Thursday, May 7, 2009

We're going to find out more and more how much we miss Jack Kemp

http://tinyurl.com/c3k7ab
***It's an extraordinary man whose stature starts to rise after his death when his humility no longer impedes appreciation of his principled contributions.*** Jack and the Jews. by Rafael Medoff
Jack Kemp,...will be widely remembered as a prominent voice of conservatism who shaped the tax-cut policies of the Reagan administration. But he also deserves to be remembered for his willingness to cross party lines in order to challenge a Republican administration on the issue of anti-Semitism. ...Kemp defied the old stereotype of conservatives who were indifferent to the concerns of racial or religious minorities...(a football)star in 1965, he pressured the league to move ...out of New Orleans because African-American players were ...As secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1988 to 1992, he promoted projects to help disadvantaged inner-city residents. And in 2004, he played a leading role in a crucial fight against the rising tide of global anti-Semitism...****And had to buck the Bush Administration and the consistently-and-long time anti-Semitic U.S. State Department.****
That year,...Tom Lantos, Democrat of California, introduced legislation requiring the U.S. government to create an office to monitor anti-Semitism ...Lantos bill ran into opposition from the Bush administration. The State Department claimed it was unfair to show "favoritism" to Jews by "extending exclusive status to one religious or ethnic group." This, despite the fact that the State Department already had offices that extend "exclusive status" to various other groups or issues of concern, among them human rights in Tibet, human trafficking, and women's rights. The State Department...unwilling...called to mind its moral failures during the Hitler era, when it blocked opportunities to rescue Jews and did its best to downplay the Jewish identity of Hitler's victims....statements ...about Nazi atrocities rarely mentioned the Jews by name, thus diverting public attention from the ongoing annihilation...which Republicans would have the political courage to publicly challenge a Republican administration on this issue?
Jack Kemp was one of the first to do so. (Others included former U.S. ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and former senator Rudy Boschwitz.) His participation helped lift the issue of combating anti-Semitism above the partisan fray....Whether one agrees or disagrees with the positions he took on specific issues, Mr. Kemp will be remembered as a man of integrity, who would not allow partisan political considerations to interfere with his principles — including the principle of combating anti-Semitism.

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