What two political parties are destroying our country right now ?

COMMENTARY: JOHN KELSO

Kinky Friedman a racist? Nah. He messes with everybody

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

In the name of full disclosure, let me say up front that gubernatorial candidate and big tent insultor Kinky Friedman has asked me if I want a position in his Cabinet.

This happening is highly unlikely. For one thing, I doubt Kinky Friedman is going to have a cabinet unless he goes out to Lack's and picks one up. Also, my idea of hell would be trying to explain to the press what Kinky really meant when he used the expression "n——- eggs" 26 years ago in a comedy routine.

Still, I'm getting a kick out of these other candidates for governor who are painting Kinky as racist. I know Kinky Friedman, and he is no John Kennedy. Then again, he's no David Duke, either.

Suddenly, the opposition has conveniently discovered, with an election around the corner, that Kinky Friedman has been making outrageous comments for the past four decades.

I suspect the reason for this startling revelation is that Kinky is hanging around in the polls. One recent poll showed him at 22.4 percent and Gov. Rick Perry leading at 30.7 percent.

Let's put this in perspective. If Richard Pryor were running for president and he got within 9 percentage points of first place in a poll, the other candidates would suddenly remember he's sexist because he shot his wife's car instead of his own.

And now people are all over Kinky for jokes. Which makes you wonder: Should comedians be excluded from politics? Isn't it refreshing to have a candidate who's actually smart enough to be a smartass? It's been a long time coming.

"I don't eat tamales in the barrio; I don't eat fried chicken in the ghetto; I don't eat bagels with the Jews for breakfast," Kinky said. "That, to me, is true racism."

That line has been labeled as racist. I read it another way: It attacks hypocrisy.

You know how your phony candidate sucks up to the public by pumping gas for two minutes in front of a TV camera to pretend he's the working man? You know how political candidates eat the food at the picnic of the group they're trying to get votes from to show they're one of the gang?

That's my take on Kinky's tamale, bagels and fried chicken remark.

Kinky Friedman goes after everybody. He would insult your grandmother regardless of her menu choices. Yes, he can be a pain in the butt. I know because he's turned on me. He can be an annoying, temperamental jerk on occasion. But it doesn't last long, and the smoke clears quickly.

Actually, there are two Kinky Friedmans: the real Kinky and the stage Kinky. The stage Kinky puts on a Texas howdy accent, smokes large smelly cigars and leaves inappropriate messages on his answering machine at home that indicate size matters, to put it politely.

The real Kinky is soft-spoken and puts steaks on the floor of his living room for his dogs.

Kinky is also an entertainer who once had a band called the Texas Jewboys, whose goal was to make people squirm. You can dig up all the lyrics you want on the Internet. Don't take my word for it: Ask his opponents. Heck, I'll bet they'll gladly provide you with a link.

John Kelso's column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 445-3606 or jkelso@statesman .com.

source: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/09/26/26kelso.html
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Sept. 26, 2006, 3:09AM
Ventura joins Friedman campaign
Independent pair embark on Texas college tour

By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN - Sitting next to former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who sported a braided beard and railed about the war in Iraq, Kinky Friedman looked downright mainstream on Monday.

The iconic wrestler-turned-statesman and the wannabe Texas leader parried with a series of reporters at Friedman's South Austin headquarters before taking off on a tour of colleges. They hope to fire up students to register to vote before the Oct. 10 deadline.

"I've always had good rapport with young people," said Ventura, retired and living a surfer's lifestyle in Baja California. "And the more they pay attention today, maybe the less they'll have to fix tomorrow."

Asked whether college students would remember Ventura, who served from 1999 to 2003, Friedman said, "We'll see."

"Whether he's the hottest contemporary guy happening right now, is not the issue. They love him. They believe he's a truth-teller," said Friedman.

Ventura said that "nonvoting young people" were a key to his upset victory. But Minnesota political scientist Bill Flanigan said Ventura won because of "middle-aged suburbanites who didn't participate in elections."

"He capitalized on an anti-partisan sentiment and mobilized quite a few people," said Flanigan, professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota.

That state's law allowing Election Day voting registration also worked to Ventura's advantage. So did debates, when Democrat Skip Humphrey and Republican Norm Coleman went at each other in "pretty emotional and incoherent ways," Flanigan recalled, making Ventura look like the sensible one.


Ex-aides helping Friedman

Having already imported his campaign manager and advertising director from the Ventura campaign, it was only natural that Friedman would bring in the man himself.
Wearing black jackets and jeans and sitting in folding chairs in the darkened, cavernous room, the two political independents shared 15 minutes of fame with a stream of TV, radio and print journalists. A documentary crew that shadows Friedman captured it all.

Friedman's use of racially charged comments in past concerts and writings was a frequent topic. Ventura said Friedman's satire "helped drag (racism) out from under a rock."

Friedman maintained that he's only being tackled because he's carrying the ball.

Ventura seemed the most animated when he talked about national affairs. The Vietnam veteran ridiculed Bush administration officials who never fought a war. He said if a fence is built along the Texas-Mexico border, he will climb over it from the U.S. side to show that "fences work both ways."

Friedman said the National Guard patrolling the border doesn't have "ammo or the authority to detain an illegal."

"I'd like to know what the hell are they doing there," he said. "For political show, that's what I think."


Ventura lists achievements

Asked about his achievements as governor, Ventura said he appointed 73 judges and "not one of those judges did I know prior to them coming in to interview in my office." Texas elects its judges.
Ventura also bragged about cutting taxes and said he could have been re-elected — "no doubt about it" — if he'd sought a second term. Flanigan said Ventura may be right.

"He wasn't a disaster as a governor, mainly because he really had an excellent staff," Flanigan said.

Ventura recalled how angry he was when Minnesota lawmakers wouldn't consider his proposal for a unicameral Legislature. "That's when I got in trouble, because I called the Legislature a bunch of 'gutless cowards,' " he said.

Friedman said he doesn't have such radical ideas for Texas — yet.

"Not until we find out more about it," he said. "The people in power are not sharing with the rest of the class what they know."

Later Monday, the two repeated many of the same lines at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Ventura offered Friedman a bit of advice if he wins:

"He has got a great sense of humor, and he is going to have to learn to curtail that," he said. As governor, Ventura said he had to be careful about his jokes because "political correctness"prevailed among Minnesota media. He said he took to ending each one with the refrain "that was a joke, joke, joke."

Greg Jefferson of the San Antonio Express-News contributed to this report from San Antonio.

janet.elliott@chron.com
source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4214073.html
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Kinky, Jesse Tour Texas Colleges
By MICHAEL GRACZYK , 09.26.2006, 03:38 AM

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With political soul mate Jesse Ventura in tow, Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman is telling college audiences that he has no reason to apologize for his race-related remarks.

"Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a racist," Friedman said Monday at the University of Texas at San Antonio. "Far from it."

Last week, the Texas NAACP president and a black legislator criticized Friedman for a joke he told in a 1980 comedy club appearance in which he used the n-word about blacks. He also has come under fire for a race-related remark he made in a television interview last year and for other comments about Hurricane Katrina evacuees and ethnic groups.

"Humor is the weapon I use, humor to attack bigotry," said Friedman, who with Ventura is making a campaign swing this week through several Texas colleges and universities.

Ventura, whose surprising 1998 victory as a third-party candidate in the Minnesota governor's race is serving as a model for Friedman's effort, was welcomed to Texas on Monday by an attack from incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry's campaign. In a statement, Perry's campaign cited remarks in a 1999 Playboy Magazine interview in which Ventura was said to have called organized religion "a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers."

Dean Barkley, who directed Ventura's successful campaign and is serving in the same capacity with Friedman, said the attacks showed the Perry campaign was "getting pretty desperate."

In San Antonio on Monday, Friedman and Ventura drew enthusiastic crowds, filling a 350-seat campus auditorium to standing room, leaving several hundred others unable to get in.

Friedman talked to the crowd about a crime spike in Houston blamed in part on the Katrina refugees, but stayed away from his previous reference to them as "thugs and crackheads," for which he was criticized as being racially offensive.

"They say Kinky is a racist because I talked about the evacuees," he said. "Well, I'm smart, folks. I know that 250,000 evacuees are not committing these crimes. It's a small number."

In the evening, Friedman and Ventura signed campaign buttons, signs and photos.

"I like what he's talking about," said Marisol Peralez, 22, who is studying to be a special education teacher. She said the criticisms of Friedman's 1980 remarks didn't bother her.

"I think too much is being made of it," she said.

"I've seen him in social settings and how he is with people," said Courtney Laurell, 22. "He's very down to earth."

Besides Perry, Friedman is facing Democrat Chris Bell, independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Libertarian James Werner in the Nov. 7 election.

Ventura, wearing a SEAL Team cap and his long beard in a single braid, challenged students to "throw a monkey wrench into the machine" by voting.

"The machine doesn't believe that you vote," the former pro wrestler said. "You elect an independent and you send a message."

Ventura said he and Friedman didn't agree on all issues, with immigration among them. Friedman wants 10,000 troops along the border to block illegal immigration. Ventura, who now lives in Baja California, Mexico, said he didn't want any kind of fence to stem the flow of immigration.

Friedman also acknowledged he and Ventura disagreed on religion, with Friedman advocating school prayer and posting of the Ten Commandments.

"You'll find as independents, we don't always agree on every subject, but you'll find we are in agreement that the Democrat and Republican parties are destroying our country right now," Ventura said. "They're destroying our political process."

source: http://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/feeds/ap/2006/09/26/ap3044513.html