RIP Jack Kemp
By Mitch Berg
Former Bills’ quarterback, Congressman, Presidential contender and conservative heavyweight Jack Kemp has passed away.
Kemp had announced in January 2009 that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He said he was undergoing tests but gave no other detail.
Kemp, a former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, represented western New York for nine terms in Congress, leaving the House for an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988.
Kemp was 73.
Jack Kemp was one of the political figures who helped draw me to conservatism. Much more about Jack Kemp on Monday.
May 3rd, 2009 at 7:30 am
A swell man, and a fine American.
He’ll spend some time in Socialist Purgatory for setting top marginal tax rates at 50%!! WAY higher than even our current Redistributionist-in-Chief is proposing.
We salute you, anyway, Jack, even if you were a Buffalo Bill.
/jc
May 3rd, 2009 at 8:49 am
“or setting top marginal tax rates at 50%!! ”
Don’t you mean cutting the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 50% you flaming ass hole.
Mtich, –please consider deleting Slash’s comment and this one, as neither belong in this thread.
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:10 am
MoN is right – and Obama’s proposed cuts to the marginal income tax rate will be combined with massive hikes to energy, excise, estate, capital gains and other taxes, to say nothing of whatever horrors the Democrat congress has in store in terms of tariffs.
Jack Kemp would slap Slash silly for saying something like that. Rhetorically, of course.
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:24 am
Hey! Just a few minutes ago there was a really nice, longer piece on Kemp. Where’d it go?
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:31 am
Slash’s comment and this one, as neither belong in this thread.
No. It’s always instructive to show how quickly a liberal will piss on the grave of an opponent. As classless as it is sadly typical.
RIP, Mr.Kemp.
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:34 am
No. It’s always instructive to show how quickly a liberal will piss on the grave of an opponent.
Yep. Prayers go out to Mr. Kemp’s family.
May 3rd, 2009 at 10:12 am
His record on gun rights was very poor at best, but he was brilliant on economic issues for which we are all grateful.
May 3rd, 2009 at 10:15 am
A shame. Jack Kemp reminds Angryclown of a time, long ago, when some conservatives had ideas about how to run a country, instead of hewing to a John Birch Jesus freak party line. Wobbly on abortion, a politician who tried to make HUD work, rather than to run it into the ground, he’d be ineligible for national office in the current incarnation of the Republican party.
Downsides: He helped pioneer the Republican strategy of buying votes with tax cuts paid for with borrowing. He was the political model for Sarah Palin’s abandoning the top of her party’s presidential ticket when things started looking bad. And he was the hair model for Rod Blagojevich.
May 3rd, 2009 at 10:43 am
There were some very nice tributes to Kemp on the various Sunday morning news programming. Whatever one thought of his politics, pro or con, he was generally regarded by those who knew him as a very decent man.
I think it is more respectful to the man’s life to look at him in total, not just nit pick his politics, at a time like this. Greater dissection of his career is more appropriate to other occasions.
Given current life expectancy, 73 was not very old. It is a shame that he will not enjoy more of his retirement years with his family. Prayers, and thoughts for them.
May 3rd, 2009 at 10:49 am
He helped pioneer the Republican strategy of buying votes with tax cuts paid for with borrowing.
Does anyone else find this statement hysterically funny in light of Great Leader’s “stimulus plan”?
May 3rd, 2009 at 11:13 am
A simpleton, perhaps, Kermit. I imagine a simpleton would find the statement hysterically funny. Also, shiny things.
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Angry Clown proves what all conservatives know…..a C list looney tune liberal will only praise a Republican who:
A) Lost a big election
B) And will only do it years after said election
I recall the Kemp was the conservative candidate in 1988, against Bush 41 and right wing Buchanon.
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
A simpleton might recognize a simpleton statement, I suppose. It stands to reason.
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Simply a measure of how far to the right you loonies have dragged the party, Chuckwagon. Anybody a moderate might actually vote for gets excommunicated.
Palin ’12, eh kooks?
May 3rd, 2009 at 1:37 pm
I don’t know how widespread the readership is for Mitch’s blog, but it does appear to be more right than left oriented certainly.
Just a thought to keep in mind when commenting; maybe this is being read by family or friends. People who knew him personally and are grieving.
A small amount of sensitivity and restraint just this once would not be amiss.
May 3rd, 2009 at 1:37 pm
DG,
I wrote something for publication tomorrow. I inadvertently posted it, then put it back in the stack for Monday.
Thanks, and sorry!
May 3rd, 2009 at 1:39 pm
the Republican strategy of buying votes with tax cuts
I went into Target the other day and told the cashier I’d buy some new sheets, using money that was already in her cash register. She looked puzzled for a moment.
I said “Don’t be a teabagging wingnut! Be audaciously hopeful!”.
She nodded and rang up the sale.
May 3rd, 2009 at 2:15 pm
angryclown said:
“Jack Kemp reminds Angryclown of a time, long ago, blah-bity blah blah blah”
Yes, angryclown thinks very highly of any Republican who doesn’t have a chance to win an election, and (as Chuck said) for that very reason.
“Simply a measure of how far to the right you loonies have dragged the party”
Repetition makes things true, eh moonbat? 😉
May 3rd, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Dog Bone wrote: “I don’t know how widespread the readership is for Mitch’s blog, but it does appear to be more right than left oriented certainly.”
Ya think?
Trojan Man blathered: “Yes, angryclown thinks very highly of any Republican who doesn’t have a chance to win an election, and (as Chuck said) for that very reason.”
Then Angryclown must think very highly of quite a few Republicans these days. Cause not too many of them are winning elections. By that measure, you kooks are getting more and more lovable all the time.
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:13 pm
This might come as a shock to some people, but there are people who are open minded enough they make an effort to include a range of ideas.
Given the sometimes strident tone of comments here, it wouldn’t surprise me that anyone else who doesn’t share the opinions of the majority here would be reluctant to express their thoughts. I wouldn’t make any assumptions about readership demographics beyone the most general, AC.
You’re here. Why?
May 3rd, 2009 at 7:25 pm
To yank chains, Dog. That’s what sends a thrill down clownie’s leg.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:46 am
Cause I like Mitch, Dog Bone. Plus Angryclown is drawn to expose bad ideas like a shark to chum. And there are so many bad ideas among the Mitchketeers. I suggest you will find very few among them who are “open-minded enough that they make an effort to include a range of ideas.” Only a few commenters on the blog ever venture beyond thuggish far-right triumphalism. To express an idea that isn’t dogmatically conservative in these parts is to walk into a punch. Someone else can be the poor man’s Alan Colmes around here. Angry don’t play dat.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:47 am
And that isn’t Angryclown’s leg, Kerm.
Wocka wocka!
May 4th, 2009 at 6:04 am
Kermit Says:
May 3rd, 2009 at 7:25 pm
To yank chains, Dog. That’s what sends a thrill down clownie’s leg. ”
I don’t know what thrills AC, or your either Kermit for that matter. In fact I don’t think I want to think about that too closely. But I can assure you that AC doesn’t yank my chain. More like I share ACs interest in being willing to go against the majority where relatively few will.
AC nailed it when he said that some folks here express themselves in a thug like way. Others are able to be articulate, educated, refreshingly thoughtful. Some just seem crass but formulaic; they just seem desperate and scared, like they are pounding away on their computer keyboard by the light of a flashlight with the covers pulled over their heads. Especially seems that way with exaggerations and the big stretches too far.
May 4th, 2009 at 6:35 am
DG,
Oddly enough, AC is also someone I’ve known for quite some time. And once or twice a year, I post a disclaimer (for those who don’t figure it out on their own); Clown does love to yank chains. Clown is to chain yanking what Golden Retrievers are to fetching, or skunks are to spraying, or Robert Gibbs is to stumbling and waffling.
May 4th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Mitch does Angryclown an injustice, Dog Bone. Chain-yanking is little more than a tactic, or an occasional pastime for Angryclown. Angryclown believes there are bad people and bad ideas aplenty in this comment section. It’s Angryclown’s job to fight them – through mockery, rhetorical pie-throwing and a well-aimed stream of seltzer.
May 4th, 2009 at 10:38 am
*hands angryclown a tissue*
“Angryclown believes there are bad people and bad ideas aplenty in this comment section”
Like “the Republican party is moving to the right”? Yeah, some pretty bad ideas indeed.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Since Angryclown never weeps, he wonders what you expect him to do with the tissue.
Ewww…
May 4th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Mitch Berg Says:
May 4th, 2009 at 6:35 am
DG,
Oddly enough, AC is also someone I’ve known for quite some time. And once or twice a year, I post a disclaimer (for those who don’t figure it out on their own); Clown does love to yank chains. Clown is to chain yanking what Golden Retrievers are to fetching, or skunks are to spraying, or Robert Gibbs is to stumbling and waffling.
I have seen your disclaimer Mitch. AC has a very different style of expression than I do, but I have never felt that his chain yanking was aimed in my direction. Whatever other conflicts, he has has been quite pleasant with me, possibly because we both dare from time to time to offer a different point of view. But many of your other regular commenters have been very civil as well, which I appreciate.
There are a few though who are likely candidates to need treatment for copraphagia.
May 5th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
“It’s always instructive to show how quickly a liberal will piss on the grave of an opponent.”
Kermit, that sounds like one of them Mitch Berg Laws.
“Others are able to be articulate, educated, refreshingly thoughtful.”
Thanks for the compliment, Dog Gone.