Best-selling author and columnist Molly Ivins, a Texas liberal who died after a long battle with breast cancer, left legions of admirers, even among the politicians she regularly skewered.

President Bush, referred to as “Shrub” in Ivins' writings, said in a statement issued after her death Wednesday evening that Ivins was a Texas original who was loved by her readers and many friends.

“I respected her convictions, her passionate belief in the power of words, and her ability to turn a phrase. She fought her illness with that same passion. Her quick wit and commitment to her beliefs will be missed,” Bush said.

Ivins died in her home in hospice care. She was 62. Ivins revealed in early 2006 that she was being treated for breast cancer for the third time.

Her livelihood was poking fun at Texas politicians, whether they were in the White House or her home base of Austin.

“Molly Ivins' clever and colorful perspectives on people and politics gained her national acclaim and admiration that crossed party lines,” said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who Ivins playfully dubbed “Governor Goodhair.”

Colleagues at the liberal Austin-based biweekly The Texas Observer remembered her as a mentor and hero, a patriot and a friend.

“With Molly's death we have lost someone we hold dear. What she has left behind we will hold dearer still,” the Observer said in a statement. The Observer's Web site Wednesday night featured photos and tributes to Ivins, once a co-editor of the publication.

Readers from around the world e-mailed remembrances of Ivins, telling how she had touched their lives. Some fans dropped off flowers at the Observer's office in downtown Austin.

More than 400 newspapers, including The Norman Transcript subscribed to her nationally syndicated column. Ivins' illness did not seem to hinder her populist-toned humor or her ability to deliver biting one-liners.

“I'm sorry to say (cancer) can kill you but it doesn't make you a better person,” she said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News in September 2006, the same month cancer claimed her friend, former Texas Gov. Ann Richards.

In a Jan. 11 column, Ivins urged readers to stand up against Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq.

“We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war,” Ivins wrote. “We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, 'Stop it, now!'”

Ivins' best-selling books included those she co-authored with Lou Dubose about Bush. One was titled “Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush” and another was “BUSHWHACKED: Life in George W. Bush's America.”