"I'm not serious about some issues," Friedman said. … getting beyond the quips to learn details of what Friedman would do as governor on critical matters could be a challenge.
"I favor remember the Alamo," Friedman said when asked about his stance on immigration.
Friedman said he had no "specific plans" when it came to the issue in Texas.
"I can give you, 'Oh, I'd do A,B, C and D;' that's nonsense," he said..…
"No, we'll take it under review," Friedman said when asked if he had a plan or feeling on how the state might help out local taxpayers who are bearing costs such as the $22 million Dallas residents spend a year at Parkland Memorial Hospital on illegal immigration health care.
Texas homeowners pay the highest insurance rates in the nation. Yet, as the interview went on, Friedman was low on details to cut them.
"I'd get the career politicians," he said when asked what he would do to lower homeowner insurance premiums. "I'd kick their [expletive] out of politics. That's what I'd do."
But while kicking politicians out, Friedman said he would like to put back in the Ten Commandments and mandatory prayer for students in Texas public schools despite court rulings to the contrary.…
"All the little issues you're talking about are all (expletive)," he said. "It's all (expletives). That's the key. Okay, I mean, you can talk about, 'And I would deregulate this; and my plans is to give a seven percent raise on the textbook.' It's all (expletive) because the people who are doing this are crooks and they're corrupt and they don't give a (expletive) about the people of Texas."
This disdain for telling people what he would actually do as governor lies at the heart of Kinky’s campaign.
Kinky’s belief that he didn’t have to address substantive issues is why he spent the first year of his campaign answering every question about abortion with the line "I'm not pro-life, and I'm not pro-choice. I'm pro-football!"
Yet when Kinky is later cornered into telling Texas voters what he would do about abortion, he has no clue:
"Are Texas laws too restrictive for adult women? Would you favor adding new restrictions or repealing current ones?
Friedman: I have mixed feelings on parental notification. On the counseling requirement, I'm not sure, but I know the less I talk to social workers, the better. No issue with the public-funding restrictions, but I would want to investigate further."
Kinky’s lack of any fundamental understanding of issues which are important to many Texas voters is a problem (not you or Kinky, but those of us who have been voting in Texas for at least a decade). This is why Kinky pledged on Dan Patrick's right-wing talk radio program that he would not veto Patrick's "trigger bill" to make abortion illegal in Texas immediately upon any reversal of Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme Court. He said that because he doesn’t know any better.
The reason why Kinky’s campaign told you a different story than Kinky told Dan Patrick’s huge radio audience is because Kinky’s internet campaign is reaching out to moderate voters while Kinky courts the far right wing. Kinky and his campaign put out conflicting messages all the time. Kinky tells right-wing audiences he’s an anti-abortion, anti-immigration, Bush-voting, pro-war, pro-death penalty, pray-in-school conservative and Kinky and his internet campaign tells a moderate or progressive audience that Kinky is a pro-choice, pro-immigration-amnesty, anti-death penalty, Gore-voting, Ann Richards-voting moderate.
One of these views is a lie.
Kinky’s pattern of telling different audiences the opposite story about various issues is a result of this fundamentally anti-substance vacuous campaign.
This is why Kinky tells regular folks "I am not anti-death penalty."
But Kinky tells advocates against the death penalty "Let's do away with the death penalty."
This is why Kinky’s campaign will issue a press release saying " Kinky Friedman today said he ... supports a portion of the House bill, which calls for the construction of 700 miles of security fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and which would make illegal immigration a felony."
But when someone questions Kinky about it, Kinky says "he never called immigrants felons, calling a reporter ‘full of (expletive)’ before apologizing... a spokeswoman said the initial statement was posted erroneously."
This is why Kinky’s campaign will file an ethics complaint asking "Travis County prosecutors to investigate Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn for possibly misusing state employees to help her campaign."
But a week later you hear Kinky blame his staff with the announcement that "Kinky Friedman on Saturday disavowed the criminal complaint that his campaign for governor filed against independent rival Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, but Friedman declined to withdraw the complaint or apologize to Strayhorn."
Most problematically, this is why Kinky you see Kinky give interviews like this
"Who did you vote for in 2000?
Friedman: I voted for Gore then."
When the truth is, "According to Kerr County voting records, Friedman voted in the 2004 presidential general election but not in any other contest since 1994."
I am not the LEAST BIT SURPRISED that Kinky’s campaign manager told you the EXACT OPPOSITE of what Kinky told Dan Patrick’s very large and very conservative radio audience. I would be surprised if Kinky went back on Dan Patrick’s show to retract his support for Dan Patrick’s proposed anti-abortion trigger law.
II. "A Negro talking to himself"
You have deliberately sanitized Kinky's quote about punishing criminals by throwing them in prison and making them listen to a Negro talking to himself.
On national television less than a year ago, Kinky was asked how he would punish criminals, and Kinky said:
"Throw them in prison and throw away the key and make them listen to a Negro talking to himself."
You attempt to defend Kinky's racist quote by misquoting Kinky. You pretend that the controversy is about a quote from a book Kinky wrote back in 1993, when Kinky said "As a general rule of thumb, however, if you thought of New York as a Negro talking to himself and of California as a VCR with nothing to put in, you wouldn't be too far off the mark."
This quote is from a fiction book that Kinky wrote. Nowhere in the quote you defend is Kinky talking about punishing criminals by throwing them in prison and making them listen to a Negro talking to himself. This might be the original source for the recycled material Kinky was spinning on the CNBC interview program, but the quote everyone is talking about is much more offensive.
Fortunately, the actual incident from November 8, 2005, is on video right here: link to video.
The question whether the word "Negro" is offensive or not is a question of context. Yet even if you took the word "Negro" out of Kinky's quote it would still be offensive: To punish criminals, "throw them in prison and throw away the key and make them listen to an African-American talking to himself." That's STILL racially offensive.
The racially offensive context is the suggestion that having to listen to black people talking to themselves in prison is part of your punishment. Why single out black people? Why not say to punish criminals, "throw them in prison and throw away the key and make them listen to an Anglo talking to himself"? Why not say to punish criminals, "throw them in prison and throw away the key and make them listen to a Latino talking to himself"? Why not say, to punish criminals, "throw them in prison and throw away the key and make them listen to a Jew talking to himself"? Singling out black people in this context is offensive.
This is a racially offensive context. When making a racially offensive comment, the deliberate choice of the word "Negro" magnifies the insult.
When you defend Kinky's racist behavior by deliberately quoting a different statement from the quote which is at the heart of the controversy, your behavior is dishonest.
III. "Tar baby"
Perhaps you are too young to understand why the phrase "tar baby" is considered offensive by some. Here's a history lesson:
Local historian and Pinellas County Schools curriculum specialist Randy Lightfoot said ... Tar Baby .... gained a negative connotation during the period of American slavery. The nickname was given to African children living on slave plantations. It was a degrading term that implied a lack of intelligence and uncivilized behavior, he said.
"Tar Baby was used to signify blackness," he said. "In those times, all of the black things were considered bad."
Lightfoot said the term has lost many of its negative connotations for today's young people, but it is offensive to many older people who know the history of the expression.
"For those who know what it means, Tar Baby is very offensive," he said.
You will not doubt say that this is just a question of "political correctness." Let me disagree in advance with that strawman argument.
This is more a question of "political wisdom" than "political correctness." If you are running for office, it is at the very least foolish to pepper your speech with terms that a large segment of the voting population considers a racially offensive. Whether or not you are personally offended by the gleeful use of terms like "tar baby" and "negro," you should be able to understand that many voters find those terms racially offensive. Any candidate who wants support from those voters would be wise to eschew casually offending such voters.
Among black voters, Kinky has less than half the support as the widely distrusted and disliked incumbent. This lack of support stems from Kinky's lack of political wisdom.
Whether or not Kinky is politically incorrect is far less relevant than the demonstrable fact that he is politically unwise. And wisdom is a trait to be prised in politicians, not disparaged.
IV. Black "thugs and crackheads"
If I wanted to show the empty core of your values, I could do no better than to quote your own statement that "the truth hurts."
On a related topic, I'll be posting a separate discussion about Kinky's latest campaign lie.
V. Tejano protestors just "playing hooky"
I did see the protestors. I marched with them. I saw none who were just "playing hooky."
VI. Kinky will not get my vote in any event
I agree that the top priority should be defeating Perry. Kinky's chances of success are zero so he doesn't factor into the equation. |
