Jack Kemp

Jack Kemp,who became a symbol of two movements in American politics, died yesterday. I knew Jack slightly, early in his career as a member of Congress. His political career began after his career in the NFL. He was a champion of supply side economics. During the latter part of his NFL career, according to his team-mates he studied assiduously in a wide range of economics and philosophy. While he was riding on flights he would read. There is a parallel to James Madison - who spent a good deal of time before the Constitutional Convention studying philosophy at Monticello.

Kemp had two great passions - tax reform and racial reconciliation. He was a "big tent" republican - but unlike Arlen Specter, who has gotten a lot of press in the last few days, he held to a consistent set of principles (besides re-election which seems to be Specter's guiding philosophical commitment). Before the adoption of the Economic Recovery Tax Act (1981) he described the tax code in the following manner - it rewards "consumption, leisure, debt and borrowing, and punishes savings, investment, work and production." He was out of congress when the 1986 Tax Act passed - which went a long way toward simplifying the tax code. Since then the code has become a horrible jumble of provisions that closely mirror Kemp's original description. His second commitment was to assuring that the GOP had a large tent - he embraced racial reconciliation in numerous ways. When Obama was facing problems during the 2008 campaign on Rev. Wright - Kemp argued that the country should not accept the idea of guilt by association - he said "I cut some slack here, because I think he is in a very tough spot politically and I don't want to see him lose because of a pastor in Chicago who is way over the top accusing the United States of jailing Nelson Mandela. I mean, give me a break."

He stayed in Congress for nine terms and then served the country in other ways including as Secretary of HUD under Reagan and as a VP Nominee with Bob Dole. But in or out of office he kept pushing ideas. His energy and thoughtfulness will be missed.