Letters from an absention
by Owen Courrèges · 10/31/2006 8:39 amFor the record, I did not place my vote in any of the staff endorsements for the simple reason that I’m no longer registered to vote in Texas. After all, who wants some meddling interloper, a Texas ex-pat, offering his opinion on the upcoming election? I won’t have to live with the results.
HOWEVER… (and you knew this was coming) …I do want to make note of what my vote would have been on the race for governor. I would have gone for Rick Perry, which would have tied the vote 5-5. My vote would have been based on the fact that Perry, although not an excellent governor, has made inroads on some basic conservative positions. It may be a bare minimum, but it’s better than somebody who has the potential to do a great deal of damage during their tenure.
Kinky in particular scares me because he’s quite socially liberal and believes in all kinds of campaign finance reform gobbledegook. I don’t believe he’d be likely to make inroads on either, but if he did I doubt the results would be easily reversed — particularly with public financing of campaigns. I particularly don’t like it when Kinky touts a “lobbying tax” and then turns around and slams Perry’s corporate taxes. It’s hypocritical, as both add to the cost of doing business, thereby increasing the cost of goods and services.
That’s my two cents. Now I get to turn around and vote against Rep. William Jefferson, a much easier choice.
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Richard Friedman isn’t really the issue anyway.
Any conservative vote for Richard Friedman is effectively a vote for Chris Bell, whose spending agenda WILL get moved by a coalition of Dems and RINOs in the lege.
And Governor Bell’s appointments to state offices most decidedly will NOT be conservative.
People should vote their consciences, of course, but conservatives should be aware that a vote for Kinky has decidedly anti-conservative implications.
Owen– Carpetbagger!
Dr. Whited– There is some sort of mind-game voodoo you are playing by referring to Kinky twice as “Richard Friedman”… I don’t know exactly what it is, but I’m watching you. :#
BTW, is blogHouston going to be making “endorsements” or “suggestions” or some such?
#1 the conservatives perry drewdip my state house and senate reps all voted this tax and no caps.
these good conservatives you speak off ignored all 5 props from the primary and not one would answer me why.
and you call them good conservatives. i voted for not one of them because they did not respond and voted against those props in every vote they cast.
Richard Friedman is the man’s name, no? Kinky is a marketing term, a stage name, just like Grandma…
The Republican Secretary of State says Kinky Friedman has used the name Kinky long enough and in enough non-political contexts to warrant being listed on the ballot as “Richard ‘Kinky’ Friedman”… so make of that, what you will.
Richard Friedman is the guy’s given name.
I’m not planning on any endorsements, no. That’s the job of voters.
Blogs and websites are valuable tools for offering alternative views on the news of the day. They are potentially useful tools for screening/vetting candidates.
But I disagree strongly with the notion that blogs should emulate elitist editorial boards in endorsing candidates. My own notion is that the editorial board model of screening and recommending candidates was useful back when information was expensive/hard to obtain, but that now it’s just an anachronism. I’d much prefer that news outlets or editorial boards or even blogs do hard-hitting interviews with candidates, post that for all to see, and let voters decide whom to endorse. I don’t want or NEED anyone to do the endorsing for me, but I do want the raw data.
It feels really pretentious for me to tell somebody how to vote. Now, you want me to discuss various candidates’ positions, or assess whether those positions are liberal/conservative, or whether they are good policy, or what the implications of a vote for a candidate might be — okay. Different sort of thing. But I’ll leave the endorsing to voters.
That’s fine, but I think that using a stage name in the governor’s office is a bit of disrespect to the office. Enough people don’t take Texas seriously. Maybe I’m just being picky, but I certainly think Dr. Whited’s use of Richard when referring to Friedman is appropriate.
Besides, doncha think that “Rick Friedman” would be sort of ironically satisfying if the guy managed to win??
Owen and Kevin,
Thank y’all. This Kinky idea is a little scary and it is turning me off of LST. The Governor’s office is not a joke. It is serious business. And the social ideals that Kinky would like to plaster across Texas do not represent what Texas should be about.
I want to live in a state that is proud to use the Death Penalty - because we want the bad guys to be scared.
I want to live in a state where the people are proud to take care of themselves - not expect to be taken care of.
I want to live in a state full of hunters - led by a man that truly appreciates the citizens that don camo and carry shotguns and rifles.
I want to live in a state that dislikes abortion and gay marriage and is not afraid to let everyone know it.
Kinky is not my idea of a governor.
Owen, please explain your quote below. I am not aware of anything, other than tort reform, that Perry did that was conservative. Please enlighten me.
P.S. on the subject of tort reform, since Perry doesn’t seem concerned (other than his lying ads) about illegals in Texas, I guess I am SOL if a company hires an illegal which in turn harms me. In this case, tort reform helps the company which hired the illegal.
BTW, I give Joe Nixon credit for passing tort reform. Seriously. I’ve studied the issue, and he really did yeoman’s work getting it passed.
In fact, I can state hands down that if Joe Nixon were running for Governor against Kinky, I’d vote for MoJo.
GO KINKY, GO! We don’t need “pretty boys” in the Governor’s mansion…Kinky genuinely cares about TEXAS, not about whether anyone is going to like him…at least he is honest about it.
“Why the hell not” doesn’t convey deep caring about the state of Texas to me.
Boy, I will be glad when this election is over.
Only the legislative body can change state laws against gay marriage via a vote to the state constitution. Abortion is a federal issue. Don’t waffle and say it is the governor’s doing.
Kinky’s position, in my mind, is unlcear on “trigger legislation” re: abortion. His pro-abortion and anti-death penalty positions can and will affect his policy decisions and court appointments.
Dr. Whited,
Although I disagree with you on Kinky’s suitability for office, I thoroughly respect the above statement. I was a bit astounded that so many people asked LST for an endorsement list frankly.
Dude and Kevin– I was astounded too.
That’s why these aren’t Old Media style “endorsements”– we are making suggestions about how people might want to consider voting.
Folks were asking for an indication of what our thinking was on various races… as far as I’m concerned, they should take our leanings, throw them into a larger mix, and come to their own conclusions.
Rick Perry is, quite simply, a dishonest man. And I don’t vote for dishonest men or women. His ads about $2K tax cuts were the laugh of the town, and I wrote him back in January and informed his offcie that if action was not taken on illegal immigration before the election, I would campaign strongly against him and every other poltician that allows this travesty to continue. I got a letter back saying immigration is the fed’s problem, not ours, that there is nothing Texas can do and that the courts require us to offer them services. Now this fool is running ads talking about all the action he has taken on illegal immigration. He’s a liar — throw him out, plain and simple. if the Republicans want someone in the Texas Governor’s mansion they will have to find a candidate who talks the talk and walks the walk.
To your credit David, you did make that clear up front. Honestly though, it kind of scares me to hear people asking to be led to that extent. On one hand, it’s great to seek and consider the opinions of others to form your own conclusion. On the other, the term “sheeple” jumped to mind. That was my knee-jerk reaction, anyway.
Perry made inroads on some basic conservative positions - for goodness sakes, that’s what we hired (voted) for him to do. BUT, if I only do 25% or 50% or 75% of my job, my butt would get fired. We hired Rick Perry to do the whole job. He’s had six years to do it. He hasn’t gotten the job done. Rick, YOU’RE FIRED.
What a legacy……
“I made inroads on conservative positions.”
What a joke.
I have heard it many times “a vote for Kinky is a vote for Bell”. Isn’t pitiful that the best arguement my fellow conservatives can come up with to convince Kinky supporters to come back to Perry is a vote for Kinky could help Bell.
Personally I think Bell should come in last in a 5 way race. I cannot vote for Perry anymore because I have seen him in action and he has not represented my intrest.
I hope Kinky wins.
May I suggest that Perry votes reconsider and vote for Kinky.
After all you would not want Bell to win and a vote for Perry is a vote for Bell.
No doubt Kinky is not Politically correct and he does not act like a polititian. That is 2 more things I like about him.
#15
Kinky publically stated that he would sign a trigger law if passed by the legislature. Surprised me too. If elected and he failed to sign the bill he would then have broken his word and forfit my support.
#23 - I don’t think I believe Friedman on the trigger bill. We’ll see, I guess.
Not any more pitiful than it is that the most compelling reason to vote for Friedman is that Perry sucks. Or that fellow conservatives are voting for a liberal since Perry sucks.
# 26.
I am not supporting Kinky because Perry sucks, which he does. Perry lost my respect and my support and I went in search of a canidate that most closely represents my beliefs, values, and ideas. Kinky was that canidate.
#27 - You’ve said that before. I submit you’re settling for a liberal…
dcgirl,
Perry keep both taxes and spending low. If I recall correctly, he also signed tort reform capping med mal awards, signed a parental consent law on abortion, and signed a ban on partial birth abortions. He also has had a record number of vetoes — refusing to pass anything that comes down the pipeline.
I don’t think Perry is a great governor, as I said, but he is conservative and has done some good things as governor.
# 29 - kept spend low - yea right with a 20% increase in the budget!
That’s not Owen saying that. It’s some clone who’s been inhaling? Kept taxes and spending low? Certainly you can’t be serious. 9% increases statewide PER YEAR for property taxes?
A new increase in business taxes? A 15 billion surplus which they mostly spent? Owen, you need to move back here. You’ve spent too much time back in New Orleans already. You’re back to expecting governments to be totally irresponsible and for the citizens to accept it. Not me sir.
Oh, so now we can’t say that Perry did ANYTHING good without getting flamed? Geez, people, let’s have some semblance of rationality, at least!
I think one thing we can all agree on is that our current options are all poor. That’s the way I see it anyway and I still have no idea what I’m going to do before the 3rd.
I am considering blerting out sometime while I’m there, “All my options suck!”
I was wondering if I could get in trouble if I stuck a “FOR SALE” sign on a Perry sign?
glynne
You mean like this one?
Owen, we miss you and your sweet wife. We don’t hear from your mother-in-law enough, either here in Friendswood or on LST!
And on this note, let me say, the governor of Texas has little power. It is a PR position. The governor can do very little other than talk…