Patterico's Pontifications

5/2/2009

RIP Jack Kemp

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:47 pm



He was 73.

43 Responses to “RIP Jack Kemp”

  1. I’m not alone is wishing this man had been Reagan’s vice president. Reagan was a truly great president, and beating Dukakis was automatic for the GOP. That the heir was HW Bush is exactly why the GOP lost its way and leaned towards the country club republicans and away from responsibility and vision.

    The single misstep of choosing Buch over Kemp may have brought in a few extra votes that Reagan hardly needed, but it is the fundamental shift at the top of the party that took a GOP that meant something and made it a party of TARP and Gang of 14.

    Obama was running against a joke of a party, and that’s why our nation is headed in the wrong direction. Kemp wasn’t always perfect on policy, but he understood the basic fundamentals and was stalwart and honest.

    Juan (4cdfb7) — 5/3/2009 @ 1:27 am

  2. Juan said:

    beating Dukakis was automatic for the GOP.

    Except that it wasn’t. Mike Dukakis was ahead of George Bush in the polls for a good part of the campaign.

    The historian Dana (474dfc) — 5/3/2009 @ 5:11 am

  3. He was truly a good man. RIP Mr. Kemp.

    Old Coot (83b78f) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:22 am

  4. The bleeding-heart bleeds no more. Why do good men die and wicked men live longer?

    The Emperor7 (1b037c) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:47 am

  5. Jack Kemp RIP
    2. Do you recall what effect the willie horton question and the goofy tank photo had on polls?
    I think Lurch was an even bigger bozo and the nasa photo of him in pink comdom outfit didn’t help. Still awaiting release of his service records as I expect we will be waiting in vain for affirmative action Duh’1’s school records.
    And war hero Dole vs. draft-dodger Clinton was hopeless. Thank you mr. Perot. But I suppose Nader and Buchanan in Fla. helped Bush edge out algore.

    aoibhneas (0c6cfc) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:54 am

  6. Someone I’d long admired, who could have united both the economic and social conservative wings of the GOP had he been nominated for president.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:59 am

  7. Agreed, Kemp was one of the truly “big tent” Republicans who could go into the blighted inner cities and talk credibly about real opportunity through his enterprise zone concept, and not just government handouts. He disliked the Country Club set intensely, and their condescension towards him was always palpable.

    Dmac (1ddf7e) — 5/3/2009 @ 8:23 am

  8. Condolences to the Kemp family. Our country has lost a very good man and our side an effective spokesman.

    Stu707 (f33785) — 5/3/2009 @ 9:12 am

  9. Jack Kemp was a conservative who could appeal to liberals; he truly seemed interested in using conservative methods to achieve the goal of lifting up the poor and downtrodden members of society.

    I did not vote for him in 1996, because I could not bring myself to vote for Bob Dole; but I respected him, and am sorry to se ehim gone.

    aphrael (9e8ccd) — 5/3/2009 @ 10:09 am

  10. An affable fellow, referenced on Fox as ‘one of the fathers of Reaganomics’ who was clearly on the wrong side of history. His best idea- enterprise zones.

    But he was a helluva quarterback. Rest in peace, Jack Kemp. The NFL will miss you.

    DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 5/3/2009 @ 11:50 am

  11. Wrong side of history my ass …

    JD (c15e00) — 5/3/2009 @ 12:02 pm

  12. […] Kemp who was diagnosed with cancer back in January, unfortunately has died at age of 73. Jack Kemp, was a former congressman, vice presidential candidate in 1996, past Housing and Urban Development Secretary under Bush 1, […]

    RIP Jack Kemp | Fire Andrea Mitchell! (20d20a) — 5/3/2009 @ 1:02 pm

  13. #11- Yes, it certainly is. You still have time to change.

    DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 5/3/2009 @ 1:09 pm

  14. His best idea- enterprise zones.

    I already said that, numbnuts.

    Dmac (1ddf7e) — 5/3/2009 @ 2:21 pm

  15. Jack Kemp was a conservative who could appeal to liberals;

    You can say that again, in that Kemp believed subsidized housing projects — supported via the government, supported via tax dollars — should be open to everyone, regardless of whether they were a citizen or not. IOW, regardless of whether they were an illegal alien (aka “undocumented”) or not.

    His stance on that one matter struck me as being so devoid of basic common sense, that my confidence in his judgment plummeted from that moment onward.

    Mark (411533) — 5/3/2009 @ 2:24 pm

  16. #10, DCSCA wrote: “An affable fellow, referenced on Fox as ‘one of the fathers of Reaganomics’ who was clearly on the wrong side of history.”

    Ok, so history has officially ended, according to DC. Was it inevitable the way Marx said it was, or did you guys just do a really swell, bang-up job?

    Kemp was a good guy, but he was a one-trick pony. He was comfortable with fiscal themes (including anti-Communism), but shied away from issues related to the moral principles upon which our law is based. That made him less than useful as a soldier in the culture wars, which is why his star faded after the mid-’80s and why he didn’t add much to the basic unattractiveness of the Dole campaign for President. The ’90s, like today, were all about the moral struggle against domestic barbarians and their ongoing program of destruction against the constitutional order bequeathed by our Founding Fathers (what little remains of it).

    A sharp Marine salute to a fellow American who fought the good fight.

    danebramage (700c93) — 5/3/2009 @ 2:58 pm

  17. Mark, I think you have to remember the context within which Kemp was operating. During the ’80s, Democrats had a lock on Congress and the hard left was still in aggressive mode. Moreover, inner city minorities were a single-minded Dem voting bloc to an even greater extent than today. Kemp could get nowhere with such people advocating purist economic programs. The idea was to gradually wean people off of their dependence on, and enslavement to, government, rather than to rudely yank them out of the hot water and throw them into the cold.

    That’s no excuse if he was still advocating enterprise zones into the mid ’90s and beyond, but I wouldn’t know as I stopped paying much attention to Republicans around that time.

    danebramage (700c93) — 5/3/2009 @ 3:08 pm

  18. Correction: If I remember right, the Repubs won the Senate in 1984, so the Dems didn’t have a total lock on Congress. But still, the habits of preceding decades had made nanny-state liberalism the default, “go-to” governing mode for much of the population. Conservatism was viewed by political non-believers as a kind of experiment to see if something could replace that, so Kemp was dealing with a suspicious audience at best and a hostile one at worst.

    danebramage (700c93) — 5/3/2009 @ 3:16 pm

  19. Kemp gets a lot of the credit for supply-side economics as he authored the Kemp-Roth tax cuts that began the revolution. Unfortunately, he was considered a lazy VP candidate in 1996, maybe because he thought it was hopeless. A Kemp-Powell ticket in 1996 would have been really exciting but Republicans have this thing about passing out nominations like attendance medals in grammar school.

    Mike K (2cf494) — 5/3/2009 @ 4:18 pm

  20. Repubs won the Senate in 1980, but the House remained Democratic during all of Reagan’s tenure. And the Dems retook the Senate in 1986.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 5/3/2009 @ 5:36 pm

  21. Kemp gets a lot of the credit for supply-side economics as he authored the Kemp-Roth tax cuts that began the revolution. Credit. And there in the flaw in the failure of the now thoroughly discredited practice of supply side economics which soured Americans on Reaganomics for good. Kemp and Reagan are gone but their damaging debt lives on with us.

    DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 5/3/2009 @ 6:55 pm

  22. Kemp and Reagan are gone but their damaging debt lives on with us.

    So says the minion of Barack “$1.8 trillion defici in my first year” Obama.”

    I know DCSCA is famous for its shameless lies, but this is more shameless than most.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:00 pm

  23. That is utter BS. Reagan’s tax cuts almost doubled tax revenues in three years, from around $550 billion to around $900 Billion if I recall. The deficits came from the Democratic congress spending an extra $1.50 for each $1.00 of new tax money. Government spending had been growing about 10% a year before that. Had it continued to do so the budget would have been balanced by the end of Reagan’s second term, but the politicians went on a spending spree and spent all the new money and more.

    Machinist (c5fc28) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:06 pm

  24. Cal Thomas wrote a nice tribute to Kemp.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:07 pm

  25. That made him less than useful as a soldier in the culture wars

    See, that’s one of the reasons I found him to be a congenial figure. 🙂

    The culture wars were not a good thing for the republic, nor for the Republican party.

    aphrael (12fba5) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:13 pm

  26. Personally, I lost the culture wars when I starting thinking that John Waters movies were cute. “Lust In The Dust” was the coup de grace, I think. 😉

    nk (edb3d7) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:24 pm

  27. Dana, at the end of the day, I think dukakis was such a fundamentally weak candidate that Kemp or Bush would have easily won. It took a while for the people to consider the guy, but that election was all about rejecting Dukakis.

    Juan (4cdfb7) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:24 pm

  28. #23- And Reagan signed the bills.

    DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:47 pm

  29. The CIA does not approve of that last message.

    Dmac (1ddf7e) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:54 pm

  30. What DuckCrap doesn’t know about the GOP could fill a blimp hanger; unless his head was in there, then there wouldn’t be any room left over.

    AD - RtR/OS! (37764e) — 5/3/2009 @ 7:56 pm

  31. Patterico – I think you should have added some punctuation in the title of the post (e.g., R.I.P.) so that morons like ASPCA didn’t read it as an invitation to rip the now deceased Jack Kemp.

    Civility!

    daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 5/3/2009 @ 8:02 pm

  32. nk – I don’t think that Pink Flamingos could ever be topped, but Cry-Baby had some moments. Believe it or not, John Waters had nothing to do with Lust in the Dust. He was asked to direct it but declined. I think it might be the first, if not the only, movie that Devine appeared in without mr. Waters.

    Sorry – we right-wing anti-gay Christian fascists have to stand for accuracy when it comes to John Waters films! 😉

    carlitos (eeffbc) — 5/3/2009 @ 8:26 pm

  33. DCSCA doesn’t need an invitation to slime the deceased; witness its vile Tony Snow hate obituary.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 5/3/2009 @ 8:29 pm

  34. But Bradley, this surprises you in what fashion?

    The character has been as obnoxious as possible the past few days. I don’t expect it to change.

    It’s just sad to see someone bring negative value to a fine blog. But it’s not my blog. And if it is okay with everyone, great.

    But the fellow is not a good person, period. Name calling and supposed humor doesn’t alter that fact.

    Eric Blair (33cc23) — 5/3/2009 @ 9:10 pm

  35. Oh Eric, I’m not surprised at all. DCSCA must truly be an unhappy wretch to spew so much bile against the deceased, even if they happened to be evil Republicans.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 5/3/2009 @ 9:24 pm

  36. I doubt he believes in much of anything, Bradley, other than anger and resentment.

    I just wish he would do it elsewhere. But that is me. Other people may indeed enjoy all he brings to discussion here.

    Eric Blair (33cc23) — 5/3/2009 @ 9:31 pm

  37. “Sorry – we right-wing anti-gay Christian fascists have to stand for accuracy when it comes to John Waters films!”

    carlitos – I always think Waters was involved with the movie Diner because of the Baltimore connection, but he was not.

    I’ll bet we can talk JD into the hide the you know what in the popcorn container in the movies trick from that flick.

    daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 5/3/2009 @ 9:38 pm

  38. Sorry for the OT, but a tech/politico heads-up for Linux users: The chief developer of Linux Mint says he’s pro-Palestinian and doesn’t want any help from those who support the actions of Israel’s government.

    So I’m going to stop using Linux Mint, and suggest that supporters of Israel consider doing likewise.

    Click on my name below for my blog post.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 5/3/2009 @ 9:42 pm

  39. Daley – I have not seen that movie, but any trick with popcorn could never compare to those evil peeps.

    Isn’t it interesting how asscrap always shows its true colors in posts that mark the passing of someone? A complete and utter lack of class.

    JD (547c14) — 5/3/2009 @ 10:14 pm

  40. JD – Better half will love the popcorn bit. Trust me.

    daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 5/3/2009 @ 10:22 pm

  41. Mickey Rourke and the popcorn scene from Diner for important journalistic purpose:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARvdUBkNoDU

    daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 5/3/2009 @ 10:33 pm

  42. #35 “… evil Republicans.” A double negative. Once the Party of No, always the Party of No.

    DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 5/4/2009 @ 3:01 am

  43. No school choice
    No protection for the unborn
    No consistent protection against terrorists
    No fiscal responsibility
    No colorblindness regarding race
    No respect for the dead
    No courtesy
    No lack of stereotyping re: whole political parties or political views
    No class

    Once the Poster of No, always the Poster of No

    no one you know (65b7aa) — 5/4/2009 @ 5:01 am


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