It is with great regret that this is the second time in less than a week that I am sharing my thoughts with you about a recently departed friend.  That said, this one is much different and far more heart-wrenching than the first.

I have been a Jack Kemp Republican my entire life. His message of hope and compassion mixed with fiscal conservatism, lower taxes, less government, and individual empowerment have guided me throughout my years in both business and politics. I always thought Jack was the true heir to Ronald Reagan and he was an incredible inspiration to so many of us.

His influence on Republican policy can hardly be measured. Jack was one of the earliest to recognize the importance of Arthur Laffer’s supply-side theories. He was instrumental in putting tax cuts at the top of Ronald Reagan’s agenda, and the Kemp-Roth tax cuts are among the most important economic policies of the 20th century.  Without them, it’s impossible to say whether President Bush would have taken the same course twenty years later.  And thanks to his past as a championship-winning quarterback with the AFL Buffalo Bills, Jack understood minorities and others outside of the usual, traditional Republican constituencies better than most of us.  For decades he urged us to go outside of our electoral comfort zone and reach out to African-Americans and Latinos because he believed they shared our values and that by sharing the power of our ideas with more people we could help lift millions out of poverty and into the “opportunity society,” as he aptly called it.  We are not all the way there yet, but when we arrive, Jack will deserve a big share of the credit.

Jack was also a great personal friend.  For years we traveled together, Marlene and I stayed with the Kemps at their home in Colorado to celebrate his 70th, and they visited often with us at our home as well.

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I guess that Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) really is happier in his new party:

Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, said part of the reason he left the Republican Party last week was disillusionment with its healthcare priorities, and suggested that had the Republicans taken a more moderate track, Jack Kemp may have won his battle with cancer.

…because he’s certainly picked up from them the trick of using safely dead people to push a partisan talking point. Jack Kemp isn’t even buried yet; and he had nothing to do with the current political situation, you disgusting piece of partisan slime.  I don’t expect truly civilized behavior from you anymore, but I did foolishly think that you could be trusted to show more delicacy than a hyena at the passing of a former friend.

Yes, ‘former’ friend.  I have liberal friends; if one of them should die before me, I won’t be using his or her death to push the GOP’s agenda.  That’s because I’m a decent human being, and you’re not.

In short: thanks for leaving my party.  Don’t ever come back.

Moe Lane

PS: Have you ever even googled “Big Pharma?”  Do you have any idea who you’re allied with, now?  It’s groups like this.  And this.  And this.

I know Jack Kemp. Well, “know” loosely.

Back in 1996, Kemp headed out on the campaign trail with Bob Dole as Dole’s Vice Presidential pick. For those of you who don’t really remember that time period well, Kemp did for Dole what Palin did for McCain among conservatives — excited a conservative base distrustful of the then Senate Majority Leader.

Never mind the gold standard business. Kemp was tax cuts, liberty, and free enterprise zones.

In the summer of 1996, Kemp came through Macon, Georgia. Being Chairman of the local College Republicans, the Dole-Kemp campaign asked me to drive in the motorcade. In a pre-9/11 world, I got to drive the lead car behind the limo — chief of staff and press secretary in the car.¹

Kemp came off the plane aloof and focused. After a few hours riding around in the car, eating at the Bear’s Den (where I’ll have to go this week in his honor), and pounding the pavement downtown, Kemp transformed into one of the guys. He was as nice as he could be — and had I been more mature at the time, I’d have noticed how much trouble he was for Dole too.

Kemp wasn’t afraid to speak his mind and call a dumb idea “dumb.” His press secretary and chief of staff were raising hell because Kemp wouldn’t keep to the talking points, not that they disagreed with him. Kemp wanted to talk freedom — freedom for small business owners like the guys who owned Cassidy’s garage, freedom to go to the school of your choice, freedom in general. It was and is a message that resonates.

I got to chat with Kemp that day and after. He remembered me even though he did not have to. In fact, in 1994, I’d written Kemp to tell him I thought he was misguided on his opposition to California’s Proposition 187. He wrote back and expressed his concerns that the opposition to illegal immigration, which he largely shared, would tarnish legal immigrants. He was adamant in his opposition and argued on grounds of freedom. In any event, in 1996, he remembered me.

I’ve run into Kemp since starting RedState. We are acquaintances, not friends. But growing up overseas in the 80’s, Kemp was one of the guys I followed. He was instrumental in passing Reagan’s freedom expanding tax cuts. It was cool to one day drive in his motorcade and even cooler to know that he knew who I was and knew RedState.

Kemp was a mighty warrior for freedom. We’re losing too many of those these days and not replacing them. I suspect Kemp would have given Jim DeMint’s op-ed in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal a ringing endorsement because Jack Kemp never wavered from the idea that freedom wins.

Hon. Jack French Kemp, Member of the United States House of Representatives for the State of New York, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Republican Vice Presidential Nominee. Requiescat in pace.

Just saw this reported: Jack Kemp, a giant of the modern conservative movement, has died after a bout with cancer. Kemp never won national or even statewide office, and his gravelly wonkishness wasn’t always the epitome of charisma, but his political career was a testament to the power of ideas, simple ideas like human freedom and the potential of the individual to do better for himself than the government could ever do for him. He was an inspiration to everyone who believed that the interests of government are not the purpose of government. Ronald Reagan inspired many people in politics, but Reagan didn’t get to be Reagan alone, and then-Congressman Kemp was one of the people who inspired Reagan’s belief in the transformative incentive power of reducing taxes on the last dollar of income earned. Before entering politics, Kemp was a heckuva quarterback, compiling a 65-37-3 record as a starter in the AFL, playing in championship games for LA and San Diego before winning two AFL titles for the Buffalo Bills. Kemp was also the rare HUD secretary who left office well-regarded rather than under investigation or indictment. He was added to the GOP ticket in 1996 when Bob Dole realized his campaign needed ideas - and Jack Kemp, though an ordinary guy, not an intellectual, was synonymous with ideas. And he was, most of all, a happy warrior, like Reagan - a guy who took visible joy in politics because he always believed that if you gave people the ability to keep their own piece of the pie, we’d all have a larger pie to divide. He was, in every sense, a true heir of the Party of Lincoln. He will be missed.