Why the Hell Not? Kinky Endorses Perry for Prez

Kinky Friedman, the musician and mystery writer who won 12 percent of the vote running as an independent in the infamous four-way race for governor in 2006, is backing one of his opponents to be president of the United States. No, it's not Carole Keeton Strayhorn.

In a one-liner-filled column posted on The Daily Beast on Wednesday night, Friedman endorsed Rick Perry, citing the Republican's ability to fix the economy, his stance on Israel and his contention that there are "too damn many laws, taxes, regulations, panels, committees, and bureaucrats. "

"A still, small voice within keeps telling me that Rick Perry’s best day may yet be ahead of him, and so too, hopefully, will be America’s," writes Friedman, who also ran for governor — briefly — and then for agriculture commissioner in 2010, in both cases as a Democrat.

Of course, when he was trying to oust Perry, Friedman was singing a different tune. "This governor is more interested in ironing his shirt than ironing out the problems Texas has," he told the Houston Chronicle in 2005.

Four years later, after announcing his second try for governor, he discounted the credit Perry deserves for the state's solid economy. "Sure, Texas is doing well," he told the Houston Press. "We've got this booster seat of oil reserves. We're a very rich state. If my dog Mr. Magoo had been running the state for the past ten years, we'd still be in the black. It doesn't take a genius to keep Texas in the black."

A year after that, just a few months before the general election contest between Perry and Democrat Bill White, Friedman wrote in Texas Monthly, "I’d file Rick in the Strong Candidate-Weak Leader Department, a breed we see so much of these days. He’ll invariably greet you with a firm stare and a firm grip, especially if you own a firm. He has the God-given, uncanny ability to be the wrong man in the right place at the right time."

What brought him over to the other side? We'll update this post with Friedman's explanation in the morning, but a possible answer is that he dislikes the incumbent president even more than he ever did Perry. "These days," he writes, "I would support Charlie Sheen over Obama."