Friedman, Bell, Perry, Coleman, Strayhorn, Friedman, Lerner, and Gaines

From a 1980 tape of Kinky Friedman that turned up this week on the Burnt Orange Report, a Democratic blog in Austin: "Then I come down to Houston, I went to a bowling alley. I couldn't go bowling, there were no bowling balls. The people here throw 'em all in the sea, thought they were nigger eggs... thought they were nigger eggs."

From Democrat Chris Bell, in reaction: "The latest revelations of Kinky’s racist comments are disgusting. He can call it 'satire', but it’s just not funny."

Republican Rick Perry: "You can shade them by calling them politically incorrect if you want, but it's not lost on men and women of color that people make remarks that are clearly racist."

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, reacting: "No excuse can hide the racial insensitivity he has exhibited over the past days, months, and years. His words are no more acceptable today than if they were said ten, twenty or fifty years ago."

Carole Keeton Strayhorn: "The language Kinky Friedman used in 1980 was totally unacceptable then, and is totally unacceptable now. Such language is divisive and hurtful and has no place in any part of our society, regardless of one's race."

From Friedman's campaign: "While Rick Perry was cheerleading in college and Chris Bell was being potty trained, Kinky Friedman was picketing segregated restaurants in Austin to integrate them. Now that Kinky’s in second place and a serious threat to the two-party system, Perry and Chris Bell have paid political assassins digging back 30 years through fictional books, comedy shows and song lyrics, desperately seeking to paint Kinky as a racist... The latest political assassination attempt takes completely out of context a controversial word that Kinky was using in a 1980 stand-up performance to lampoon racists. Kinky was on stage exposing bigotry through comedy and satire. It’s incredulous that the major-party candidates have sunk to this — trying to paint Kinky as a racist when he’s actually doing the opposite..."

Lois Lerner, the director for exempt organizations at the IRS, quoted in The New York Times about churches and politics: "We became concerned in the 2004 election cycle that we were seeing more political activity among charities, including churches. In fact, of the organizations we looked at, we saw a very high percentage of some improper political activity, and that is really why we have ramped up the program in 2006."

Jimmy Gaines, president of the Texas Landowners Council, talking to The Dallas Morning News after courts ordered an Ellis County man to keep quiet to avoid scaring deer being hunted on the property next door: "This case concerns me. Cows make noise, donkeys make noise — there are noises with agriculture such as plows and other equipment. This jury may be abusing this guy."