Carole Strayhorn has been acting way stranger than Kinky over the past three years, and the Democrats may be off the wall enough to try and tap Dan Rather (or heck, Bill Burkett) to be their nominee next year, so I don't know if Friedman can even count on winning the weirdo vote in 2006.

Our black-robed masters in Washington would prefer to re-abolish capital punishment, full stop. They are pursuing an incremental strategy toward that end, inventing new "constitutionally mandated safeguards" at the rate of three or four a year. Death penalty advocates (like pornography advocates, abortion advocates, et al.) then claim the constitutional high ground and most states just go along, because how can you fight it?

The Texas state courts and the Fifth Circuit account for a high proportion of death-penalty reversals because they routinely read the Supreme Court's divinations from the constitutional chicken entrails as narrowly as possible. They do so because forcing Texas to comply with what John Paul Stevens thinks is "best practice" would turn Texas into California, i.e., 11 executions in 30 years. Which would be distinctly contrary to the repeatedly and loudly expressed will of the Texas legislature and voters, and might in fact provoke lynchings of judges.

But of course, Huntsville is just the New Auschwitz for poor black folk, and lots of other countries have abolished the death penalty, so who cares what those snaggle-toothed inbred racists down in Texas think? Wussify away!

I saw Kinky's band at the Doral hotel in Florida sometime back in the 70s. His guitar player was playing an excellent electric guitar made from a toilet seat. It was really cool...

Who can they mention Kinky wihout mentioning some of his other great songs from the '70s— "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Any More", "Ol' Ben Lucas", "The Ballad of Charles Whitman", and "Homo Erectus". The latter probably the only song ever written using the term "australopithecine" in a proper context, of sorts.

Kinky's problem is that he's spent way too much time in Manhattan (the island, not the one in Montana).

And don't forget the immortal "A****** From El Paso"; but after hearing that song, I don't think Kinky will get many votes in West Texas.

I once saw Kinky live in the Lone Star Cafe on Lower Manhattan; we decided he looked a little too much like Billy Martin.

I don't think I would ever vote for him, but I sure love his music.

First they planned to run Jerry Springer for governor of Ohio . . . and now this. "Kinky for Governor!"

Next up... Mary Carey moves to TX

I think Jerry Springer is still looking at a run in 2006.

Al Franken used to be considering a run against Norm Coleman in 2008, but I think the polls all showed him in the low single digits, so there hasn't been much talk about that for a while...