Kinky Friedman makes another pitch for his gubernatorial candidacy on the Sunday Chron op-ed pages. I'm a bit reluctant to say this, but having followed the Kinkster's as-yet-unofficial candidacy from the beginning, he's either going to have to keep coming up with fresh material, or he's going to have to start taking it seriously. I'm at the point where I can recite most of his standard campaign quips, and for a candidate whose raison d'etre is based on one-liners, the last thing he needs is to sound like an old rerun of himself.

I know, every politician that ever was has a stump speech, and anyone who follows that politician at all closely hears that same speech a jillion times. It's just that most politicians can't get the bulk of their stump speech quoted by reporters or printed on the Sunday op-ed pages, so it's way more noticeable here. Kinky did have a little bit of policy in his piece - his "I'm not anti-death penalty, I'm anti-executing the wrong guy" bit is brilliant and something I'd like to hear a lot more of - and for that I'm grateful. But the bottom line for me is this: If Kinky Friedman is going to be on the ballot, I want him to either play to win, or simply serve as comic relief. I do not want him to be somewhere in the middle, serving as a place for anti-Rick Perry voters to let off steam while hurting the chances of a serious Democrat. I'm a big Kinky Friedman fan now, but I'll be much less of one if he turns out to be our local copy of Ralph Nader in 2006.