Kinky Won't Apologize To Grandma

Last week, Kinky's campaign manager, Dean Barkley, asked the Travis County District Attorney to investigate Grandma for using state employees on state time to work on her campaign. When Kinky found out what Barkley had done, he disavowed any knowledge of the action. As punishment, Kinky barred Barkley from his favorite bar for two weeks - the Star Bar in Austin.

That wasn't good enough for Grandma. Her people are now asking for an apology from Kinky. Grandma's campaign spokesman, Mark Sanders, said, "Mr. Friedman needs to apologize for his campaign manager's action, and he needs to get control of his staff and have them withdraw the complaint he does not think is valid."

It doesn't look like Grandma is going to get that apology though, or the withdrawal of the charge. Kinky said his manager believes the law was violated, and he won't ask him to withdraw it. Kinky said, "I'm not totally convinced the charges aren't true, by the way. I'm just saying I did not want to be the one that's picking at the other candidates. I don't want this picking on each other, back-biting stuff to go on. It's not the cowboy way. I don't want to be the one piling on, because that is not the cowboy way. Dean's from Minnesota; he doesn't know the cowboy way."

These are serious charges, and I'm glad Kinky won't ask Barkley to withdraw the request for an investigation. Even if it has to wait until after the election, the investigation should be conducted. Just because Grandma has state employees working for her, doesn't mean she gets to misuse or abuse them. If they want to work for her campaign, they should do so on their time off. While at work, they are being paid by the people of Texas, and should be doing the business of the people of Texas - not a campaign for their boss.