Democrats don't like Kinky's satire

R.G. Ratcliff:

Kinky Friedman's use of a racial slur in his outrage-humor stage show in 1980 caused a firestorm Thursday in the governor's race as critics said the satirist too frequently engages in racially charged comments.

The controversy has been smoldering for two weeks, ever since Friedman said many of the Hurricane Katrina evacuees remaining in Houston are "crackheads and thugs." Most of the evacuees are black.

On Thursday, a Democratic-leaning Internet site, The Burnt Orange Report, poured fuel on the fire by airing the outtake from Friedman's April 16, 1980, appearance at Rockefeller's in Houston.

Friedman said the controversial comment should not be taken seriously because it was part of a stage show meant to offend everyone in the audience.

"It was a pretty raunchy show and follows in the footsteps of Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce," Friedman said. "We had a bunch of walkouts."

...
There is more. This is Democrats playing their regular race hustle and Kinky is targeted because of their perception that he is probably drawing more Democrat votes than Republicans. I would expect that they will continue to find ways to attack Freidman and try to peel more of his voters away. The problem with the race hustle approach is that it is most effective with people who probably were not voting for Kinky anyway. Besides, it is hard to deny the fact that the influx from New Orleans included a lot of people who commit crimes. The question ought to be why Democrats why to deny the obvious.

With Bell outperforming Strayhorn at this point, the Dems think they might have a chance, but Bell is still well behind Perry, and is probably unlikely to get much closer.

The NY Times has noticed the race and devotes some ink to each of the candidates, but as you may expect, it appears to be trying to keep hope alive for Bell the Democrat. He apparently is getting a financial boost from wealthy trial lawyers. Who would have thought it?

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