Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

Let’s talk politics. Texas politics. Texas Gubernatorial Politics.

I know. Most of you don’t care. You aren’t Texan. But it might interest you, regardless.

The run for Governor culminates next year, and Rick Perry may have some competition just to get the Republican nomination. Kay Bailey Hutchinson is considering leaving the Senate to stay in Texas full time.

But another candidate has already made his availability known. And he won’t be entered in the primary. Richard “Kinky” Friedman wants to be Governor.

I want to see him do it. I’d be pleased just to see him actually make it on the ballot. For that to happen, we need 50,000 signatures from registered voters who do not vote in either the Democratic or Republican primaries. And only a short time to make it happen.

I’ve signed up as a volunteer for the Kinky Campaign. I especially don’t like the way the two major parties have come together in one simple thing–making it difficult for anyone else to place a candidate on the ballot. This is the primary issue that drives me on Kinky’s candidacy. That arrogance.

But there are other reasons as well.

Our icons are being demeaned. Cowboys are no longer heroes for our children, but subject to derision. We are being laughed at instead of respected in the rest of the country. What has happened to our glorious heritage? This is the great state of Texas! We are not wusses, we are Texans. We will beat back the wussification of Texas if we have to do it one wuss at a time.

He also stands for better control of education spending. That doesn’t mean he wants less spending, but he wants to see education dollars used effectively. He says teachers are heroes, and that the teaching profession has been demeaned; Teaching is looked upon as just another job. He wants to lift expectations–spiritually. I don’t agree with all he has to say on the topic, but I think he is the kind of man who would listen to different ideas without regard to who might not like seeing him listen to others. And spirituality is key, as he told Bill O’Reilly.

O’REILLY: So you want to run on — are you conservative? Are you liberal? What are you?

FRIEDMAN: No, I wouldn’t say I was either one of those. I think that’s the problem. The Democrats got a good idea, the Republicans shoot it down. The Republicans have an idea, the Democrats kill it. I mean, I’m not for the parties. I’m for Texas.

O’REILLY: You’re for Texas.

FRIEDMAN: Yes.

O’REILLY: But I don’t know what that means. See, now you’re sloganeering, and you don’t like that.

FRIEDMAN: Well, it means the campaign is not a political one, it’s a spiritual one.

O’REILLY: Spiritual.

FRIEDMAN: Yes.

O’REILLY: Wow! The ACLU are not going to support that.

FRIEDMAN: No, they’re probably not.

I have invited bloggers from around the state to come visit us here in Corpus Christi in May. I have also invited Kinky. No word yet on whether he will make it, but I hope to have him here to discuss being a Texan, and what that really means. Sometimes we forget.

This isn’t about political parties, although groups have always appalled me. It is about opening up the political system for regular folks. Most people are uninterested, and that’s why we end up with career politicians who serve themselves and their friends first, and their true constituents only as an afterthought. Sloganeering is the currency of most campaigns, and election is the end, not the means. That must change. I think Kinky can do it.

Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.