from The Santa Fe New Mexican on santafenewmexican.com

Kinky Friedman says a certain type of person is attracted to politics.

"Bad people are drawn to politics. Good people stay away," he said in a recent telephone interview. "I can't think of a single living politician who I respect or admire. I've advocated that we limit every elected official to two terms. One term in office and one term in prison."

Of course Friedman — who is coming to Santa Fe next week to sign books and push his new line of Honduran-made cigars at the grand opening of Monte's of Santa Fe, a new cigar shop — himself was drawn to politics.

He primarily was known as a singer of funny and aggressively politically incorrect country songs with a band called The Texas Jewboys, then later as a mystery writer whose main character was a wise-cracking amateur detective known as "Kinky Friedman."

In the mid-1980s, he campaigned for justice of the peace in Kerrville, Texas, as a Republican, but lost the election. A decade later, he gave establishment politicians a real scare when he ran as an independent for governor of Texas. He ended up in last place out of four candidates, but in an era in which celebrity candidates like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse "The Body" Ventura were winning governorships, Friedman's bid received much national attention.

"It's like I told people when I was running, 'Do you want a governor who can tell a joke or a governor who is a joke?' " he said — soon after telling a hilariously filthy joke he credited to his friend Willie Nelson.

Friedman made another stab at electoral politics this year, running for Texas agriculture commissioner — this time as a Democrat. But he lost in the primary.

"No, I think I'm pretty much done with politics," he said. "It feels really good to speak your mind and tell the truth. It's a giant step down from musician to politician."

Friedman said he voted for Barack Obama in 2008 — but with misgivings that he said have since been proven correct. "I see the same symptoms in Obama that I do in (Texas Gov.) Rick Perry. They think first of themselves, secondly about their party and maybe thirdly or fourthly about the people. ... Obama's reaction (to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico) showed how weak he is, how small a spirit he has. He doesn't really want to be president of all the people. He'll never be a man of the people. He doesn't want to be one."

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