So which side does Ivins -- probably more proudly partisan than any other pundit in the business -- line up on in the biggest ballot-counting brouhaha in modern history? Well, of course she doesn't cotton to the idea of George W. Bush as president. Let's get that out of the way right from the start. Ivins, who writes a widely syndicated column for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is a native Texan who, as a lefty, has a unique perspective on W. and all the Bushes. She recently authored the bestselling "Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush" (a title she may come to regret, temporally speaking), and she commented extensively on the unique follies of W.'s dad, George Herbert Walker Bush, during the president's glorious post-Reagan reign.

Wading into the current breach, this is what Ivins wrote in her column of Nov. 19:

Here's the challenge: Let's everybody with a dog in this fight -- meaning either pro-Gore or pro-Bush -- be obliged to make the case for the other side for at least 15 minutes.

Also Today The quotable Ivins She slices, she dices, she tosses and gores, but she never, never bores. Print story E-mail story

Because I think we're watching something important, quite aside from the fate of the nation and the future of The World's Greatest Democracy (except for Florida).

In a mild and in some ways not terribly important case (I may have to eat those words), we're watching why wars start. What we see is the constant presentation -- because the media love to polarize -- of people who are apparently incapable of imagining what the situation looks like from somebody else's point of view.

Imagine that. A call for empathy. Because when you think about it, there really is no solution to this mess. Between the confusing ballots, the never-counted ones, the varying chad-evaluation standards, the citizens who were intimidated into not voting, the canceled recounts, the violent mobs, the tampered-with absentee ballot requests and all the rest of the chaos, there is no way of coming to a result that is free of taint. So what else is there to do but submit to the absurdity of it all, shake hands with your enemy and go have a beer?

This is a case of Ivins being a uniter, not a divider, but she would no doubt chafe at that role. She sees bringing down the powerful as her task, not "bringing people together." But Ivins' gift is that even while deflating the pompous she ends up being a uniter. She just can't help it.

Other columnists might claim to bring us all together, to find the common threads that bind us in the knot of humanity, but how many make us laugh in the bargain? Ask yourself when the last time was you laughed out loud at something a political columnist wrote. Not snickered -- as you might do reading Maureen Dowd or P.J. O'Rourke -- but practically fell off your chair laughing. Chances are it was when you last read Ivins.

Readers seeking examples of Ivins' wit can find them in ample quantity in her four books, the first three being collections of her columns and articles: "Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?" (1991), "Nothin' but Good Times Ahead" (1993) and "You Got to Dance With Them What Brung You: Politics in the Clinton Years" (1998). Her latest book, "Shrub," co-written by Lou Dubose, is a straightforward account of Bush's record as a Texas businessman and governor. Ivins reins in much of her lacerating wit here, but she doesn't hold back in her revelations of Bush mendacity. Here's "Shrub" in a nutshell:

If Bush does make it to the White House, he and Laura should have Ken Starr over for dinner. If Starr hadn't so abused the power of his office, Congress might have reauthorized the independent-counsel statute, leaving the door open for a court-appointed prosecutor to investigate a president's son who flipped his oil companies faster than a Texas S&L can daisy-chain a Dallas condo; as a corporate board insider, unloaded his company stock shortly before its price plummeted; and walked away from the whole mess with more money than Bill Clinton ever dreamed of making on a little real estate deal now known as Whitewater.

Even though the book was on the New York Times bestseller list for several weeks -- as were all Ivins' books -- it gained little "traction" in the establishment media.

"Don't get me started about the media double standard," Ivins says about this conundrum. "Part of it from the beginning has been that the expectations were so low. I mean every time W. pulled himself together and jumped over a matchbox, people applauded that he could jump over a matchbox." W. said as much himself on the 'David Letterman' show, didn't he?

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