R.I.P, Jack Kemp

My favorite politician of all-time passed away last night. Jack Kemp, a former congressman from western New York state and Robert Dole's running mate in 1996, died from a losing battle with cancer.

Jack Kemp's political legacy notably includes the Kemp-Roth tax cut, which lowered marginal income tax rates. He also bucked the Republican Party when it was clearly on the wrong side of issues---such as civil rights legislation and the Jackson-Vanek amendment: a bill that helped facilitate the emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union.

Not to mention his illustrious professional football career, of which I unfortunately know very little.

Richard Brookhiser blurbs about Jack Kemp at the National Review Blog:

Jack Kemp, R.I.P.

Was there ever a man of such high spirits as Jack Kemp? Reagan was sunny; Kemp was a perpetual solar flare. He had an athlete's energy and an optimist's expectation that all would come out well. He also felt the respect for learning that only those who come to it late and under their own steam have. Ideas, he believed, really could save the world. Some of his ideas were half-baked—he put far too much credit in his friend Jude Wanniski—and his timing was bad. He offered himself in 1988 as Reagan's heir, but he was crushed between George H.W. Bush, who as Veep was the heir of record, and Pat Robertson, the GOP's Jesse Jackson, the cleric who wanted the White House because of who he was, not because of anything he had done. In Right Time, Right Place I tell the story of how John O'Sullivan and I went to DC to urge Jack to challenge President Bush for the nomination in 1992, but he had just been kicked in the head three years earlier, and had no desire to risk another drubbing. Bob Dole's picking Kemp as his runningmate in 1996 shocked everyone; his career had seemed over. He had a bad debate with Al Gore (Wanniski gave him terrible advice beforehand, which he followed). He was a great friend of National Review, and there was nothing more exhilirating than Jack at full speed: a combination of riding a great horse, and a roller coaster. RIP.