When Kinky Friedman announced he was running for governor, many people gasped when they saw Galveston’s rabbi by his side.



When Kinky Friedman announced he was running for governor, many people gasped when they saw Galveston’s rabbi by his side.

He’s awfully funny about being serious
By Heber Taylor
The Daily News

Published February 27, 2005
When Kinky Friedman announced he was running for governor, many people gasped when they saw Galveston’s rabbi by his side.

“I don’t usually get involved in politics,” Jimmy Kessler said.

But Kessler has an excuse. He’s known the humorist, country singer and mystery writer since he was 8 or 9. Kessler met Kinky, who’s a couple of years older, at summer camp.

Back then, Kinky was little Richard Friedman. His parents owned the camp. So, decades later, there Kessler was, saying a prayer as Kinky’s campaign kicked off on the “Imus in the Morning” show.

Kinky and his supporters faced the cameras in front the Alamo. That might be symbolic.

Actually, Kinky’s inner circle had met at the bar of the nearby Menger Hotel. That might be symbolic, too. That’s where Teddy Roosevelt went, at least in legend, to find folks who were tough enough for the Rough Riders.

As the show started, Kinky bantered with Don Imus.

If Kinky’s elected, the oft-busted Willie Nelson will head the Texas Rangers. Kinky’s hairdresser and business partner, Palestinian Farouk Shami, will be Texas’ ambassador to Israel.

“I’m a Jew and I hire good people,” Kinky said in one official pronouncement.

Kinky’s spiritual adviser, country singer Billy Joe Shaver, is a born-again Christian.

Imus took this bunch of characters as a joke.

Then Kessler said a prayer. He mentioned the biblical story of the flight from Egypt. When the slaves painted their doors with blood, they used brushes made of hyssop. Individually, each reed is weak and apt to break. Collectively, the reeds made a strong brush to paint an enduring symbol.

Imus recognized something important had happened. While many might take the Kinky campaign as a stunt, some people in the crowd were serious.

I asked the rabbi to tell the funniest story he knew about his friend of almost 50 years. He was stumped. I think it was because he knows Friedman too well. He knows that zany fellow really is a serious man.

When the two friends were fraternity brothers at the University of Texas, Friedman led demonstrations to end segregation. When he visited Kessler, then a rabbinical student in Jerusalem, Friedman spent weeks talking to Palestinians.

Friedman, bandleader of the improbably named Texas Jewboys, wrote the first song about the Holocaust ever played on country music stations in rural Texas. Behind the outrageous, folksy, cigar-chomping character there’s a serious man.

If Kinky is elected, it’ll be against the law to declaw cats in Texas. And if he’s not elected, he’ll still run the funniest campaign in a state where elections are always funny.

But it seems to me this joke is already out of control. Serious people are asking the obvious question: Jesse Ventura did it in Minnesota. Arnold Schwarzenegger did it in California.

What’s to keep Kinky from getting elected in Texas?

When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state.

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March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.

Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler Coates Redmon, a staffer in Sargent Shriver's Peace Corps, died February 22 in Washington, DC. Her book "Come as You Are" is considered to be one of the finest (and most entertaining) recountings of the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. If you want to know what it felt like to be young and idealistic in the 1960's, get an out-of-print copy. We honor her memory.

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February 26, 2005: This Week's Top Stories Folk-Singer Steve Schuch releases "Trees of Life" 26 Feb Christopher Bartlett maintains Marine Protected Area 25 Feb Joseph Frey uses amputation experience to help others 25 Feb James McCann concerned by maize in Ethiopia 25 Feb Sen. Obama says PC can help improve diplomacy 24 Feb PCVs help remove batteries in Belize 24 Feb Jimmy Carter praises mother's PC service 24 Feb Craig D. Wandke's lunar passion began in Honduras 23 Feb Char Andrews discusses her experience with cancer 23 Feb Beverly Seckinger tells stories through film 23 Feb J. Tyler Dickovick: As Togo goes, so may go Africa 23 Feb Andres Hernandez searches for PCV for 40 years 23 Feb Bulgaria is now like second home to Aaron Wills 22 Feb Bernadette Roberts to serve as diplomat in Albania 22 Feb USA Freedom Corps downgraded at White House 22 Feb Tom Skeldon seeks to control pit bull trade 21 Feb Gabriela Lena Frank writes music on Dad's PCV service 21 Feb

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Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments.

WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service.

Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress.

RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey.

Read the stories and leave your comments.