perfidy

This could leave a mark:

AUSTIN - A Houston-area lawmaker said Tuesday that she is "vehemently insulted" by independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman's derogatory comments about Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

Friedman last week attributed a spike in Houston's crime rate to the "crackheads and thugs" who evacuated New Orleans.

I haven't a clue how "She" could both be offended by his comments and simultaneously be an elected representative from Houston, since Kinky wasn't talking about Houstonians with funny names, but instead was speaking of Katrina evacuees, but "She" continues:

"He has demonstrated a total lack of human sensitivity," said state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston. "The people of Katrina have lost everything and are suffering not only from the loss of loved ones, but the trauma of the event itself. What has precipitated from this tragedy is behavior that results from a disastrous event."

Damn - is it just me, or did Senfronia just say that, yeah, the Katrina evacuees laid waste to large parts of Houston, but that it's OK, because it was to be expected under the circumstances? Ouch. And that will leave a mark, but probably not on Kinky Friedman.

Sadly, it probably won't leave a mark on Senfronia, either, because Houston proper has a wicked habit of electing maundering assholes to minor functionary legislative positions. (See "Sheila Jackson Lee", though, to be fair, the tony suburb of Sugarland hasn't covered itself in electoral glory either, and the city does sometimes do right, such as with Mayor Bill White and Judge Bill Eckels, true studs, both)

After all, something more than 20% of the year's homicides (through Aug 26) in Houston have involved Katrina evacuees (though that includes both perps and victims). Kinky appears, as always, to just be saying what everyone can see with their own damned eyes.

Stretching fair use to its limits, just in case that link up top goes stale, I have to also include the following excerpts:

"Kinky Friedman has called himself a 'compassionate redneck,' " said Thompson, chairwoman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. "He would do well henceforth to highlight his compassion while de-emphasizing his redneck tendencies."

Yeah, there's that. But it's not like the governor in Texas actually has to do much of anything. Honest. And this:

Friedman earlier this week also said that we would not pander to different ethnic groups while campaigning for governor.

"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."

Tell it, brother! I continue to particularly like the cut of the man's jib.

He's #2 in "the polls" so far, but he's both still pretty far behind our current pretty-boy Governor, Rick Perry, and damned by the press to defeat because of his proclivity for action and fun, rather than the slog of executive life.

All that said, if I have to waste a vote in the race for Governor of Texas (a presumption I'm not willing yet to stipulate), I'm happy to waste it on a guy who knows that the job is virtually all public relations and bully-pulpit, and who also knows that in Texas, it's generally defensible to just speak your mind, particularly as long as you're stating the bald-faced obvious.