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RE: Obnoxious

Quin, Jack Kemp has thought for some time that he is morally superior to the rest of us on the right. Recall this exchange between Kemp and Al Gore in the 1996 vice presidential debate:

GORE: I think Mr. Lehrer, that throughout most of his career, Jack Kemp has been a powerful and needed voice against the kind of coarseness and incivility that you refer to in the question. I think it's an extremely valuable service to have a voice within the Republican party who says we ought to be one nation. We ought to cross all of the racial and ethnic and cultural barriers. I think that is a very important message to deliver. And we ought to speak out against these violations of civility when they do occur. You asked about the incident involving Roberto Alomar. I won't hesitate to tell you what I think. I think he should have been severely disciplined, suspended perhaps, immediately. I don't understand why that action was not taken, but the same could be said of so many incidents in all kinds of institutions in our society, but I compliment Mr. Kemp for the leadership he has shown in moving us away from that kind of attitude.

KEMP: Well, I thank you, Al. I mean that very, very sincerely...

Gore implies the GOP on the whole is uncivil, and instead of taking issue with it, Kemp laps it up.

Kemp is the sort of conservative who lives for praise from the NY Times op-ed page.

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More Blog Posts by David Hogberg

http://spectator.org/blog/2006/07/14/re-obnoxious

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