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| "Jack F. Kemp... at a 2008 House hearing on the mortgage crisis." |
More sincere political advice from the New York Times:
Note to Republicans: Channel Jack Kemp
By SAM TANENHAUS APRIL 5, 2014
WHEN Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, delivered a speech last month outlining proposals for economic growth, his sponsor was the Jack F. Kemp Foundation, a Beltway organization set up in memory of the Republican politician who died in 2009 and has recently been cited as a hero by some of the party’s most prominent figures.
Senator Rubio is one outspoken admirer. Another is Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, who worked at Mr. Kemp’s think tank, Empower America, in the 1990s, and has said that Mr. Kemp was one of his principal mentors.
Perhaps the most surprising Kemp acolyte, given his anti-establishment persona, is Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky. Mr. Paul has updated Kemp’s most famous idea, “urban enterprise zones,” which were intended to entice businesses into struggling inner cities. ...
It might seem a curious moment for a Jack Kemp revival. Many remember him as an evangelist for supply-side economics and its drastic tax cutting — exactly the approach some Republicans say needs to be replaced with a fresh agenda that grapples with joblessness and stagnant wages.
But there was another side to Kemp, a self-described “bleeding-heart conservative” who preached the gospel of upward mobility, economic opportunity, cultural diversity and racial justice. This Kemp personified the big-tent Republicanism that has gone into hibernation in the Obama years and that some Republicans think is crucial to the party’s success in the 2016 presidential election, when voters will want to hear a more positive message.
It is one thing, of course, to emphasize reaching beyond the Republican base, and quite another to connect with other voters, which Kemp was successful in doing.
When Bob Dole put Jack Kemp on his ticket in 1996, Dole-Kemp won 12% of the black vote. Granted, they lost the election badly, but they still broke double-digits in the black vote. And that's what really counts, isn't it? (What? White people are still enfranchised? Why wasn't I informed?)
During the subprime mortgage crisis, for example, he called for a loosening of bankruptcy laws to protect “the estimated 2.2 million families in danger of losing their homes” and then teamed up with Henry G. Cisneros, the housing secretary under Bill Clinton, to urge congressional action against “predatory and discriminatory lending practices which have had a direct and significant impact on African-American and Latino homeowners and neighborhoods.”
Henry G. Cisneros? You mean, Angelo Mozilo's pal Henry G. Cisneros?
Jack Kemp fought tooth and nail to defeat Prop 187 and secure welfare for illegal aliens.
ReplyDelete"the gospel of upward mobility, economic opportunity, cultural diversity and racial justice"
They used to call these people "Rockefeller Republicans".
Breaking double-digits is pretty good against America's first Black President before Obama.
ReplyDeleteAre they really so hard up for ideas that their trotting out the ghost of a long-dead has-been like Kemp? I guess the Bush cronies are far too tainted.
ReplyDeleteSteve, any thoughts on the passing of The Ultimate Warrior?
ReplyDeleteI remember back in '96 ,referring to the ill fated Dole/Kemp ticket, The Weekly Standard called Kemp "the Apostle to the Unconvertible. "
ReplyDeleteMichael Lewis on Jack Kemp:
ReplyDeleteKemp is the classic B student, but with a twist: he’s also the star quarterback. After the grades are passed out he can visit the headmaster to argue his case. If he is charming enough, and a good enough quarterback, he’ll probably persuade the headmaster to fire the teacher.
Afterwards I went back and dug out O.J. Simpson’s memoir of his first year with the Buffalo Bills, which was also Kemp’s last. The beef about Kemp as a quarterback was his inability to adapt to new situations; the problem came to a head with the Bills. As O.J. wrote:
When you have veterans on the line and a rookie in the backfield all saying that we should run and the quarterback still keeps throwing passes, it doesn’t exactly qualify him as a strong leader. Jack was a heck of a nice guy and a pleasure to talk to—but I was beginning to wonder whether he really heard what you said to him. Telling him I had been open on pass patterns had been like talking to a door…. Even Dan Durragh, the rookie quarterback who had been in street clothes on the sidelines, had commented on how Jack often had his mind made up before he went back to pass.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/the-quarterback
One of the all time great pro football coaching decisions: use OJ as a decoy so you can rely on Jack Kemp.
ReplyDeleteSurprised you didn't mention Jack was an "Open borders" type who called Pete Wilson (Yes, Pete Wilson) a "racist" along with anyone else who supported Prop 187.
ReplyDeleteOh, and he was fanatically Pro-Israel and in favor of free trade. And agreed with Al Gore in the '96 VP debate the Republican Party was full of racists.
Yea not like Jack Kemp was a league MVP or anything. Nor did OJ struggle mightily in his first few uears in the league. Steve's knowledge of football is about as strong as his ability to identify which celebrities look alike.
ReplyDeleteIm guessing steve went what movies did jack kemp start in advantage OJ. Because like any good conservative what Steve knows best is Hollywood movies.
OJ's rookie season was Kemp's last in football. The 34 year old Kemp, coming off a season apparently lost in to injury completed 170 of 344 passes (49.4%) for 5.8 yards per attempt and 13 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. The Bills went 4-7 in Kemp's starts.
ReplyDeleteKemp's next to last season, two years before, he was 3-8 as a starter, throwing 14 TDs and 26 INTs. He'd been successful in an expansion league before those two last seasons, but his numbers were usually pretty dire
He was the fun kind of gunslinger throw-it-deep-and-see-what-happens kind of quarterback that used to be common (e.g., Namath was one of the last. Kurt Warner was kind of a glorious throwback for a few years). In 1964 in the AFL, Kemp averaged 19.2 yards per completion, which is just wild by today's standards.
For his career, Kemp had 114 TDs and 183 INTs, a 46.7% completion percentage, a not bad 6.9 yards per attempt, and a poor 57.3 overall rating. He could run a little. He'd been a good football player in a weak league, but as the quality of the game improved, he didn't improve the way that, say, Unitas stayed on top.
Here's Wikipedia's defense of the Bill's coach John Rauch:
ReplyDelete"Rauch then caused controversy by expecting Simpson to become more than the one-dimensional running back he was at the University of Southern California. He expected Simpson to become an all-around running back, necessary in Professional Football, by also blocking and receiving passes out of the backfield, as Rauch had coached successfully at Oakland. Simpson refused to do these added things and friction began. The media, unaware that Simpson often refused to take extra passing drills, viewing them as 'punishment', began a campaign that Rauch was using Simpson as a decoy, which did not explain the indecisiveness in Simpson's style."
"As O.J. wrote..."
ReplyDeleteHah, that's a good one, "O.J. Wrote."
Simpson is and was a dumbshit, and he had a ghostwriter for "his" book. He had to go to City College of San Francisco for 2 years because he could not get into USC as a freshman during the era when 'SC let in just about any athlete who had a pulse; his academics were that weak.
And I'm pointing this out as a Trojan alumnus.
Look at that incredibly unnatural hand intertwinement he's got going there. What is that, some kind of secret sign that he's a friend of the black man?
ReplyDeleteLet's blame his stupidity on all the hits to the head he took in football.
ReplyDelete"Apostle to the convertible." That must have been David Tell writing. I really miss that guy.
ReplyDeleteSimpson refused to do these added things and friction began.
ReplyDeleteI tell ya that boy is trouble!
Kemp, the Jude Wanniski protege, was the political predecessor to W.
ReplyDeleteWanniski used to write hilariously earnest write ups on how, any day now!, the GOP would make inroads into the black community via his bridge building with crackpot idiot louis Farrakhan. Seriously
Turns out it was Tucker Carlson.
ReplyDeleteJack Kemp himself ran for President in 1988.
ReplyDeleteIn primaries and caucuses that he actually tried to do well in, he won an average of 5% of the vote.
Wow, a big 5%.
That's the big giant constituency that Paul Ryan, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio are going to be chasing in 2016.
Jack Kemp never won an election himself in anything more than his own probably almost all white Congressional district.
Also, re 1996: First, I doubt that 12% figure. Second, if Jack Kemp being at the bottom of the ticket swung even one black vote from Clinton to Dole, I'll eat my expensive dress shoes.
One more thing: One of the most stupid political quotes of all time came from Kemp's mouth, when he said that he cares about black people because he used to shower with them after football games.
Kemp and the WSJ editors were similarly clueless about the reality of entrepreneurship. They thought that a tweak in tax policy would lead to more hair braiding salons in black neighborhoods, then a wave of black Republicans as prosperity spread. It doesn't work that way in the real world.
ReplyDeleteA successful hair braiding salon isn't an engine of economic growth, it's an epiphenomenon of it. A better approach would be to target balanced trade, which would bring back some manufacturing jobs. A $20 per hour factory worker can support more local small businesses with his discretionary spending than a $10 per hour big box retail worker.
One of the all time great pro football coaching decisions: use OJ as a decoy so you can rely on Jack Kemp.
ReplyDeleteLOL!!
"Mr. Paul has updated Kemp’s most famous idea, “urban enterprise zones,” which were intended to entice businesses into struggling inner cities. ..."
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, "urban enterprise zones" - Jack Kemp's bold plan to revitalize crumbling black neighborhoods by making them hospitable to pakistani owned liquor stores and check-cashing establishments.
How many blacks have Paul Ryan or Marco Rubio showered with? That's what we need to know in order to assess whether or not they are the true disciples of Jack Kemp.
"countenance said...
ReplyDeleteOne more thing: One of the most stupid political quotes of all time came from Kemp's mouth, when he said that he cares about black people because he used to shower with them after football games."
To be fair to Kemp, I believe it was Newt Gingrich who said that about him (Kemp).
Kemp should have been a college football coach somewhere. As a statesman, he was a zero.
The Republican Party needs to die so I'm all for them following NYTimes' advice. Anyone who thinks the people who run it are ever going to come around is deluding themselves.
ReplyDeleteFor years now the GOP has been little more than a means to maintain six and seven figure sinecures for a handful of politicians, pundits, and operatives by siphoning money from the largely middle class base. Continuing to support it comes close to the informal definition of insanity.
"One more thing: One of the most stupid political quotes of all time came from Kemp's mouth, when he said that he cares about black people because he used to shower with them after football games."
ReplyDeleteI think what he meant is that he learned to love them while staring admiringly at his naked bodies, and just figures the feeling was mutual. There was long a rumor that Kemp was a switch hitter.
A good friend of mine does an excellent Jack Kemp impression. It involves delivering every remark in a sort of barkingly constipated half-shout, and uttering the phrases "my good friends Jeannie Kirkpatrick and Vin Weber" and "Gold Standard" a lot.
ReplyDeleteIn short, drop the social issues.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing: One of the most stupid political quotes of all time came from Kemp's mouth, when he said that he cares about black people because he used to shower with them after football games.
ReplyDeleteNewt Gingrich said that about Kemp, although Kemp could have picked it up and started using it. Kemp's problems started when he decided he could win the black vote away from Democrats, and pretty much became a one trick pony pushing for what 60's lefties called "urban renewal". Blaming Kemp for Dole's defeat is weak though, Dole was going to lose that election no matter who his running mate was. People on this site forget Dole was floundering badly even before the convention, because no one wanted to elect a 73 year old man for President, especially one who wasn't good at a making stump speeches. The GOP thought they could nominate anyone and they would beat Clinton after the 1994 midterms. However, Tricky Bill outfoxed them by moving to the right, and then blaming them for the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing and dared the GOP to nominate a WW2 veteran for president.
I also think Kemp behaved very much like a Kennedy in addition to looking like one. I heard rumors about Kemp's philandering when I was in HS. A few years later I saw him give a speech once, and he was introduced by the leggy blonde TV anchorperson from one of our local stations. It was pretty evident to me and the people I was with that they had a relationship based solely on their body language. If Kemp had ever been the GOP nominee he would have been exposed a la Gary Hart for sure. He was after all a starting QB, those guys are used to a certain level of female attention.
I agree. Bob Dole lost the election because of Bob Dole. My point is that Kemp didn't help Dole out one bit with the NAM vote.
ReplyDeleteClinton won re-election because the economy was better in 1996 than it was in 1992. It's no more complicated than that. Notice on the same election day, Republicans held the House and gained Senate seats.
Is Kemp wearing two football player rings in that photo?
ReplyDeleteThat probably got him the dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks elderly jock-sniffer white boy vote right there.
Kemp was one of the worst Republicans ideologically that I can remember. He was obnoxiously wrong about almost everything.
ReplyDeleteKemp was a big favorite of corporate executives. They loved this guy back in the 90's. Corporate/country club types were always praising Kemp and telling me if the GOP would listen to him, they would win more blacks votes.