How Hard Could It Be?

From KinkyFriedman.com:

With the Alamo as his backdrop, musician-turned-mystery author Kinky Friedman launched an independent, and unconventional, campaign Thursday to run for Texas governor in 2006.

He announced his candidacy just after sunrise, saying, "We're going to wake up this great slumbering giant of Texas independence."

Friedman is campaigning against what he calls the "wussification" of Texas, which he defines as political correctness run amok. He favors legalized casino gambling to finance education and would push for life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty...

riedman, joking he wants to move into the governor's mansion "because I need the closet space," launched his drive to become the state's first independent governor since Texas Revolution hero Sam Houston in 1859 in front of the Alamo.

Wearing a black cowboy hat and sporting a trademark lit cigar, Friedman's announcement was carried nationally on the MSNBC morning show hosted by radio personality Don Imus...

The author of numerous books, columns and songs he performed with his bar band "The Texas Jewboys," Friedman, 60, stressed he'll use humor to frame a serious candidacy in the Republican-dominated state.

"Don't worry about my lack of experience," Friedman said. "Trust me. I'm a Jew. I'll hire good people."

On the 169th anniversary of Lt. Col. William B. Travis' arrival at the Alamo, which would eventually fall to Mexican troops, Friedman laid out his plan to begin the "de-wussification of Texas."

"I'm not anti-death penalty. I'm anti-the wrong guy getting executed," Friedman said. "Two-thousand years ago we executed an innocent man named Jesus Christ and we don't want to make another mistake like that." ...

Like Minnesota's Jesse Ventura in 1998 and California's Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003, Friedman's nontraditional candidacy could garner serious support, said political analyst Larry Hufford of St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

"I think Kinky can make the candidates deal with issues they don't want to talk about," Hufford said

Kinky's Official Store offers a wide variety of campaign materials:

Further info on Kinky and his campaign can be found at his Official Website - http://kinkyfriedman.com/