Texas says "Kinky" can be on ballot

Just an aside...

I was at the drive through at the bank today, and this chickie babe in front of me had a big 'ol "My Governor is a Jewish Cowboy" sticker on her rear window.

She was having a real hard time figuring out how that tricky tube thingie worked. You know, the cannister that you stick your money in, and push a button that says "SEND"?

Just couldn't seem to get the hang of it.

oy vey.

By KELLEY SHANNON
Associated Press

AUSTIN -- Kinky Friedman was accused today of another racially offensive remark when a year-old interview surfaced in which he said sexual predators should be thrown in prison and forced to "listen to a Negro talking to himself."

The independent gubernatorial candidate already was under fire for recent comments calling Katrina evacuees in Texas "crackheads and thugs." The remark was taken as a slap at black Katrina evacuees.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Houston Chronicle have reported on an interview with Friedman aired on CNBC last year in which Friedman was asked what to do with sexual predators.

"Throw them in prison and throw away the key and make them listen to a Negro talking to himself," Friedman said in the CNBC interview. He also called Negro a "charming word."

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, immediate past chairman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, said those remarks are unacceptable from a candidate for governor.

Friedman's comments are more the kind that would come from someone running for "class clown or the grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan," Coleman told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Friedman's spokeswoman said Wednesday the fact that an interview from more than a year ago is resurfacing means Friedman's opponents are feeling threatened.

"Texans who know anything about Kinky know that he's not a racist, and they're going to see through all of this political correctness very soon," spokeswoman Laura Stromberg said. "This is what they've got? Bring it on. Texans can see right through."

Democrat Chris Bell said he saw the interview months ago and was surprised the news media didn't react in a stronger fashion at the time.

"I was offended by the comments then, and I would agree with Representative Coleman that everyone who's running as a serious candidate in this race needs to be held to the same standard," Bell said. "I just don't think those types of comments have a place in this campaign."

Coleman has endorsed Bell for governor.

The campaigns of Republican Gov. Rick Perry and independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn did not immediately return calls to the AP for comment.

Friedman was traveling to New York for a fund-raiser and would have no further comment on the remark, Stromberg said.

He told the Star-Telegram on Tuesday that anyone who is offended by his comment should vote for one of the other three major candidates.

"If I've got to lie to people, sweep the truth under the rug and worry about offending people, I'm not going to be very effective," Friedman said.

His spokeswoman said part of the "Negro" line was derived from a book Friedman wrote in the late 1980s that was being discussed in the CNBC interview before Friedman used the phrase in answering a question about sexual predators.

In addition to the "crackheads" reference, Friedman took some heat for a remark about ethnic politicking.

"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," said Friedman, who is Jewish. "That to me is true racism."

?-?-?-

Seems they are beginning to take him seriously.

The story's calculated to keep him down in the polls. I'm a Chris Bell supporter, but it seems likely Perry will get the win.

... speaking of which: what are Texas polls saying these days?

This is the newest I could find on the Houston Chronicle site:



Sept. 12, 2006, 12:08PM
Polls find Perry loss isn't out of the question
But governor's spokesman says methodology used in surveys makes them unreliable


By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN ?- Two polls released Monday found Gov. Rick Perry is vulnerable to defeat, but his campaign is questioning the surveys' accuracy.

Conventional wisdom in the governor's race has been that none of the governor's four opponents would have a chance to beat him if he gets more than 35 percent of the vote on Nov. 7. There is no runoff in the general election, so the top vote-getter wins.

Perry has hovered between 35 percent and 41 percent in public polls for months. But he has fallen into the defeatable zone in polls done by Rasmussen Reports and the Wall Street Journal/Zogby Online.

The Rasmussen poll put Perry's re-election support at 33 percent, and the Zogby poll had his support at 31 percent.

"It's hard to see him losing above 37 percent, but below 35 percent, somebody might get that much out of the remaining 65 percent of the vote," said University of Houston pollster Richard Murray, a Democrat.

But Perry spokesman Robert Black said the polls paid for by news media companies should not be trusted because their methodology is not sound political science.

"All these media polls that promote the pollster should be taken with a grain of salt," said Black. "If the campaigns, all the campaigns in this race for governor, thought these polls were worth a darn, they wouldn't have their own pollsters."

The polls differed on the challengers to Perry. Rasmussen had independent Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn in second place at 22 percent; Democrat Chris Bell in third place at 18 percent; and independent Kinky Friedman in fourth at 16 percent.

Zogby had Bell in second with 25 percent; Friedman at 22 percent, Strayhorn at 11 percent and Libertarian James Werner at 2.6 percent.

Both polls were conducted days before Perry and Strayhorn began their television advertising last week.

Black said the two polls do not accurately reflect the voting public in Texas. He said Rasmussen uses automated polling methods, while Zogby uses a pool of people who volunteer to be interviewed on an Internet site.


Surveys questioned
Mark Sanders, a spokesman for Strayhorn, touted the results of the Rasmussen poll while challenging the methodology of Zogby.

"Zogby has always been wildly off when it comes to her (Strayhorn)," Sanders said. "The only polls we trust are the ones we take, and they show us in second place."

Bell spokeswoman Heather Guntert said the campaign is not going to be one that "lives or dies" by any poll, but she said Zogby showed growing strength for Bell. She said that also is reflected in a $250,000 donation the campaign received from trial lawyer Harold Nix.

Murray said there are reasons to believe the Rasmussen and Zogby polls are credible and reasons to question their accuracy.

Murray said polls done with robotic interviewers such as those conducted by Rasmussen and SurveyUSA are considered to be "cheap, quick and dirty." But he said they do so much polling that inaccuracies tend to level out over time. He said the hard thing for those polls to reflect is whether they are accurately sampling people who will actually vote.

Murray said Zogby's polling methods called elections very accurately in 2000, but less so in 2004.


May not mean much
Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin and a founder of Pollster.com, said the biggest problem with Internet-based polling like Zogby's is that the people who sign up to be surveyed are very interested in politics.

Even if Zogby weights the population of the poll sample to reflect the population of the state, Franklin said a political survey of volunteers is likely one of people who already had strong feelings about politics and the candidates.

Franklin said there can be variability in any poll. So Perry's drop may not mean much, especially if nothing happened to cause it, he said.

"Perry's movement right now isn't large enough for me to be convinced that Perry has dropped significantly," Franklin said.


Friedman not worried

The one campaign not worried by the polls is that of Friedman, who is building his campaign like the one used by former wrestler Jesse Ventura to win the governorship in Minnesota.

"Jesse Ventura had 11 to 15 percent in the polls at this point in the campaign. He didn't break 20 percent until the weekend before the election," said Friedman spokeswoman Laura Stromberg. "This is great news."

Wow -- how often do you have a real four-way race? Sounds like Perry's in the lead but the Strayhorn-Friedman-Bell pack are actually nipping at his heels.

If there was just one opponent, Perry could be beaten. As it is, I have to throw in the towel already.

Thanks -- and as Sozobe says, wow indeed.

If I lived in Texas i would vote for Kinky and hope he lost.

I like Kinky very much. I also like my Uncle Henry very much. I wouldn't vote for either of them.

Did any fellow Texans watch the debate last night?

It was like watching a train wreck.

The "kinkster" totally lived up to my expectations of a twitching, all hat, no cattle fool.

Whenever he was asked for his plan his response was "whatever it takes, whatever it takes"

At one point he even pouted that "everyone here is ganging up on me."

Strayhorn (sp) kinda came across as a used car salesman with an education.

Rebuttals amongst Strayhorn, Perry and Bell amounted to "you are 100% incorrect in what you just said about me."

All three of them had a hard time keeping a straight face when Friedman was up to bat.

Seriously, all he did was spout cliches.

The main topics that came up were illegal immigration, property taxes, TAX test and education and the (I forget what this road is called, sorry) this huge road system that is being built in preparation of increasing populations, but will be running through ranch land.

I didn't, but I'd be interest to watch it on the web if it appears somewhere. The usual Google / YouTube searches brought up nothing so far, so if any of you Texans could share insider knowledge of any TV or radio stations to check, I'd be grateful.

Meanwhile, Chai, thanks for your update!

Kinky came in looking like he was ready to go trick-or-treating, but, when all was said and done, the contrast helped expose the others as the usual, pre-programmed, 'tell 'em what they wanna hear' politicians that they are. Well done, Kinky.

What did he say that made you think he did a good job echi?

He couldn't answer questions....he hemmed and hawed....when he finished talking he still had time left so he had to fumble for those remaining seconds.

He brings up memories of the Alamo, says things like....whatever it takes...(as said above)...

when the subject of his racial insults was brought up, his response almost made me fall off the sofa "I was raised my a black lady in Houston" Jesus Christ...didn't your white mother raise you? That is such a cop out. Like all of a sudden the woman who cleaned your kitchen and cooked your familys dinner was responsible for "raising" you.

When asked who would be on his staff, he had no answer until the questioner brought up and asked who on his campaign staff now...

To that he responded "My campaign staff is a group of young and irritable people" trying to be funny I suppose....I guess we were supposed to laugh that his followers are "irritable" Also, when pushed, he finally said that there was a campaign worker named "frank from atlanta" who would be on his staff....oh, by the way, he found it necessary to mention frank was black

This man wants to appeal to the proletariat...he thinks looking "homey" in his casual attire and stinky cigar makes him appealing. I say if he can't respect the people of Texas enough to dress appropriately and at least take off his damn cowboy hat when indoors, he has no place running the state.

Is that what that black woman in Houston raised him? To keep his hat on inside and not even where a tie to a business event?

Oh, and his giving his definition of politics as....It come from two words, "poly" meaning "many" and the 2nd parts as a bunch of blood sucking parasites...come on...if I was sitting there drinking my 4th beer that might seem funny, but what's that got to do with the price of bananas? He doesn't have anything to say, so he makes jokes.

I have the debate recorded, but honestly don't feel like looking at it now.
If you can point out a question and response that particularly impressed you, I'd go back sometime in the next day and jot down his response.

He's long on folksy joking, but has no specific plans.

If I'm wrong echi....point out something he said that he could be actually pinned down on.

I was thinking about the "tell them what they want to hear" aspect, but (a) at least the others where telling us something, and (b) Friedman was also saying what we want to hear and expected him to say.

He need to go home and write another book or something, which, when he loses, I'm sure he'll do....all about his political adventures.

I would never have dreamed so much mileage was to be be had out of one stupid article....hehe!

I feel like such a troll.

If you was a Texan, reyn, you would know this is serious stuff here. We just had two clowns in a row for governor. Surely we don't want a third.

See my previous post.

nuh uh....sorry echi, but that's a cop out. That's no answer to my question(s)

be specific....what subject was presented....immigration, taxes, education where Friedman had any type of specific grasp of the problem, had a well thought out process to implement, and any idea of when or how he would reach a goal.

He didn't make the others look bad, he made himself look like a fool.

Tell me, what exactly IS his plan for anything beyond hiring Willie Nelson or "doing whatever it takes", whatever that means?

Where was the substance?

We have our share of clowns here, too. A regular circus, one might say.