One Of America's Late 20th-Century's Great Conservative Leaders Passes On - Jack Kemp (1935-2009)

One of the leading footsoldiers of the conservative movement during the Reagan era passed away last month. Jack Kemp, former NFL star, congressman, and Vice Presidential candidate on the Republican ticket in 1996, passed away May 2nd after a battle with cancer at the age of 73.

Kemp contributed in a number of areas. He was a notable football player at Occidental College in Los Angeles, his native town, where he played at several positions. He took his football skills to the pros, where he was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1957, then cut, and picked up by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He would play for a number of teams, both in the NFL and the then-operating AFL as a strong quarterback. His most successful play came under the Buffalo Bills, where he led the team to two-consecutive AFL titles, before the organization's merger with the NFL.

Kemp settled in Buffalo, and already had an active hand in politics through the 1960s. During his days in California, he was a volunteer for Barry Goldwater's 1964 bid for President, and Ronald Reagan's 1966 victorious campaign for governor there. He also worked on Governor Reagan's staff in 1967, and a special assistant to Republican National Committee Chairman Ray C. Bliss in 1969.

In 1970, Kemp was elected to a Democratic-leading district in Buffalo to be seated in the U.S. Congress, where he served until 1989. He became a leading conservative spokesman, particularly on economic issues. He was a "supply-sider", believing that economic growth is caused by providing incentives. He was also generally conservative on most issues, and quickly became a Republican leader. In 1974, Time Magazine nominated Kemp as one of their "Faces For The Future". He was mentioned as a possible challenger to beat Jimmy Carter for the Presidency in 1980, and was a Vice-Presidential front-runner that year, in which George H.W. Bush got the nomination. In 1981, he was chosen by the Republicans in Congress to be chairman of the House Republican Conference, and served in that position for seven years. Kemp was an author of the 1981 Kemp-Roth tax cut, also known as the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. This was a keystone to the economic legacy of the Reagan years that lifted America out of the stagflation of the 1970s and paved the way for the roaring prosperity of the 1990s.

In 1988, Kemp decided not to return to the Congress, but to run for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Here he joined Kansas Senator Bob Dole, Teleevangelist Pat Robertson, Former Delaware Governor Pierre du Pont, Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, and Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, among others, to challenge Vice President George H.W. Bush for the nomination. He struggled to gain traction, and withdrew after the Super Tuesday primaries. However, his knowledge and experience on matters of poverty led Bush to nominate Kemp to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in which he served through most of the Bush Administration.

Kemp was highly respected in the party for his role in the 1992 GOP convention. Just after the election that year, he was considered again a front-runner for the Presidency, this time for the 1996 campaign. However, he decided not to run, as he believed some of his views would not go over well with the Republican electorate. The other candidates sought after his endorsement highly. Steve Forbes got it just as eventual nominee Bob Dole was nearing the nomination. Former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett was asked by Dole to be his running-mate. Bennett said no, but reportedly suggested the name of Kemp. He was chosen by the GOP convention over other names that were discussed, including Ohio Governor George Voinovich, Michigan Governor John Engler, Florida Senator Connie Mack, Arizona Senator (and future GOP Presidential nominee) John McCain, and Texas Governor (and future President) George W. Bush. The Dole-Kemp ticket, however, went down to a solid defeat in the election that year.

One of his greatest legacies was the Roth-Kemp tax cut in 1981. This was the foundation for the supply-side economic theory now widely known as "Reaganomics". His loss is also a loss of one of the leading conservatives to reach out to minorities, people from urban areas, and those in poverty. These are issues that the Republican Party absolutely need to get a grasp on.


Wikipedia - Jack Kemp

TWO LEGENDARY VOICES SILENCED - Harold N. Kalas (1936-2009) & Paul Harvey (1918-2009)

Not every sports team can claim a voice that is so legendary, that he is well known outside of his team or sport. Harry Kalas was one of those voices. Not only was Kalas calling the games for MLB's Philadelphia Phillies for nearly four decades, but he was also the voice for numerous NFL games, and for ads for companies as various as General Motors and Campbell Soup.

Kalas, or known by Philadelphia fans as "Harry The K", was a native of Naperville, Illinois, where he was born on March 26, 1936. After a short stint calling minor league baseball games in Hawaii in 1962, he went to the majors with the Houston Astros in 1963, who were then known as the Colt .45s. In 1971, the Phils hired on Kalas, who was the master of ceremonies at the opening of Veterans Stadium that same year. He soon became the broadcasting partner of another legend, Richie Ashburn. Kalas and Ashburn worked together for 27 years, until Ashburn too suddenly passed away in New York after a Phils/Mets game on the evening of September 9, 1997.

Kalas began using his trademark "outta here" call for home runs in the mid-1970s, and is now known for pioneering the famous call. He was also well-known for his affinity for Frank Sinatra's classic song High Hopes, which he sung often, especially at rally events.

Kalas passed away suddenly on the job in Washington, where he was in the broadcast booth just a few hours before he was scheduled to call the Nationals' home opener against the Phils on April 13th. The Phils' president, David Montgomery, simply said, "we lost our voice." Especially for yours truly, the Conservative Statesman, this is a sad loss. Kalas has long been a role model of mine, especially since I have taken a liking into baseball and radio broadcasting in recent years.

Kalas may be outta here, but his legacy lives on.




Another legendary voice passed from this life just a few months ago. Paul Harvey was the voice of America. Millions of people, especially from working-class roots, grew up listening to him and trusting him as a source for news and storytelling. His audience in his later career is reported to have estimated 22 million.


Harvey, whose full name was Paul Harvey Aurandt, was born on September 4, 1918, and was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, right in the heartland, and amongst hard-working, rural folk. That is probably why he could so easily connect with Americans of industrious quality and roots in traditional, heartland values. A teacher noticed his voice in school, and encouraged him to go into radio, which is what he, of course, did. He started working for KVOO in Tulsa at the young age of 14.


Harvey eventually moved from station to station. He even went to Hawaii to cover the U.S. Navy during World War II. Finally, he found himself in Chicago in 1944, where he went to work at WENR, an ABC affiliate. The Rest of the Story was started here in 1946 as a tagline, and became a series in 1976. ABC Radio started Paul Harvey News And Comment for syndication on their network on April 1, 1951. The shows grew in popularity through the following decades, and Harvey became one of the most known and trusted voices in American history. He signed a 10-year, $100 million contract with ABC Radio in 2000. His health began to falter in recent years. His vocal cords were damaged in 2000, but he was back on the air in August 2001. He had many notable people fill in on the program in recent years, including Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Gil Gross, Tony Snow, and Scott Shannon. His son, Paul Harvey, Jr., often would fill in as well, training his voice to mimick his father's.


Harvey is another loss for me personally. I remeber traveling into town with my dad to go to college my first year at Tennessee Tech. I would listen to Paul Harvey on a regular basis on either the talk station in Nashville, 99.7 WWTN-FM, or in Cookeville, Tennessee, 780 WPTN-AM. I had also listened to him numerous times before then. I always enjoyed listening to him bring forth the news and the stories every day that I could listen. I always enjoyed a national radio personality who was mainstream, yet conservative.


The losses of these two men make the world sound a whole lot more empty.



Harry Kalas - Wikipedia
Paul Harvey - Wikipedia

A SLEW OF POSTINGS TO COME!

Hey all! I know I have been MIA as of the last few months. However, the spring semester is out, and I have a host of postings to place on here in the coming days. It may seem like old news by now, but there are several events that I find important and want to comment on. Also, several influential people have passed on that I want to pay tribute to.

It may seem odd for me to go back to events a couple of months old, but I want to get them represented on this blog, and put my two-cents in on them. So, keep your eyes peeled to the "Conservative Statesman" as I post these observations in the next few days.