that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, “only backwards and in high heels.”

    What a great lady. Tough and smart, could think on her feet better than any politician, hell, any human being, I’ve ever seen.

  17. 17.

    Davebo

    She was the consumate female Texan politician. Warts and all (and she had some).

    She’ll be sorely missed here in Texas and I doubt we’ll ever see another one like Ann.

  18. 18.

    Tom in Texas

    I do miss Ann’s lines, but I miss her attitude more in the gov’s mansion than in front of microphones. She was a wonderful governor and a true Texas symbol, and I plan on honoring her with a vote for Kinky in November. There’s no way Ann would tolerate Chris Bell.

    BTW, the all time indisputed record for worst one liners by Texas politician is Gib Lewis, former Speaker of the House. A sampling:

    “I am filled with humidity.”

    “I move we recess to go outside and throw up.”

    “This is unparalyzed in the state’s history.”

    “I want to thank each and every one of you for having extinguished yourselves this session.”

    “We’ll run it up the flagpole and see who salutes that booger.”

    “There’s a lot of uncertainty that’s not clear in my mind.”

    And my two favorites:

    “And now, will y’all stand and be recognized?”
    (to a group of handicapped people in wheelchairs)

    “I’d just make a little bit of money, I wouldn’t make a whole lot.”
    (defending himself against the charge that he would personally profit from a bill he had introduced)

  19. 19.

    The Other Steve

    I do miss Ann’s lines, but I miss her attitude more in the gov’s mansion than in front of microphones. She was a wonderful governor and a true Texas symbol, and I plan on honoring her with a vote for Kinky in November. There’s no way Ann would tolerate Chris Bell.

    Kind of hope Kinky wins.

    4 years of someone who really doesn’t want the job may teach you to respect people who do.

    I voted for Jesse Ventura. I actually would have liked him better if he had not been so damn thin skinned. But as I said, he never wanted the job. He just wanted to campaign.

    From what I see, this Kinky fella is much the same way.

  20. 20.

    Tom in Texas

    4 years of someone who really doesn’t want the job may teach you to respect people who do.

    Sadly, the job of governor of Texas holds about as much power as the Queen of England. You are basically a symbol. That’s the way our forefathers wanted it. I’d rather have Kinky symbolizing TX than Bell or Perry any day.

  21. 21.

    BIRDZILLA

    Her big mistake was to veto a progun bill giving texans the right to keep amd bare arms for self defense thats what cost her the elelction to GEORGE W. BUSH

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