In a 1990 cover story for The Nation, Contributing Editor Kai Bird called Jimmy Carter "the very model of an ex-president." He described his work on human rights, education, preventive health care, and conflict resolution as a "return to the populist warpath, telling people what he perceives to be the hard truths on the larger issues."

Bird noted that his take on Carter wasn’t altogether too common: "…he was never a liberal as defined by the party’s traditional liberal constituency groups."

Yet more than 25 years later, Carter has become the moral standard-bearer for the progressive Democratic flank. As Patrick Doherty’s recent Tompaine.com blog "Carter on A Roll," points out, this ex-President is courageously "calling a spade a spade today," breaking "the unwritten rule that former Presidents shall not contradict sitting Presidents on major issues of policy."

Just the other day, the former President called the Iraq war unjust, unnecessary and based on false pretenses. (He’s been saying that for some three years now.) The next day, Carter published an op-ed ("Colonization of Palestine Precludes Peace") arguing that the main obstacle to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands.

Many progressive Democrats today stand with Carter as he speaks out on the toughest issues of our time, like torture, Iraq, the Middle East conflict and domestic surveillance. Yet it is equally clear that there is another kind of Democrat who ducks and dodges where Carter engages. And when it comes to calling out those so-called "leaders" who triangulate, capitulate, and calculate, Carter shares the mantle as standard-bearer with a fearless, tireless, truth-telling warrior of a reporter: Molly Ivins.

In her recent column, "Enough of the D.C. Dems," Ivins characteristically pulls no punches in writing of Washington Democrats’ "sheer gutlessness and spinelessness" on Iraq, public campaign financing, and national healthcare.

She urges progressives to find a candidate and start organizing now in order to lock-up the nomination. "What happens now is not up to the has-beens in Washington who run this party. It is up to us. So let’s get off our butts and start building a progressive movement that can block the nomination of Hillary Clinton or any other candidate who supposedly has ‘all the money sewed up.’ "

When it comes to style of delivery, Jimmy and Molly couldn’t be more different. But as for substance, these two kindred souls are blazing a trail for every good small d democrat to follow.