Jack Kemp, 1935-2009

Jack Kemp was diagnosed with cancer in January. He died today at the age of 73. Didn’t agree with him on many core issues, but he was a GOP institution with a wonderful family.
RIP.
***
Here’s a tribute from the Heritage Foundation:
Heritage Foundation President Edwin Feulner tonight issued the following statement on the death of former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp:
“Jack Kemp was a leader – whether it was in a football huddle, a national political campaign or a policy discussion about the Austrian school of economics.
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Trackbacks
- RIP Jack Kemp | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- PunditKix
- Jack Kemp: 1935-2009 | Unequal Time
- A Small Corner of Sanity - An Online Oasis for Conservative Thought
- Blue Collar Republican » Blog Archive » Jack Kemp - Dead At 73
- Jack Kemp, Republican Moderate, Dead at 73 | Christopher Estep's America
- Ex-Buffalo Bill QB Jack Kemp dies after lengthy illness - ESPN « Jim Blazsik
- R.I.P., Jack Kemp… « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- One Face of the GOP Passes; Who Are the “Faces” Now? « Peace and Freedom Promises
- Tennesseefree.com » Jack Kemp RIP
- Tel-Chai Nation
- Forgotten Heroes « Vets On The Watch
- Jack Kemp & Transitions… | The Anchoress
- Wacky Spin Doctoring: Specter Says He Saved an Entire Generation of Scientists & Could Have Saved Jack Kemp’s Life… Who Do You Think You’re Fooling? « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Jack Kemp–A True Believer In The American Dream–Passes « Pronk Palisades
- Trouble on Dem ‘Fantasy Island’: Specter Is Freaking Everyone Out « Frugal Café Blog Zone
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Kemp was a guy who understood a lot about good economic policy, at least at points in time.
Condolences to his family.
RIP, Jack.
I hope that President Reagan and he have many fruitful discussions in heaven.
I will say a prayer for his family at church. As a matter of fact, I’ll do it right now.
always thought he was pretty much a straight shooter. may God have mercy on his soul and bless his family…
Hard to believe. I didn’t know he had cancer. Doesn’t seem that long ago that he was playing football. Life is so short.
Had the honor of hearing him speak at commencement when I earned my MA degree. Sending prayers up for his family.
I pray for his family in this awful time…
RiP. All Pro indeed.
I recall voting for him in the ‘88 primary. He seemed like a true fiscal conservative to me, then. Goodbye, Jack.
I hadn’t heard that he was sick. May he rest in peace. God bless his family!
I was a big fan of Mr Kemp and voted for him in 1988.
Felt his veiws on economic issues were terrific.
He knew that Government didnt end poverty it only subsidized it. We in this nation pay people to be poor and keep them poor.
That isnt compassionate and it isnt what works. Kemp knew that allowing people to succeed was more important than catering to some people unwillingness to acheive.
God Bless him and His family.
Very sad. Met him at a Cook County GOP fundraiser in 1994. He was a gentleman, maybe a bit too nice for his own good in the world of politics.
I remember how he seemed hurt that after all his work with urban consituencies and promoting enterprise zones that Jesse Jackson refered to someone derisively as a “Jack Kemp Republican.”
He seemed to truly believe that political opponents weren’t enemies. I actually disagreed with him on that, but he was certainly a good-natured warrior.
I’ll miss him.
A good man. One of the most decent men to ever serve in Washington.
And long ago, a great quarterback and leader.
One of the heroes of the Reagan revolution. He’ll be missed.
An admirable man with good and solid Conservative principles, Jack Kemp was worth listening to and heeding.
I’m sad at his passing; I didn’t know about his illness. and yes,
Prayers for and condolences to his family
Ditched class in high school to see him during a visit. Got his autograph. I was in flag and baton core that did half-time entertainment at the Charger games. We all had a crush on him. He was a very nice person and a great quarterback in our opinion. Didn’t always agree with his political opinions, but he was a principled man.
RIP Jack. Condolences to his family.
While I offer my condolences to Sen Kemp’s survivors, I also hope that his ideals are reflected upon well as he is eulogized and that it reminds a gullible American electorate 1) much of what he espoused worked, and worked well, and 2) what a lightweight we have leading us now by comparison.
May his passing inspire our current leadership to right the ship.
I disagreed with him on many issues as well but he came across as sincere and honest.
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord,
And let perpetual Light shine upon him.
May his soul
And the souls of all the faithful departed
Through the Mercy of God
Rest in peace.
Amen.
I loved watching him play football, I loved seeing leadership. If it had been Kemp/Dole, we might have won.
Jack, rest in the tender care of our Lord Jesus. We’ll pray for your family.
Jack Kemp gave me one of my better memories of my days in the Entertainment Industry back in 1996 during the final days before the election.
I still wonder what things would have been like had Dole/Kemp actually won back then.
Rest easy Jack…the world and especially this country…lost a truly great American.
I remember his speech at the GOP convention when he was picked for the VP slot. He cautioned his audience that the other side of the aisle was not the enemy, but rather folks to be persuaded.
If only we still lived in such simple times.
Mr Kemp leaves this world a better place by the way he lived his life. He is now in even a better place.
My condolences to his family and friends.
About to start Sunday School. Will inform everyone. RIP, Jack!
Our country would be a much different and better place if Reagan had selected him as VP, that’s for sure.
Jack Kemp’s voice of reason will be missed, especially in these turbulant times. Rest in Peace, friend, and may the angels guide you to heaven.
I strongly appreciated his work on lower taxes, the Kemp-Roth bill in particular, and I think he and Reagan worked well together. It is a pity he was not Reagan’s VP instead of you-know-who, but who knows if things would have worked out any better.
Kind of puts it mildly for me. His rush to Rinoism following Reagan mystified me but it has become part of an all too familiar pattern among establishment Republicans who seem not only embarrassed by the conservative base but downright hostile to it. His performance in ‘96, his big political break, was a disaster. Al Gore soundly beat him, for heaven’s sake. Finally, in his last decade, he clearly had some kind of white-guilt thing going (similar to what David Horowitz is succumbing to now) that rendered his later columns all but unrecognizable when not unreadable.
He was a nice man and smarter in economics than most.
He was one of the good guys.
God bless him.
My former employer knew many, many important players in politics, Jack Kemp being one of them.
I have talked with him in the past so many times: we would be calling him, he would be callling my employer.
Always, ALWAYS, very polite and friendly. He knew who he was – he didn’t need to impress anyone with his name.
He shall be missed.
*I shall lift him and his family up in my thoughts and prayers.
*As a kid, and a football fan, I started following this upstart league called the AFL, and I liked him right from the get go, a natural leader with the Bills; You could see at the time he would move on from sports and into a larger arena.
*He was excellent on supply-side economics; An Arthur Laffer with a voice and a platform, and positive results for many years; The GOP and W have since laid waste to his efforts.
*However, he kinda jumped the shark for me on amnesty for illegal aliens; Did not see that coming.
Condolences to his family. I too did not realize he was ill and for some reason I thought he was younger than 73.
RIP.
One of the good guys. Remember him from football too. RIP.
Politics aside, Jack Kemp vigilantly upheld an important, human trait that clearly distinguished him from other contemporary names like Carter, O’Neil, Kennedy, Jackson, Clinton and Gore…
Decency.
I agree with this. I am a Southerner, someone from that demented part of the country that is suffering a barrage of criticism from the NorthEast for allegedly wanting to lead the GOP into fringe lunacy.
I take it very, very personally when people on our side start waving the bloody flag of racism with the inevitable subtext that it is a sin that they know not of in themselves but that there are still areas in the country that harbor dangerous racists. It seems that you almost cannot be a NorthEastern Republican these days without giving off that vibe.
I don’t doubt Jack’s sincerity, but I won’t be silent while he is canonized. He pretty much waved the bloody flag and went RINO on us and that’s the way it was.
But thanks for the good things you did, Jack, and RIP.
We’ll miss Jack Kemp. It saddens me that he has passed away.
Now can MichelleMalkin.com please get back to work? My withdrawl symptoms are making me imPoSsible to live with!!!
I hope all is well here.
Arlen Specter proves why he needs one more S.
What you will read if you click corona’s link is Specter’s absurd stammering around on Sunday morning television explaining how the Republican party had ~left him.~ And one of his grievances seems to that the party did not sufficiently support Richard Nixon’s call for a war on cancer.
This man is not only a complete a$$hole but he is incoherent and delusional. But he is still evil!
If I read one day that cancer has taken him, I will be thinking, “Even cancer has its moments.”
He is just the Left’s new hero. When you consider what it is that makes a Liberal/Leftie, is it any wonder why they like a turn-coat?
“Republican attitudes towards cancer research had made him unhappy with the party. Specter went on to suggest that if Republicans had been more aggressive about cancer research, GOP luminary Jack Kemp would be alive today. The former GOP Congressman and vice-presidential nominee died over the weekend, at age 73, from cancer.”
New Democrat Specter