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Jack Kemp Was Life of the Party for Republicans: Albert R. Hunt
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Commentary by Albert R. Hunt

May 11 (Bloomberg) -- The Republican conservative movement, a dominant force in U.S. politics for decades, is
split into hope and hate factions. It just lost the captain of the hope brigade.
Jack French Kemp, who died on May 2 of cancer, was the most ebullient, joyful, optimistic American political
figure since Hubert Humphrey. He was the chief Republican architect of both supply-side economics and
the concept of an inclusive party that reaches out to minorities.
To Kemp, these ideas were consistent and connected. No one ever believed more in an entrepreneurial,
opportunity society.
In each generation there are a few politicians whose influence is so deep and durable that it rivals, and
perhaps exceeds, some of those who get to the White House. Senator Ted Kennedy is one such figure; Kemp
was another.
Some of the conservative success over the last three decades has derived from polarizing the electorate
through race-baiting, immigrant-bashing and patriotism-questioning.
Kemp abhorred those tactics. In one of the many tributes to him, David Shribman, the editor of the
Pittsburgh Post- Gazette and a political reporter who covered Kemp for years, wrote, “At a time when
conservatives were still defined by the word “no,” Kemp tried to say ‘yes.’”

Football, Tax Rates

My wife and I had dozens of dinners with the Kemps. There is no one more gracious than his wife, Joanne, and
there was no one more exuberant than Jack. Conversations were fun, provocative, stimulating, occasionally
exhausting. Jack would segue from football to marginal tax rates for the neighborhood dry cleaner to French
economist Jean-Baptiste Say to vouchers for the inner-city poor. If there was a pause, he would throw in the
gold standard.

I once remarked that he acted as if tax cuts could cure hemorrhoids. “Well...,” he replied with his huge
trademark smile.

To be sure, his main tenet -- that supply-side economics with pervasive tax cuts would generate revenue and
assure growth -- is dubious. He was cavalier about chronic deficits.

Yet his political and philosophical persona of can-do optimism -- “Jack sees sunshine when there’s a
hurricane,” Republican strategist John Sears once said -- was a vital contribution to the national dialogue.

He had intellectual integrity. To him, tax cuts, free trade and less regulation weren’t giveaways to the privileged
but a gateway for the disenfranchised.

King to Reagan
He was as comfortable citing Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela (and always Lincoln) as Ronald
Reagan and William F. Buckley.

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Racial equality was at the core of his character and beliefs, dating from his days as a professional football
quarterback. As secretary of Housing and Urban Development, his focus was the ghettoes and barrios of
America -- enterprise zones, vouchers, tenant ownership of public housing.

In private dinners, he would lecture rich Republicans on the dreams and aspirations of welfare mothers. When
he was selected as Bob Dole’s vice presidential running mate in 1996, most analysts saw it as a bridge to the
supply-side Republicans; Kemp saw it as Dole’s desire for “healing, of reconciliation of races and people.”
Immigration, he thought, defined America. When our adopted daughter from Korea was 6 months old, Jack
wrote her about what “a thrill it is to know how much you add to our nation.” Privately, he was saddened that
some of his conservative allies turned to anti-immigration for political gain.

Short Attention Span

He had his share of shortcomings. The Kemp attention span sometimes could be measured in milliseconds;
discipline wasn’t his forte.
A handful of political reporters had periodic off-the- record dinners with presidential candidates in the 1980s
and ‘90s. Seeing these figures in a more informal and candid forum, so the theory went, would be revealing.
Some of the politicians remained programmed. Not Jack. At a 1987 session, prior to his presidential run, he
was so frank off the record that his campaign chief, Ed Rollins, insisted he didn’t mean what he had just said.
He said he did. We went away convinced this was a flawed candidate and a fabulous man.

The lack of discipline was evident in 1996 when, as Dole’s running mate, he debated Vice President Al Gore.
He was clobbered.

Several months later, at a cocktail party in Vail, Colorado, Kemp was putting his arm around the vice president,
laughing and joking about a rematch. Rancor and bitterness weren’t in the Kemp lexicon.

Too Young

At 73, he was too young to die, yet he achieved his aspirations. As a 6-year-old, he dreamed of being a
professional football quarterback.

When he reached stardom in football, he met Reagan and dreamed of a life in politics. When he was elected
congressman from Buffalo, New York, where he’d played football for the Bills, he dreamed of performing on a
national stage. Always unnecessarily defensive about being a physical education major from Occidental
College, he read scholarly economics books and educated himself.

His greatest achieved dream was an exceptional family, all with the initials JK. He never missed one of his
sons’ football games; Jeff, who starred at Dartmouth College, and Jimmy, who starred at Wake Forest
University, both followed in their Dad’s footsteps as professional football quarterbacks.

No Regrets

Once he was asked if he had any regrets about his 1988 presidential run, where he had to bow out after
finishing a distant third in the New Hampshire primary.

He was incredulous. Regrets that he had scores of captive audiences to talk to about tax cuts and racial
equality, and even the gold standard? More important, he said, was that he had campaigned and had special
bonding time with his daughters, Judith and Jennifer.
He wished for a private funeral that didn’t exclude anyone. So on Friday, those four special children offered
moving and buoyant memories of this special man. Some 2,000 people of every color, creed and political
philosophy packed the Washington National Cathedral.

(Albert R. Hunt is the executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his
own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Albert R. Hunt in Washingtont .

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