Kemp, J

==

caputo says mission to el salv, kidnapped

the great unchosen one?

 died 2009 --> fdn by son lobbyist

IFF angled for a plane for him

 note color below

https://www.alternet.org**/2012/**08/us-funded-death-squads-el-salvador-casts-shadow-over-gop-ticket/

PR watch BF

Amidst reports that Mitt Romney launched Bain Capital with funds from investors tied to 1980s Salvadoran death squads, his new running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is getting foreign policy briefings from a man who actively covered-up some of the worst atrocities committed by those same death squads. The GOP's vice-presidential candidate also earned his political stripes working under neoconservative Republicans who funnelled billions in U.S. aid to those military hitmen. Though the war in El Salvador was just one chapter in history, Romney and Ryan's relationship with that war may provide a snapshot into their worldview.

Between 1979 and 1992, an estimated 75,000 people were killed in the conflict in El Salvador and countless others were "disappeared" or displaced, an astonishing number for a country the size of Massachusetts. A United Nations Truth Commission estimated that the right-wing, military-led government was responsible for 85 percent of the violence while the left-wing insurgency fighting against vast economic and political inequality, including farmers, teachers, priests and union activists, was responsible for only 5 percent. Much of the violence was attributable to clandestine military or paramilitary death squads, which committed countless assassinations and acts of brutal violence against suspected political dissidents.

Recent reports suggest that some of the same members of the Salvadoran oligarchy that backed the death squads gave Romney the startup funds for Bain Capital.

Romney's Early Bain Capital Funders Tied to Salvadoran Death Squads

Last week, the Huffington Post's Ryan Grim and Cole Stangler reported on how Romney went to Miami in 1983, at the height of El Salvador's civil war, to raise $9 million from Salvadoran expatriate families to start Bain Capital. This seed money amounted to 40 percent of Bain's startup funds. Although Romney claimed that he had vetted the backgrounds of the investors, some of their families had been identified by the U.S. ambassador and others as closely tied to either death squads or death squad leader and ARENA Party founder Robert d'Aubuisson (known as "Blowtorch Bob" for his use of blowtorches to torture political prisoners).

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D'Aubuisson was later found responsible for ordering the assasination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, a prominent advocate for the poor and critic of the Salvadoran government (who the Vatican has now placed in the process of canonization to become a saint). In the United States, though, the Reagan administration foreign policy team would actively deny d'Aubisson's involvement in the assassination, as well as the Salvadoran government's involvement in other human rights atrocities, so as to justify a heavy flow of military aid to the country's government as part of Reagan's Cold War-era policy to suppress any chance of another Cuba emerging in Latin America. A key player in those official denials was Elliot Abrams, an Assistant Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan who still boasts that he "supervised U.S. policy in Latin America and the Caribbean."

In recent months, Abrams has been advising Romney's Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan on foreign policy.

Abrams Key Denier of Human Rights Abuses by Salvadoran Government

Of the Romero assasination, Abrams told the Washington Post in 1993 that "anybody who thinks you're going to find a cable that says that Roberto d'Aubuisson murdered the archbishop is a fool." But as the Post noted in that same article, the U.S. Embassy sent at least two such cables to Washington fingering d'Aubuisson — the December 21, 1981 cable, for example, describes: "A meeting, chaired by Maj. Roberto d'Aubuisson, during which the murder of Archbishop Romero was planned. During the meeting, some of the participants drew lots for the privilege of killing the archbishop."

But Abrams is perhaps best known for denying one of the worst atrocities of the war, the massacre at El Mozote, where in December 1981 U.S-trained government soldiers marched into a village and murdered around 800 civilians, many of whom were women and children. The men were tortured before being shot, and girls as young as 10 were raped before having their throats slit. Abrams, who at the time was Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, dismissed reports published in the New York Times and Washington Post about the massacre, telling a Senate committee tasked with certifying the Salvadoran government's human rights record that the reports of deaths "were not credible" and suggesting the guerrillas had "significantly misused" the stories for propaganda. The U.N. Truth Commission later confirmed the newspapers' reports on the massacre, and the Salvadoran government (which elected its first left-wing president ever in 2009) officially apologized for the event in December of last year.

These and other denials helped justify another ten years of United States funding for the Salvadoran military and its death squads. The tiny country would receive $6 billion from the U.S. over the course of its civil war, making it the second-highest recipient of U.S. aid behind Israel during that period, despite mounting death tolls and continued atrocities.

abrams has remained unrepentant about U.S. policy in El Salvador, calling it"one of fabulous achievement." He was convicted in 1991 of two misdemeanors for unlawfully withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal but was pardoned by the first President Bush.

Abrams, Neocons Passing the Torch to VP Pick Ryan

This week,The Daily Beast first reported that Abrams' latest act is advising Republican GOP candidate Ryan on foreign policy. Abrams told the website Ryan "knows more about foreign policy than people may think, in view of his concentration on the economy." Other right-wing foreign policy experts toldThe Daily Beast that despite Ryan's professed fiscal conservatism, he, like Reagan, supports spending billions or trillions to preserve U.S. military power and international influence.

Ryan has long been mentored by neoconservative Republican leaders who advanced U.S. policy in El Salvador. His first job in D.C. was as an aide to Sen. Bob Kasten of Wisconsin, a cheerleader for sending billions to El Salvador's brutal military government and who in the 1980s chaired the Senate foreign operations appropriations subcommittee responsible for approving those funds.

After Kasten lost his seat to Russ Feingold in 1992, Ryan became a speechwriter for the right-wing think tank Empower America, which was founded by Jeanne Kirkpatrick andJack Kemp.As a foreign policy adviser to Reagan in 1980 Kirkpatrick famously defended the rape, murder, and torture of four American Catholic missionaries (three of whom were nuns and one a lay missionary) at the hands of El Salvador's government forces, claiming "the nuns were not just nuns. The nuns were also political activists." Kirkpatrick went on to become Reagan's UN Ambassador. Kemp, who Ryan recently identified as a key mentor, was also a major supporter of U.S. funding to El Salvador's military government.

Even if Romney can distance himself from the death squad-linked Salvadoran investors that provided the seed money for his vast wealth, Ryan's political upbringing and his being mentored by a man of Abrams' pedigree makes it clear that the tragedies of El Salvador's civil war and this dark chapter in U.S. history will continue to cast a shadow over the Romney – Ryan campaign.

==

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kemp

...

political career

Kemp's political career began long before his 1970 campaign. In 1960 and 1961, Kemp was an editorial assistant to San Diego Union editor and future Richard Nixon aide Herb Klein.^[3] Subsequently, Kemp became a volunteer in both Barry Goldwater's**1964** presidential campaign and Ronald Reagan's successful 1966 California gubernatorial campaign. In the 1967 football off-season, Kemp worked on Reagan's staff in Sacramento. In 1969, he was special assistant to the Republican National Committee chairman.^[5]

Kemp was a voracious reader, and his political beliefs were founded in early readings of Goldwater's The Conscience of a Conservative, Ayn Rand's novels such as The Fountainhead, and Friedrich von Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty.^[82] He also brought from his football career a belief in racial equality which came from playing football with black teammates as Kemp said, "I wasn't there with Rosa Parks or Dr. King or John Lewis. But I am here now, and I am going to yell from the rooftops about what we need to do."^[5] Kemp's football colleagues confirmed this influence: John Mackey explained that "the huddle is colorblind."^[83]

House of Representatives (1971–1989)

See also: Electoral history of Jack Kemp

Congressional Portrait Collection image (c. 1975)

Kemp withPresident Ronald Reagan in 1983

As a self-described "bleeding-heart conservative",^[8] Kemp represented a part of the suburban Buffalo region known as the Southtowns (that traditionally voted Democratic) in the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1989.^[84][85] He is as fondly remembered for his good hair and handsome looks as for his athletic prowess and political savvy,^[86] and was described as having the charisma of the earlier John F. Kennedy.^[8][87] David Rosenbaum described Kemp as an independent politician who often legislated outside his committees' jurisdictions and often spoke in favor of ideals and principles rather than his party's political platforms.^[5] As a supply-sider, he was not a proponent of balanced budgeting and trivialized it while speaking of growth as an economic goal.^[5][88]

The Erie County, New York Republicans had drafted Kemp after incumbent congressman Richard D. McCarthy decided to run for the United States Senate.^[5] During his inaugural campaign, his district was in economic malaise, and The New York Times described him as a John F. Kennedy throwback who campaigned on family values, patriotism, sports, and defense.^[7] Upon his election to the Congress in a class of sixty-two freshmen, he was one of six newcomers—along with Ronald Dellums, Bella Abzug, Louise Day Hicks, Robert Drinan, and Pete du Pont—discussed in Time. The article described him as a football fan like United States President Richard Nixon and as the recipient of advice from White House adviser Robert Finch and former Kemp boss Herb Klein, Nixon's director of communications. The Nixon aides encouraged Kemp to endorse the Cambodian invasion and to oppose criticism of Nixon's war policies in order to firm up Kemp's support from military hawks.^[89]

Kemp championed several Chicago school and supply-side economics issues,including economic growth, free markets, free trade, tax simplification and lower tax rates on both employment and investment income.^[90] He was a long-time proponent of the flat tax.^[91] He also defended the use of anti-Communist contra forces in Central America,^[92] supported the gold standard, spoke for civil rights legislation, opposed abortion, and was the first lawmaker to popularize enterprise zones,^[5] which he supported to foster entrepreneurship and job creation and expand homeownership among public housing tenants.^[90][93] During his career, he sometimes sounded like a liberal Democrat;^[7] he supported affirmative action^[94][95] and rights for illegal immigrants.^[96] 

The New York Times described Kemp as the most proactive combatant in the war on poverty since Robert Kennedy.^[97] He differed from Rockefeller Republicans and earlier combatants such as Lyndon Johnson by supporting incentive-based systems instead of traditional social programs.^[7] For his commitment to inner city concerns from within the Republican party, David Gergen heralded him as a "courageous voice in the wilderness."^[98] Although he was liberal on many social issues and supported civil liberties for homosexuals, he opposed certain gay rights such as the right to teach in schools.^[24] Kemp at times felt his role was that of "freewheeling, entrepreneurial, wildcatting backbencher."^[99]

Time identified 38-year-old second-term congressman Kemp as a future leader in its 1974 "Faces for the Future" feature.^[100] Another early-career notable magazine appearance was in a 1978 issue of Esquire.^[14] The article explained allegations of homosexual activity among staffers in Ronald Reagan's Sacramento office in 1967; Kemp was not implicated.^[4] Kemp considered running for the U.S. Senate in 1980 and Hugh Sidey mentioned him as a contender to unseat Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election^[87] and was a front runner for the vice presidency at the 1980 Republican National Convention,^[5][101] where he received 43 votes from conservative detractors of George H. W. Bush.

After he was reelected for a sixth term in 1980, his Republican peers elected him to a party leadership position,^[102] and he served seven years as chairman of the House Republican Conference.^[3] This promotion occurred immediately after Kemp and David Stockman urged Reagan by memorandum to dedicate his first 100 days to working on an economic package with Congress.^[103][104] Kemp considered running for Governor of New York in 1982 but ultimately decided to stay in the House. By 1984, many viewed Kemp as Reagan's heir apparent.^[4]

Kemp had his first encounter with supply-side economics in 1976, when The Wall Street Journal's Jude Wanniski interviewed him at his Congressional office. Kemp questioned Wanniski all day (until midnight, at Kemp's Bethesda, Maryland home) and was eventually converted to University of Southern California professor Arthur Laffer's supply-side discipline.^[5][105] Thereafter, Kemp espoused supply-side economics freely, and in 1978 he and Sen. William Roth of Delaware proposed tax-cutting legislation.^[5] Kemp has been credited as responsible for supply-side economics' inclusion in President Reagan's economic plan,^[106][107] although at the time of Robert Mundell's Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics recognition some attributed much of the credit to Mundell, Laffer, Robert Bartley, and Wanniski.^[108] In 1979, Kemp wrote An American Renaissance (ISBN 0-06-012283-8), to deliver his message that "A rising tide lifts all boats."^[109] Although the realization of early 1980s tax cuts are attributed to Reagan, they were initiated by Kemp and Roth through their 1981 Kemp–Roth Tax Cut legislation.^[5] Reagan's budget based on this legislation passed over the objection of United States House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski.^[110][111]

During the Reagan years, Kemp and his followers ignored budget balancing while promoting tax cuts and economic growth.^[112][113] These tax cuts have been credited by conservatives for the economic growth from 1983 to 1990,^[114] which by 1996 had become one of the longest expansions in American history.^[115] Kemp notes that Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker's success at stemming inflation and the favorable regulatory environment were also major factors.^[116] Detractors note that the expansion was fueled by undesirable sectors like gaming, prisons, medical treatment, and credit card use.^[115]

An early Kemp tax reform attempt was an unsuccessful 1979 proposal to index tax brackets for cost of living fluctuations,^[117] which was incorporated in Reagan's 1980 package.^[105] Kemp co-sponsored a legislative attempt at enterprise zones in 1980.^[118] One of Kemp's more trying times as a congressman came in 1982 when Reagan decided to reverse the tax cuts and promote tax increases. The reversal was controversial and stimulated opposition by Kemp. Nonetheless, the revised taxes passed.^[119][120] In 1983, Kemp opposed the policies of chairman Volcker on multiple occasions. The debates included domestic monetary involvement and roles in funding the International Monetary Fund.^[121][122]

Kemp delivered speeches at several Republican National Conventions. He addressed the convention on July 15 at the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, Michigan and on August 21 at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas.^[123] During the 1984 Convention, with Trent Lott as Republican Party Platform Committee chairman, Congressmen Kemp and Newt Gingrich claimed control of the party platform to the consternation of G.O.P. senators Bob Dole and Howard Baker.^[85] Kemp's official role was as the chairman of the platform subcommittee on foreign policy. However, the three platform planks that he proposed involved tax hikes, the gold standard and the role of the Federal Reserve.^[124] Despite Kemp's official role, his real influence as an author was on the grammatical structure of the plank on tax hikes.^[125][126] By 1985, Kemp was a leading contender for the 1988 Presidential nomination.^[127] He also delivered remarks on free enterprise zones at the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas.^[128] Despite efforts and considerations of expanding his political domain, Kemp never held a fundraiser outside of his suburban Western New York district until well into his eighth term in Congress.^[129]

Kemp was a critic of association football, known as soccer in the United States.^[130] In 1986, during a House floor debate over whether the United States should host the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Kemp proclaimed: "I think it is important for all those young out there—who someday hope to play real football, where you throw it and kick it and run with it and put it in your hands—[that] a distinction should be made that football is democratic capitalism, whereas soccer is a European socialist sport."^[131][132] Kemp compared his speech to George Carlin's 1984 comedy routine on the differences between baseball and American football and wrote that his "tongue was firmly planted in cheek" when making the speech.^[133] Despite the levity of the speech, it garnered significant backlash.^[131][132] However, he continued to insist that soccer's main problem is "it doesn't have a quarterback".^[133] Kemp noted that about half of his grandchildren play or have played organized soccer and claimed to have "changed" his position on soccer. He even attended the 1994 FIFA World Cup with longtime soccer fan Henry Kissinger, although he wrote during the 2006 FIFA World Cup that soccer can be interesting to watch but is still a "boring game".^[133]

Presidential bid (1988)

Main article: Republican Party presidential primaries, 1988

After the May 1987 Gary Hart–Donna Rice scandal, a questionnaire by The New York Times requested things such as psychiatric records and access to FBI files from all 14 presidential candidates. Candidates from each party expressed opinions on both sides of the personal privacy issue, and Kemp rejected the Times inquiry as "beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate".^[141][142] His campaign was on an early positive course with many key early endorsements in New Hampshire, but Bush held the support of much of the Republican establishment in New York.^[4] Although he had an eclectic mix of supporters, Kemp's campaign began borrowing against anticipated Federal matching funds because it had quickly spent itself into the red,^[4] which may have been due to the use of expensive direct mail fundraising techniques.^[143]

To offset his socially moderate stances, Kemp clarified his opposition to abortion, his support of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and his support for a stronger military than that favored by Secretary of State George Shultz.^[4][82] 

To position himself as Reagan's successor, Kemp called for Shultz's resignation based on claims that Shultz had neglected freedom fighters in Afghanistan and Nicaragua and had waffled on SDI.^[144] In an attempt to highlight his stands on key Reagan Era foreign policy initiatives, Kemp traveled in September 1987 to Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador to lobby the presidents of those nations against the Arias Peace Plan—a peace accord US conservatives felt too conciliatory to Central American communists. He was accompanied on the trip by 50-plus US conservative leaders.^[145]

In 1988, if Kemp had won his campaign for the United States Presidency,^[5] it would have made him the first person to move from the United States House of Representatives to the White House since James Garfield.^[134] When he formed his exploratory committee, he signed Ed Rollins, Reagan's 1984 re-election political director, as an advisor.^[135] From the outset, Kemp had failed to position himself as the primary alternative to Vice President Bush.^[82] Except for a select few cognoscenti,^[136] the general public did not recognize Kemp's leadership ability, although he was a successful man of ideas.^[82][137] In fact, most of the Republican electorate found themselves unfamiliar with Kemp early in his campaign.^[136] 

Political pundits recognized him, however, as a visionary idea man.^[138] In addition, he was quickly perceived as a verbose speaker who sometimes lost contact with his audience.^[82] Although Kemp tried to appeal to conservatives, his libertarian philosophies of tolerance and individual rights and his commitment to supporting minorities, women, blue-collar workers and organized labor clashed with conservative voters' social and religious values.^[82] To Democrats, Kemp's free-market philosophies were a form of laissez-faire anarchy.^[139] However, as much as Kemp wanted to minimize government's role, he acknowledged that moves toward a more laissez-faire system should be well-thought out.^[140]

Despite a platform covering the full range of political subjects, Kemp's primary campaign weapon was a fiscal policy based on tax cuts. As part of his fiscal policy, he opposed a Social Security benefits freeze and endorsed a freeze on government spending.^[146] Some viewed Kemp's supply-side stance as an attempt to ignore the national budget deficit. In late 1987, political pundits saw that Kemp needed to gain support from the far right on non-social issues.^[147] Kemp was among the majority of Republican candidates in opposition to Reagan's INF Treaty agreement with the Soviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev despite general Republican voter approval of the treaty. With aspirations of support from right-wing voters, all candidates with low levels of poll support for the nomination took this same "sabre-rattling" stand.^[148][149] By early 1988, the moderates (Bush and Dole) were clearly the front-runners and Kemp was battling with Pat Robertson as the conservative alternative to the moderates.^[150]

He used a somewhat negative advertising campaign that seemed to have the intended initial effect of boosting him to serious contention.^[151] His 1988 campaign was based on the platform of supply-side economics and inner-city enterprise zones.^[8] In Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms: My Life in American Politics, campaign chairman Rollins described Kemp as a candidate with foibles.^[152] Kemp's campaign managers say he was unmanageable: he ignored timers on his speeches, refused to call contributors, and refused to practice for debates. A humbling Super Tuesday, in which his 39 delegate total was fewer than eventual nominee and President Bush and both Dole and Pat Robertson, ended his campaign.^[5][8] After withdrawing from the race, he was still considered a contender for the Vice President nomination.^[153] In 1989, the Kemps switched their official residence from Hamburg, New York to Bethesda, Maryland,^[154] their residence at the time of his death.^[9]

In 1994, Kemp's 1988 campaign reached a settlement with the Federal Election Commission by agreeing to pay $120,000 in civil penalties for 1988 campaign election law violations for, among other things, excessive contributions, improper direct corporate donations, press overbilling, exceeding spending limits in Iowa and New Hampshire, and failure to reimburse corporations for providing air transportation.^[155]

Cabinet (1989–1993)

Although Kemp coaxed Bush to support a $4 billion housing program that encouraged public housing tenants to buy their own apartments, the Democratic Congress allocated only $361 million to the plan.^[8] In addition to opposition in Congress, Kemp fought White House Budget Director Richard Darman, who opposed Kemp's pet project HOPE (Homeownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere). The project involved selling public housing to its tenants. Darman also opposed Kemp's proposed welfare adjustment of government offsets.^[97] HOPE was first proposed to White House chief of staff John Sununu in June 1989 to create enterprise zones, increase subsidies for low-income renters, expand social services for the homeless and elderly, and enact tax changes to help first-time home buyers.^[97] Sununu opposed it at first as did most of the Cabinet, but in August 1990 Sununu, at the urging of United States Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, encouraged President Bush to endorse Kemp's Economic Empowerment Task Force.

However, the Persian Gulf War and the budget negotiations overshadowed Kemp's new project.^[97] Darman battled Kemp and his allies such as Gingrich, James Pinkerton, and Vin Weber.^[97] The budget left him with $256 million for his plan, which Kemp increased during some appropriations battles.^[97] Soon after Clayton Yeutter was appointed chief White House domestic policy advisor, Kemp's Economic Empowerment Task Force was abolished.^[97]As a so-called "bleeding-heart conservative", Kemp was a logical choice for Bush as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development,^[156] whose job would be to foster public sector and private sector methods to meet the demands of public housing.^[157]

However, the scandals of Reagan's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Samuel Pierce and the neglect of the president were obstacles from the start, and Kemp was unsuccessful at either of his major initiatives: enacting enterprise zones and promoting public housing tenant ownership.^[158] The goal of these two plans was to change public housing into tenant-owned residences and to lure industry and business into inner cities with federal incentives.^[159] Although Kemp did not affect much policy as HUD's director, he cleaned up HUD's reputation,^[158][160] and developed a plan to salvage the troubled Federal Housing Administration.^[161] He halted or revamped corrupt programs and developed an antidrug offensive,^[162][163] which enabled him to collaborate with Director of the National Drug Control Policy Bill Bennett.^[164] He supported "Operation Clean Sweep" and similar movements to prohibit firearm possession in public housing.^[163][165]

President Bush avoided federal antipoverty issues,^[166] and instead used Kemp as a mouthpiece to speak on the administration's low priority conservative activist agenda.^[167][168] Bush's contribution to the urban agenda had been volunteerism through his "Points of Light" theme,^[169] and Kemp received stronger support for his ideas from presidential candidate Bill Clinton.^[170] By the time of the Los Angeles riots of 1992, Bush was a bit late in supporting enterprise zones, tenant ownership and welfare reform:^[8] Mort Zuckerman compared Bush's vision on racial issues to that of a man riding backwards in a railroad car.^[171] Nonetheless, the riots made Kemp a focal point of the administration,^[172][173] even though at first, Kemp had been overlooked.^[174] However, Charles E. Schumer had probably summarized the prospects of Kemp's success in advance best when he said in 1989, "Good ideas with money can do a whole lot. Good ideas without money aren't probably going to do a whole lot," and the issue here was the decision not to fund Kemp's ideas.^[109] Although Kemp was unable to procure money for his visions, he was among the administration's leading users of first class corporate jets.^[175] He cited lingering effects from a knee injury as the reason he had to fly first class at government expense as the Housing Secretary.^[44]

Generally, his time as housing secretary was considered unsuccessful.^[5] However, although he could not get federal funding for empowerment zones passed during his tenure, by 1992 38 states had created empowerment zones,^[176] and in 1994 $3.5 billion was approved for them under President Clinton.^[177] A free market Kemp initiative to allow homeowners to subdivide their houses for the purpose of creating rental units without inordinate bureaucracy did not get executed under the Clinton administration, however.^[178] In 1992, with H. Ross Perot mounting a formidable campaign, Kemp was again considered a vice presidential candidate.^[179][180]

Kemp was partly at fault for not achieving either of his primary goals because he did not get along with the rest of the Cabinet.^[97] At one point, Kemp told James Baker, White House Chief of Staff, that Bush's best chance to win reelection was to dump his economic advisors in dramatic fashion.^[181] Before the 1992 Republican National Convention, Kemp and six prominent Republican conservatives prepared a controversial memo urging Bush to revise his economic policy.^[182]

Contemporaneously, conservative Republicans in office and in the media such as William F. Buckley Jr. and George Will felt Dan Quayle should be ousted in favor of Kemp.^[183] This followed Kemp's reference to parts of the President's economic policy as "gimmicks" after the 1992 State of the Union Address.^[184] Kemp was respected within the party for opposing Bush,^[185] and towards the end of Bush's administration insiders recognized his value.^[186] In late 1991, 81 of the 166 Republican Congressmen signed a letter co-authored by Curt Weldon and Dan Burton requesting that Bush cede some domestic authority to Kemp as a "domestic policy czar."^[185] The letter, highlighting Kemp's "energy, enthusiasm and national clout", insulted Bush.^[187] Kemp was a bit of a surprise to stay in the Bush Cabinet for the duration of his presidency,^[188] and he was described as one of the few Bush Administration members who would take tough stands.^[189] Kemp did not expect to be retained if the Republicans were reelected in 1992,^[190] and some pundits agreed with him.^[186]

Post-HUD years (1993–1996)

Kemp gave public speeches for $35,000 apiece between his time as Housing Secretary and his vice presidential nomination. By 1994, Kemp had embarked on 241 fund-raising dinners to raise $35 million for a 1996 Presidential bid and to pay off his 1988 campaign debts.^[8] After stepping down from his $189,000 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development job, Kemp personally earned $6.9 million in the next three years, primarily for speaking on behalf of local Republican candidates.^[96][191] During the Super Bowl XXVIII festivities, Kemp hosted a notable fundraiser series.^[192]

Kemp was considered the star of the 1992 Republican National Convention.^[193] In 1992 and 1993, Kemp was considered the favorite or co-favorite for the 1996 Presidential nomination.^{[194][195][196]} At the time of the 1994 mid-term elections, Kemp was widely anticipated to announce his candidacy for 1996,^[197] and his supporters wanted a formal announcement by the end of the year.^[198] In January 1995, Kemp's stated reason for not entering the 1996 Republican Party presidential primaries was that his personal beliefs were out of balance with the contemporary Republican political landscape: Kemp opposed term limits, he always preferred tax cuts to anything resembling a balanced budget amendment and, unlike most Republicans, favored federal incentives to combat urban poverty.^[199][200]

In 1995, Gloria Borger noted Kemp was not in step with the 1994 Contract with America.^[201] Kemp also noted a distaste for the vast fundraising necessary for a Presidential campaign.^[202] Gergen stated that by 1996 the selection process had become so expensive, mean and personally invasive that it discouraged several top Republicans from running.^[203] In 1995, while the world awaited the campaign decision announcement by Colin Powell, Kemp had positive thoughts on the prospect of such a campaign.^[204]

Senate Majority Leader Dole and Gingrich appointed Kemp to head a tax reform commission, (the Kemp Commission), in response to voter concern that the tax code had become too complicated.^[205] Kemp championed many issues including the flat tax,^[91] which he formally proposed after he was appointed.^{[206][207][208]} The proposal included some politically popular income tax deductions, such as mortgage interest,^[209] but it remained fairly general.^[210] Among the 1996 Republican Party candidates, both Steve Forbes and Phil Gramm proposed the flat tax.^[208][211]

During the campaign, Kemp's endorsement was highly coveted.^[212][213] Forbes had tried to get Kemp to run in the 1996 campaign, but Kemp declined and in fact endorsed Forbes just as Dole was closing in on the nomination, and just after Dole gained the endorsements of former contenders Lamar Alexander and Richard Lugar.^[8][214] Some feel the primary reason for the endorsement was to keep the flat tax idea and other supply-side views alive.^[215][216] Many thought Kemp had destroyed his own political future with the endorsement, and Kemp profusely apologized to Dole's campaign offices.^[8] After it became clear Dole would be the nominee, Kemp attempted to form a bipartisan seminar with Felix Rohatyn to produce a fiscal plan that could be endorsed by both parties.^[217]

Kemp was also outspoken on immigration on around this time: according to Kemp's interpretation of a scientific index that he and Bennett support, "immigrants are a blessing, not a curse."^[218] In 1994, Kemp and Bennett opposed California ballot Proposition 187, a measure to bar illegal immigrants from obtaining public services, in direct opposition to first-term Republican California Governor Pete Wilson, one of its endorsers who was running for re-election.^[219][220] Republican Senate candidate Michael Huffington had also endorsed the proposition.^[221] Kemp supported rights for illegal immigrants, and opposed Lamar Smith and Alan Simpson's proposed restrictions on legal immigration.^[222]

Vice presidential nomination (1996)

Main article: 1996 United States presidential election

Bob Dole and Kemp were featured on the cover of Time, but were nearly displaced by a story about Mars (inset on cover)

Kemp had a reputation as the highest-profile progressive Republican. When Dole declined an invitation to speak to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, he suggested Kemp as a substitute even before Kemp had become the vice presidential nominee.^[223] On August 5, 1996, Dole announced a 15% across-the-board tax cut in response to both the Forbes campaign and Kemp's tax reform commission. Several of Dole's other campaign ideas came from Kemp and Bill Bennett's Empower America, which had Jeane Kirkpatrick, Weber, Forbes and Alexander as principals. For example, Dole borrowed Kirkpatrick's tough foreign policy, Bennett's "right conduct" and even Alexander's school choice interest.^[224]

Bennett declined the offer to be Dole's running mate but suggested Kemp,^[225] a man described as Dole's antagonist.^[226] On August 16, 1996,^[227] the Republican Party chose Kemp as its vice presidential nominee, running alongside former Senator Dole. Kemp was seen as a means to attract conservative and libertarian-minded voters like those of tough nomination-challengers Forbes and Pat Buchanan.^[228] Kemp was chosen over Connie Mack, John McCain, and Carroll Campbell,^[229] and it is assumed that this was partly because Kemp had several former staffers in influential positions as Dole's senior advisors.^[230] Dole had had a long history of representing the budget-balancing faction of the Party, while Kemp had had a long history of representing the tax-cutting advocates,^[231] and Kemp's tax-cutting fiscal track record was seen as the perfect fit for the ticket.^[232] When Kemp became Dole's running mate in 1996, they appeared on the cover of the August 19, 1996 issue of *Time* magazine,^[233] but the pair barely edged out a story on the reported discovery of extraterrestrial life on Mars, which was so close to being the cover story that Time inset it on the cover and wrote about how difficult the decision was.^[234]

The two politicians had a storied history stemming from alternative perspectives and objectives. Dole was a longstanding conservative deficit hawk who had even voted against John F. Kennedy's tax cuts, while Kemp was an outspoken supply-sider. In the early 1980s, according to David Stockman, Kemp persuaded Reagan to make a 30% across-the-board tax cut a central 1980 presidential campaign feature. Once Reagan was elected, Dole was the Senate Finance Committee chairman who Kemp claims resisted the plan every step of the way. Dole concedes he expressed reservations about the 1981 plan. The big confrontation came after the tax plan was approved and after Dole subsequently proposed tax increases that he referred to as reforms. Kemp was vocal in his opposition to the reforms and even penned an op-ed piece in The New York Times, which enraged Dole. Reagan supported the reforms at Dole's request, causing Kemp to summon allies to meetings to stop the act, which eventually passed in 1982.^[235]

At the 1984 Republican National Convention, Kemp, along with allies such as Gingrich and Lott, added a plank to the party platform that put President Reagan on record as ruling out tax increases. Gingrich called this action "Dole proofing" the platform, and the plank passed over Dole's opposition. Then, in 1985, Dole proposed an austere budget that barely passed in the Senate with appendectomy patient Pete Wilson casting the tying vote and Vice President Bush casting the deciding vote. In meetings with the president that excluded Dole, Kemp reworked the budget to exclude crucial Social Security cutbacks. This is said to have been Dole's most crushing political defeat and to have contributed to the Republican loss of control of the Senate. During the 1988 presidential election, the two antagonized each other. After Bush won and Kemp left Congress for the Cabinet, the two did not really cross paths again until 1996, when Kemp endorsed Dole's opponent Forbeson the eve of the New York Primary in March.^[235]

Dole despised Kemp's economic theories,^[94] but he felt Kemp-like tax cuts offered his best chance at electoral success.^[236] For his part, Kemp had to make concessions as well: he had to back expelling the children of illegal immigrants from public schools despite his longstanding opposition to Proposition 187 and mute his opposition to abolishing affirmative-action programs in California.^[227][237] Some derided Kemp for his compromise and referred to him as a "con artist".^[238] From the outset of their campaign, Dole-Kemp trailed,^[239] and they faced skeptics even from within the party.^[240] However, Kemp was able to use the nomination to promote his opposition to Clinton's partial birth abortion ban veto.^[241] During the campaign, Kemp and Forbes advocated for a stronger stand on tax cutting than Dole used.^[242][243] However, in general, the opinion was that Kemp was helpful to the ticket's chances of catching Bill Clinton,^{[244][245][246]} and Kemp's advocacy gave a clear picture of the tax reforms that would likely occur on the condition of a successful campaign.^[247] Kemp was seen as likely to influence several types of swing voters, especially those of his native state of California,^[231] and even the Democrats feared Kemp might lure voters.^[238]

After receiving the nomination, Kemp became the ticket's spokesman for minorities and the inner-city.^{[248][249][250]} Due to agreement on the self-help policy that Louis Farrakhan has endorsed in many fora including the Million Man March, Kemp in a sense aligned himself with Farrakhan.^[251][252] However, Farrakhan was perceived as being anti-Semitic,^[252] and Kemp was considered an ally of Republican Jews.^[253] This issue necessitated some political sidestepping.^[252] As the nominee, Kemp at times overshadowed Dole.^[241] In fact, more than once, Kemp was described as if he was the presidential nominee.^[241][254] In addition to having overshadowed Dole, despite the negative ad campaigns that the ticket used, Kemp was a very positive running mate who relied on a pep rally type of campaign tour full of football-related metaphors and hyperbole.^[255]

Although some enjoyed Kemp's style, referring to him as the Good Shepherd,^[255] his detractors, such as U.S. News & World Report writer Steven V. Roberts, criticized the extensive use of recounting stories of passing balls relative to the use of recounting stories of passing bills.^[256] During the campaign, Kemp expressed the opinion that Republican Party leaders did not stand behind the ticket wholeheartedly.^[257] Despite Kemp's voice on minority issues, Colin Powell's support and polls that showed about 30% of blacks identified themselves as conservatives on issues such as school prayer, school vouchers and criminal justice, the Republicans were unable to improve upon historical support levels from African-American voters.^[258]

Both Al Gore and Kemp had presidential aspirations, which induced pursuit of debate on a higher plane.^[259] In addition, Gore and Kemp were long-time friends, unlike Gore and his previous vice presidential opponent Dan Quayle. Thus, as debaters they avoided personal attacks.^[260] However, some felt Kemp failed to counter substantive attacks.^[261] In the final October 9, 1996 vice presidential debate against Al Gore (held as the Dole–Kemp ticket trailed badly in the national polls), Kemp was soundly beaten,^[262][263] and Al Gore's performance is considered one of the best modern debate performances.^[264] The debate topics ranged broadly from the usual such as abortion and foreign policy to the unusual such as an incident preceding the then-current baseball playoffs, in which Roberto Alomar, the Baltimore Orioles' second baseman, cursed and spat on an umpire.^[265][266] The Mexico policy debate was one of the more interesting topics for critical review.^[267] The Gore victory was not a surprise since Kemp had been outmatched by Gore in previous encounters,^[95] and Gore had a reputation as an experienced and vaunted debater.^[268]

Late career

In 1993, Kemp, Bennett, Kirkpatrick and financial backer Theodore Forstmann co-founded the free market advocacy group Empower America,^[90][269] whichlater merged with Citizens for a Sound Economy to form Freedom Works. Empower America represented the populist wing of the party: while avoiding divisive issues such as abortion and gay rights, it promoted free markets and growth over balancing the budget and cutting the deficit.^[270][271] He resigned as Co-Chairman of Freedom Works in March 2005 after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) questioned his ties to Samir Vincent, a Northern Virginia oil trader implicated in the U.N. Oil-for-food scandal who pleaded guilty to four criminal charges, including illegally acting as an unregistered lobbyist of the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein.^[272] Testimony about Kemp became prominent in the trial.^[273] Also, FBI informant Richard Fino tied Kemp to James Cosentino just weeks before the 1996 election.^[274]

By 1996, Kemp had been named a director of six corporate boards. He was a director for Hawk Corporation, IDT Corporation, CNL Hotels and Resorts, InPhonic, Cyrix Corporation and American Bankers Insurance Group.^[275][276] Kemp briefly served on the board of Oracle Corporation, whose CEO was his friend Larry Ellison,^[277] in 1996, but resigned when he ran for vice president; he was named to the board of Six Flags, Inc. in December 2005.^[278] Kemp opted not to stand for re-election to IDT's board in 2006.^[279] He also served on the Habitat for Humanity board of directors,^[280] and served on the board of Atlanta-based software maker EzGov Inc.^[281]

Kemp also served on the board of directors of Election.com,^[282] which was the private company that ran the world's first election on the internet (won by Al Gore), the 2000 Arizona Democratic Primary. Kemp was also a business partner with Edra and Tim Blixseth promoting membership in the elite private ski and golf Yellowstone Club. Kemp also partnered with the Blixseths in a failed anti-terrorism software venture called Blxware which was investigated for "conning" the federal government out of $20 million in contracts for software which fraudulently claimed to detect secret messages from Al-Qaeda in television broadcast signals.^[283] Kemp was the founder and chairman of Kemp Partners, a strategic consulting firm that helps clients achieve both business and public policy goals.

In addition to corporate boards of directors, Kemp served on several advisory boards such as the UCLA School of Public Policy Advisory Board, and the Toyota Diversity Advisory Board as well as the Howard University Board of Trustees, on which he served since 1993.^[280] On March 25, 2003, Kemp was selected as chairman of the board of Directors of USA Football, a national advocacy group for amateur football created by the National Football League (NFL) and the NFL Players Association. The organization supports Pop Warner, American Youth Football, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, National Recreation and Park Association, Police Athletic League, YMCA, and the Amateur Athletic Union.^[9] He was also vice president of NFL Charities.

In 1997, when Gingrich was embroiled in a House ethics controversy, Kemp served as an intermediary between Dole and Gingrich to save the Republican Party leader.^[292] Later, in 2002, when Lott made caustic remarks about Strom Thurmond, Kemp was upset, and he supported Lott's apology, saying he had encouraged him to "repudiate segregation in every manifestation."^[293] Kemp was among the prominent leaders who pledged to raise money in 2005 for Scooter Libby's defense when he was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in a case regarding the release of Central Intelligence Agency information.^[294]In the late 1990s, Kemp remained outspoken on political issues: he was critical of Clinton's International Monetary Fund lax policies toward South Korea.^[284] 

In early 1998, he was a serious contender for the 2000 United States presidential election, but his campaign possibilities faltered,^[285] and he instead endorsed eventual winner George W. Bush. Kemp continued his political advocacy for reform of taxation, Social Security and education.^[9] When a 1997 budget surplus was earmarked for debt repayment, Kemp opposed the plan in favor of tax cuts.^[286] Along with John Ashcroft and Alan Krueger, he endorsed reform of payroll taxes to eliminate double taxation.^[287] In addition to his fiscal and economic policies, Kemp advocated against abortion when Congress was considering a bill banning intact dilation and extractions.^[288] He also advocated for retired NFL veterans on issues such as cardiovascular screening, assisted living, disability benefits, and the 2007 joint replacement program.^[289] He argued in support of reforming immigration laws.^[290] In the late 1990s, Kemp also was a vocal advocate for free market reform in Africa, arguing that the continent had great economic growth potential if it could shed autocratic and statist governmental policies.^[291]

In June 2004, Kemp rescinded his support of Vernon Robinson for Congress due to the latter's views on immigration laws, citing Robinson's choice to run "as a Pat Buchanan Republican".^[295][296]

In 2006 Kemp, along with 2004 vice-presidential nominee John Edwards, co-chaired the Council on Foreign Relations task force on Russia,^[297] producing a document called "Russia's Wrong Direction: What the United States Can and Should Do".^[298] After their task force roles ended, the pair advocated solutions to poverty in America at various fora.^[299]

Kemp with then-United States Senator Barack Obama at the Public Internet Channel launch at the National Press Club in 2006.

On January 6, 2008, Kemp endorsed McCain in the**2008**Republican presidential primaries shortly before the New Hampshire primary, which surprised conservative Republican tax cutters.^[300] However, as McCain neared the official nomination, the press associated McCain with Kemp more and more.^[301] Kemp prepared an open letter to Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham and other conservative talk show hosts on McCain's behalf to quell their dissatisfactions.^{[302][303][304]} In addition, Kemp and Phil Gramm advised McCain on economic policy.^[305]

He was a syndicated newspaper columnist.^[306]

In February 2008, Kemp was associated with a group called "Defense of Democracies" that was advocating an electronic surveillance bill that failed in the House of Representatives. The group's television ad caused such controversy that some of its advisors, including Schumer and Donna Brazile, resigned.^[307]

He was a member of the advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation^[308] and served as Co-Chair of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Cabinet.^[309]

He was a board member for the Lott IMPACT Trophy, which is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott, and is awarded annually to college football's Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year.^[310]

Illness and death

Kemp in 2007

On January 7, 2009, Kemp's office issued a statement announcing that he had cancer; the type of cancer and the anticipated treatment were not announced. Hisdiagnosis and prognosis were never publicly disclosed. However, he continued to serve as chairman of his Washington-based Kemp Partners consulting firm and continued his involvement in charitable and political work until his death.^[311][312]

On May 2, 2009, Kemp died at his home in Bethesda, Maryland, from cancer of unknown primary origin; he was 73.^[313] President Barack Obama praised Kemp's work on race, adding that Kemp understood that divisions involving race and class stood in the way of the country's common goals.^[314] Former President George W. Bush said that Kemp "will be remembered for his significant contributions to the Reagan Revolution and his steadfast dedication to conservative principles during his long and distinguished career in public service."^[313] Kemp was survived by his wife, four children, 17 grandchildren and one great-grandson.^[315]

Legacy

Kemp speaks at theNational Press Club in 2006.

Kemp's legacy includes the Kemp–Roth Tax Cut of the 1980s, also known as the first of two "Reagan tax cuts." These served as the foundation of supply-side economics, known as Reaganomics. Many Republicans have endorsed this Laffer Curve view that tax cuts spur economic growth and reduce deficits. Although George H. W. Bush called this philosophy voodoo economics, George W. Bush and his Treasury Secretary, John W. Snow, were believers.^[316] Kemp is also remembered alongside George Wallace and William Jennings Bryan for influencing history by changing the direction of presidential elections despite their defeats.^[317]

In the early 21st century, Kemp continued to be considered along with Reagan as the politician most responsible for the implementation of supply-side tax cuts and along with Steve Forbes as the political figure most responsible for their continued place in the marketplace of political ideas.^[318] He has been described as a beacon of economic conservatism and a hero for his urban agenda.^[319][320] Today, he continues to be described as a hero to fiscal conservatives who believe that free markets and low taxes work better than government bureaucracies.^[107][302] Kemp was considered the leader of the progressive conservatives who adhere to the hard right on social issues, but avoid protectionist fiscal and trade policy.^[321]

In addition to Roth, he has had numerous political allies. At times, he collaborated with Gingrich and Lott on deregulation and tax cuts,^[5][322] collaborated with McCain and Phil Gramm on tax cuts and spending restraints,^[323] legislated with and campaigned for Joseph Lieberman,^[324] and fought poverty with James Pinkerton.^[97] Pete du Pont was a progressive conservative ally.^[321] After retiring from Congress and serving in the Cabinet, Kemp remained close to Gingrich, Lott, Weber, and Mack.^{[8][201][325]}

Kemp was a member of the federal committee to promote Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday.^[244] As a progressive voter, he had civil rights leaders such as Benjamin Hooks, Andrew Young and Coretta Scott King and conservative black intellectuals like Glenn C. Loury and Robert L. Woodson as supporters and friends.^[109] He boasted of having Democratic friends such as William H. Gray III, Charles B. Rangel and Robert Garcia.^[7] Ken Blackwell was a Deputy Secretary under Kemp.^[326] During the Reagan presidency, when Kemp was able to effect tax cutting, a leading United States Senate tax-cutting proponent was Democrat Bill Bradley, a former basketball star.^[327] Several American football players have followed Kemp to Congress, including Steve Largent,^[328] J. C. Watts,^[329] and Heath Shuler.^[330]

Congressman Paul Ryan cites Kemp as a mentor, and mentioned him in his acceptance speech as the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee in 2012.^[331]

Senator Arlen Specter in a severe rebuke of federal governmental policy, stated just one day after Kemp died of cancer, that Kemp would still be alive if the federal government had done a better job funding cancer research.^[332]

Following Kemp's death, his son, Jimmy Kemp, created the Jack Kemp Foundation to continue his father's legacy.^{[333][better source needed]} A 501(c)(3) charitable organization, the foundation's mission statement is to "develop, engage and recognize exceptional leaders who champion the American Idea". The foundation is located in Washington, D.C., and is committed to advancing the universal values of the American Idea: growth, freedom, democracy and hope.^[334]

The football stadium at Occidental College is named after him.^[335]

Electoral history

Main article: Electoral history of Jack Kemp

Books

football stadium at Occidental College is named after him.^[335]

Electoral history

Main article: Electoral history of Jack Kemp

Books

==

now a foundation, along w/ WT

http://www.jackkempfoundation.org/about-us/

To develop, engage and recognize exceptional leaders who champion the American Idea.

The Jack Kemp Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to advancing the universal values of the American Idea of growth, freedom, democracy and hope.  Each of our programs is intended to foster the spirit of leadership that Jack Kemp demonstrated, expand the impact of powerful ideas on public policy, and prepare a new generation of leaders who can translate principled ideas into action.

Background

The Jack Kemp Foundation was originally created to preserve and provide access to Jack Kemp’s extensive collection of writings and correspondence as Congressman, Cabinet Secretary, and Vice Presidential candidate, originally under the custodianship of Pepperdine University.

After his death in May, 2009, however, the Foundation felt compelled to expand its mission. For his family, friends and colleagues, there was obviously a deep personal loss. But just as profound, it became very apparent that a voice and set of clearly thought-out ideas were now missing from the American scene. The Foundation recognized that Jack Kemp’s message and life’s work of articulating and promoting ideas about growth, democracy, freedom and hope needed to continue.

The first order of business was to preserve and advance Jack Kemp’s legacy and its impact on America’s political history and future. The Kemp Legacy Program grew out of a generous grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, augmented by individual donors, and enriched through partnership with the Library of Congress, the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, and the Buffalo Bills.   The Kemp Collection, now housed at the Library of Congress, a Kemp Chair also at the Library supporting research on the American Idea, and a wide-ranging oral history of his life and career, are ongoing near-term achievements of the Kemp Legacy Project.

But the Foundation and its Board were equally committed to looking forward even as we honor the past.

Throughout his life, Jack Kemp believed that sports were a microcosm of our society and our competitive way of life. The spirit of competition leads to productivity and requires cooperation, where both the weak and the strong succeed. In Kemp’s view, people are lifted up not only by their own efforts but by the inspiration and help they receive from those who achieve the highest.

Jack Kemp, as a former professional quarterback and head of a players’ association, devoted a great deal of his time to helping athletes become effective public servants. James Kemp, Foundation President, former professional athlete and Jack Kemp’s son, has continued this effort serving as a resource for athletes who aspire to careers in public service.

**The Kemp Leadership Academy** helps professional athletes who have leadership potential understand and refine their own political, economic and social views. Situated in Washington, D.C, the Academy offers an attractive location to develop and engage professional athletes as they transfer the lessons and values learned on the playing field to the political arena.

Jack Kemp was also a fierce advocate for the power of ideas, and especially for what he called The American Idea:The Declaration of Independence applies to every individual; everyone should have the same opportunity to rise as high as their talents and efforts can carry them; and while people move ahead, we should endeavor to leave no one behind.

With encouragement from a wide network of friends,  supporters, and fellow advocates of the power of ideas, the Foundation establishedthe Kemp Forum. The Kemp Forum provides a platform for the competition of ideas, inviting participants who bring passion, creativity, wisdom and civility to policy debates.  Kemp Forum events range from small gatherings to larger conferences and include written contributions published through this website.

Senior Staff

Jimmy Kemp is President of the Jack Kemp Foundation, which he established in 2009.  Its mission is to develop, engage and recognize exceptional leaders who champion the American idea, beginning with the premise that the condition of your birth shouldn’t determine the outcome of your life.

Mr. Kemp co-founded and is the Managing Partner of Kemp Partners, a strategic consulting firm based in Washington DC.  Established in 2002, Kemp Partners provides government relations and corporate affairs services to a diverse clientele.   Mr. Kemp has represented Fortune 500 companies as well as burgeoning firms before Congress, the White House and several federal agencies.

He is also Executive Vice President of Group 47, a digital data storage company which is bringing to market a new archival media called DOTS (Digital Optical Technology System).   DOTS enables digital files to be stored in easily readable form for over 100 years, even under conditions of benign neglect.

Mr. Kemp spent eight seasons as a quarterback in the Canadian Football League, finishing his career in 2001 with the Toronto Argonauts.

Mr. Kemp was the founding Board Chairman for Hope Community Charter School,  located in northeast Washington DC. The school serves 735 pre-k through grade 8 students and has been operating since September 2005. Mr. Kemp is a graduate of Wake Forest University. He and his wife, Susan, have four boys and reside in Washington DC.

Michelle Van Cleave is Senior Advisor to the Jack Kemp Foundation and directs the Kemp Legacy Project.  A lawyer and national security consultant in private life, she served as head of U.S. counterintelligence under President George W. Bush. Her first job in Washington DC was on Congressman Kemp’s staff, where she was Defense and Foreign Policy Assistant to Chairman Kemp and the House Republican Conference.  Subsequently she  held other senior staff positions in the Congress (including staff director, Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information; Minority Counsel, House Science, Space and Technology Committee; and professional staff member, House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations), at the Pentagon coordinating homeland defense policy in the aftermath of 9/11, and in the White House Science Office, where she served as Assistant Director and General Counsel under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Ms. Van Cleave sits on the Board of Directors of the Jamestown Foundation and the Association of Former Intelligence Officers.   She is a member of the bar of the State of California and the District of Columbia, and a Senior Fellow at George Washington University.  She holds M.A. and B.A. degrees in International Relations from the University of Southern California, and a J.D. from the USC School of Law.

Mort Kondrackewas the first scholar to hold the Jack Kemp Chair in Political Economy at the Library of Congress and has covered all phases of American politics and foreign policy as both a print and broadcast journalist. He recently retired, after 20 years, as executive editor and columnist for the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call; he remains with the publication as senior editor.

From 1977 to 1991, he was executive editor and senior editor of The New Republic. He also served as Washington bureau chief of Newsweek and as a columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was a regular panelist on “This Week with David Brinkley” and a panelist in the 1984 presidential debate. For 16 years, Kondracke was also a panelist on the syndicated public affairs show “The McLaughlin Group,” and he has been a commentator on Fox News Channel since 1996.

Kondracke received the Washington Post “Crystal Ball Award” in 1994 for predicting the Republican takeover of Congress and was runner-up in 1996. He is also the author of the best-selling book “Saving Milly: Love, Politics and Parkinson’s Disease,” which was the subject of a CBS Sunday Night Movie.

Kondracke is a graduate of Dartmouth College and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He is a trustee of Dartmouth College and co-author (with Fred Barnes) of Jack Kemp: the Bleeding-Heart Conservative who Changed America(2015).

==

LI

Jimmy Kemp

Technology and Political Entrepreneur

Washington, District Of ColumbiaInformation Technology and Services

Current

Group 47 Inc., Jack Kemp Foundation, Kemp Partners

Previous

Hope Community Charter School, an Imagine School, Squire Patton Boggs LLP, EnTrust Capital

Education

Wake Forest University

Websites

Jack Kemp Foundation

Group 47

500+

connections

View Jimmy’s full profile. It's free!

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Summary

As Kemp Foundation President, I am focused on developing, engaging, and recognizing exceptional leaders who champion the American Idea. We have 3 program areas: Kemp Legacy Project, Kemp Leadership Academy and Kemp Forum. Learn more at www.jackkempfoundation.org.

At Group 47, we have invested in a game changing technology that stores digital data in an archivally stable media for 100 years. The product is called DOTS, we have one client who has hired us to build a prototype to re-prove the concept. A former Fortune 500 company invented the technology and we acquired the intellectual property.

Specialties: public policy, federal marketing, litigation, business transactions, growth and opportunity politics, long term data storage, throwing a football and coaching.

Experience

Group 47 Inc.

Executive VP Federal Systems

Group 47 Inc.

February 2011 – Present (5 years 7 months)

Group 47, LLC owns and is committed to solving the world's long term data storage problems with DOTS (Digital Optical Technology System). DOTS is the only storage media free from the problems of corrosion, delamination, fading dyes, or damage by magnetic fields, static, water, or petrochemicals. DOTS is a non-magnetic, optical, archival, WORM media; fabricated using existing manufacturing techniques and adaptable to different form factors.

It is proven to be stable for over 100 years, even when stored in normal office environments and extremes ranging from -9º to 65º C. Because there are no demanding climate control requirements, DOTS is a low cost, green, environmentally-friendly way to truly archive data long term. Because of the techniques used to store data with DOTS, the problem of hardware obsolescence has been solved.

There is now a way to archivally store precious digital images and information without the need for extensive monitoring for degradation, and without the need for any costly migration.

Jack Kemp Foundation

President

Jack Kemp Foundation

August 2009 – Present (7 years 1 month)

The Jack Kemp Foundation exists to develop, engage and recognize exceptional leaders who champion the American Idea. President of the Jack Kemp Foundation, established to perpetuate and advance Jack Kemp’s contributions to American political thought and help educate the next generation of political leaders. To promote this mission, the Jack Kemp Foundation established the Kemp Legacy Project, Kemp Leadership Academy, and Kemp Forum. The Kemp Legacy project is comprised of the Kemp Oral History Project, the Kemp Collection at the Library of Congress, and the Kemp Chair of Political Economy at the John W. Kluge Center, also at the Library of Congress. The Kemp Leadership Academy provides education and personalized training to enrich the policy insights of professional athletes interested in public service. The Kemp Forum is a debate and discussion series providing a platform for the civil competition of ideas.

Kemp Partners

Managing Partner

Kemp Partners

2002 – Present (14 years)

Co-founder and Managing Partner of Kemp Partners; a Washington, DC based strategic and venture capital consulting firm representing Fortune 500 companies as well as small and midsized firms before Congress, the White House and several federal agencies.

Board Chair

Hope Community Charter School, an Imagine School

2004 – January 2016 (12 years)

Founding Chairman of the Board for the Hope Community Charter School located in NE Washington, DC. The school serves pre-k through grade 8 and has been operating since September 2005.

Squire Patton Boggs LLP

Director, Strategic Business Initiatives

Squire Patton Boggs LLP

August 2012 – January 2015 (2 years 6 months)Washington D.C. Metro Area

Squire Patton Boggs professionals serve clients at the intersection of business, government and the law.

VP Business Development

EnTrust Capital

January 2006 – June 2009 (3 years 6 months)

Raised funds for both EnTrust fund of funds and direct hedge fund products.

Quarterback

Canadian Football League

June 1994 – June 2002

Kevin Sheehan

Managing Director at EnTrust Capital

Bob Woodson

CEO at Center for Neighborhood Enterprise

Julise Daniel

Customer Service Coordinator-Graduate School of Business at George Mason University

Steve Forbes

Chairman and Editor-In-Chief at Forbes Media

Katherine Livick

Policy Research & Analysis | Human Rights Advocacy

Ja'Ron Smith

United States Senate

Dick Sehlin

Founder and Executive Vice President at Group 47 Inc.

Juan Carlos Garcia

President at JC Temporary Laborers Inc.

Shermichael V. Singleton

Political Consultant

Rob Hummel

President, Group 47, Inc.

American Legislative Exchange Council will push bills toprotect failing charter schools, silence political speech, and obstruct environmental protections in the ALEC 2016 agenda introduced at its annual meeting in Indianapolis this week.

ALEC faces renewed public attention as it gears up for the annual meeting, where corporate lobbyists sit side-by-side with state legislators in luxury hotels to vote as equals on "model bills" that then get pushed to become law in states across the country.

As the Center for Media and Democracy has reported, Donald Trump chose an ALEC ally, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, as his running mate, while his party's 2016 platform was clearly stamped in the Koch-fueled ALEC mold.

Pence Pushed ALEC Agenda in the Hoosier State

As Governor, Penceappointed an ALEC staffer to his cabinet, and pushed parts of the ALEC agenda into law, such as anti-worker bills like repealing the prevailing wage and privatizing public schools in various ways. He even sent a letter to state legislators urging them to join ALEC, which is widely described as a corporate bill mill. ALEC is funded by Koch Industries, Peabody Energy, huge global tobacco and drug companies, and other corporations that pay a premium to access ALEC lawmakers.

Conveniently for him, this year's meeting will be held in the snazzy J.W. Marriott in downtown Indianapolis. Pence is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at lunch on Wednesday, then is slated to speak at an :{evening reception on :(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}::{school "reform":(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}: jointly hosted by the Center for Education Reform (CER) and the Jack Kemp Foundation (JKF).

If Pence had time to stay for a few task force meetings, here are some of the new "model bills" he would find voted on behind closed doors by ALEC legislators alongside corporate lobbyists and representatives of special interest groups that are part of the State Policy Network (SPN).

Second Chances for Failing Charter Schools

The for-profit education companies that help fund ALEC, like K12, Inc., have a track record of poor results that tends to result in a high rate of school closures. K12, which was founded in part by junk bond fraudster felon Michael Milken, has a seat and a vote on ALEC's corporate board.

Two new bills being considered by what ALEC now dubs its "Education and Workforce Development Task Force" could help poorly performing charters stay open without having to improve.

Under the Assessment Choice Act, instead of using a uniform assessment for students statewide, charters' authorizers would take their pick from a "menu" of tests, unlike traditional public schools.

If propping up test scores isn't enough to save a charter from closure, the "Student and Family Fair Notice and Impact Statement Act" promises to add new hurdles. Before closing or restructuring a charter school, this act would not just require that families be notified. It would also create a public hearing process in which parents, teachers, and "experts" could give testimony about the school, and the charter board would be allowed to suggest a response plan.

In case it wasn't obvious that the bill is meant to keep the charter in operation, the drafter of that model bill added:

"[drafting note: it should be clear the school can present an alternative for supporters of the school to rally around.]"

School privatization proponents have slowly been dropping the pretense that the "school choice" movement is about helping underprivileged children. At a workshop titled "The Path to Universal Choice: From Theory to Passage to Implementation," lawmakers will be schooled on how to "open up more options to the middle class."

ALEC Aims to Silence Political Speech With Anti-Divestment Bill

While ALEC purports to support "limited government," its bills show that is code for unlimited corporate power, even from democratic control by stockholders.

For example, ALEC bills have leveraged right-wing ALEC control of state legislatures to try to stifle political movements that are winning the battle for public opinion, as CMD has previously reported in its coverage of ALEC's preemption strategy, among other areas.

This ALEC meeting includes a proposal opposing the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions Movement (BDS), which has been growing in strength, especially on college campuses.

The BDS Movement is an international campaign to use economic pressure to push the state of Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories and to allow Palestinian refugees the right of return to their homes.

While a healthy public debate is ongoing about the pros and cons of BDS, ALEC's proposal as described doesn't merely express opposition to the movement. Instead, it apparently aims to silence political speech and activity:

"The goal of the resulting model policy will be to create disincentives to engaging in (and prohibit to the extent possible) secondary boycott activities."

ALEC host Indiana and a handful of other states have passed similar anti-boycott bills, which the American Civil Liberties Union has criticized as unconstitutional limits on speech.

This is all par for the course for ALEC, which opposed anti-Apartheid sanctions, as CMD's Nick Surgey uncovered with Calvin Sloan. ALEC has long opposed citizen stockholder movements to urge socially responsible investing.

Still Attacking Public Sector Unions After Losing in the Supreme Court

Earlier this year, a split U.S. Supreme Court left standing a lower court's decision to uphold public sector union fees in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. As CMD documented, ALEC sibling group SPN organized anti-union protests at the Court before the case was decided.

Undaunted, ALEC's "Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development" Task Force is presenting a combined version of its long-standing "Right to Work" Act and Public Employee Choice Act. The new version has been re-branded the "Friedrichs Public Employee Freedom Act" to try to get more mileage from the case. Its namesake Rebecca Friedrichs is a photogenic school teacher and rightwing activist who tried to pave the way for free-riders to get out of union dues. Friedrichs herself is an invited speaker at the conference.

To advance this agenda, the task force meeting will hear just from proponents at a presentation titled, "A State Strategy toProtect Public Employees' Free Speech Rightsin the Wake of Friedrichs v. California Teachers' Association." The presentation will likely unfold the next steps of ALEC's Koch-y anti-union strategy.

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philly

By Alexander Cockburn

POSTED: August 24, 1996

Gabbing on mercilessly about freedom and free enterprise in his high-pitched voice, Jack Kemp is probably the most relentless windbag in American politics today. And his audiences, submissive as only Americans can be, often seem to be under the impression they are receiving Big Ideas.

The theory that Kemp is a man of ideas stems from the fact that in the 1970s he became the eager asset of an intelligent and entertaining propagandist named Jude Wanniski.

Son of a New York bookbinder, Wanniski worked on The Wall Street Journal editorial page until, eagerly promoting the New Jersey Senate campaign of his friend Jeff Bell, he was observed by his superiors distributing Bell fliers on a Morristown railway platform. Wanniski was thereupon detached from the editorial staff, though still given the run of the page.

Wanniski was enamored of thesupply-side tax theories of a Columbia University professor named Robert Mundell, and advocated tax cuts and a return to the gold standard. Soon thereafter, he became the intellectual guru of the Republican congressman from Buffalo, Jack Kemp, who channeled Wanniski's view to a national audience.

Wanniski successfully imparted to Kemp the knack of projecting compassion for the downtrodden, while simultaneously blaring out paeans to the free-enterprise system in tones enormously reassuring to the prime beneficiaries of that system. Kemp's well-heeled audiences learned to their delight that the politics of compassion carried a price tag no more onerous than a promise to cut the capital gains tax in half.

Bilked by George Bush of the vice presidential slot in 1980, Kemp/Wanniski still looked strong in the early to mid-1980s. Ronald Reagan's tax cuts came in the form of the Kemp-Roth bill, and Kemp struck back at the prime foe of supply-siders, the Federal Reserve, by getting anti-Fed language inserted into the Republican platform for 1984.

But a 1988 bid for the Republican presidential nomination went nowhere. Kemp ended up as secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Bush, where heprojected compassion through crusades for free-enterprise zones for the cities (tax breaks for investors in target areas) plus home ownership for renters in public housing.

This attracted rivers of ink, but to date, out of 1.2 million public housing units, only 200 have actually been sold. It would have been cheaper to take all the public money squandered on the scheme, run a raffle and buy condos for the lucky thousand winners. Kemp had not taken into account a free-enterprise system that left renters too poor even to afford upkeep on the units that they had acquired at no cost.

Kemp's vaunted compassion for the downtrodden stops abruptly at the water's edge, though his support for international cutthroats has been little publicized.

Take his support of the Renamo mercenaries in Mozambique. Renamo was originally financed by white settlers in Rhodesia and by the South African apartheid regime to harry Mozambique's leftist government. A 1988 State Department report described vividly how 100,000 civilians had been massacred by Renamo, in the words of a New York Times story about the report, ``shot, knifed, axed, bayoneted, burnt, starved, beaten, drowned and throttled.''

When Reagan received the lawful president of Mozambique, Joachim Chissano, at the White House in 1987, Kemp led a group of 19 Republican congressmen in protest, proclaiming they would invite Renamo's boss to Washington as an antidote. Kemp once sent a letter to this blood-stained criminal, saying, ``Best wishes for continued success.''

Kemp was equally rabid in Central America, where he made haste to consort with death squad regimes in El Salvador and Guatemala. He cosponsored a bill with Jesse Helms to throw a third of a billion dollars to the Nicaraguan contras. El Salvador's most notorious death squad boss, the late Roberto d'Aubuisson, was reported by the Sept. 10, 1987, Washington Post as saying he hoped Kemp ``would come to power soon . . . because we both need each other.''

Alexander Cockburn is a columnist for the Nation magazine.

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Abrams Key Denier of Human Rights Abuses by Salvadoran Government

Of the Romero assassination, Abrams told the Washington Post in 1993 [9] that "anybody who thinks you're going to find a cable that says that Roberto d'Aubuisson murdered the archbishop is a fool." But as the Post noted in that same article, the U.S. Embassy sent at least two such cables to Washington fingering d'Aubuisson -- the December 21, 1981 cable, for example, describes: "A meeting, chaired by Maj. Roberto d'Aubuisson, during which the murder of Archbishop Romero was planned. During the meeting, some of the participants drew lots for the privilege of killing the archbishop."

Memorial at El MozoteBut Abrams is perhaps best known for denying one of the worst atrocities of the war, the massacre at El Mozote, where in December 1981 U.S-trained government soldiers marched into a village and murdered around 800 civilians, many of whom were women and children. The men were tortured before being shot, and girls as young as 10 were raped before having their throats slit. Abrams, who at the time was Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, dismissed reports published in the New York Times and Washington Post about the massacre, telling a Senate committee tasked with certifying the Salvadoran government's human rights record that the reports of deaths "were not credible" and suggesting the guerrillas had "significantly misused" the stories for propaganda. The U.N. Truth Commission later confirmed the newspapers' reports on the massacre, and the Salvadoran government (which elected its first left-wing president ever in 2009) officially apologized for the event in December of last year.

These and other denials helped justify another ten years of United States funding for the Salvadoran military and its death squads.The tiny country would receive$6 billion from the U.S. over the course of its civil war, making it the second-highest recipient of U.S. aid behind Israelduring that period, despite mounting death tolls and continued atrocities.

Elliot AbramsAbrams has remained unrepentant about U.S. policy in El Salvador, calling it [9] "one of fabulous achievement." He was convicted in 1991 of two misdemeanors for unlawfully withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal but was pardoned by the first President Bush.

Abrams, Neocons Passing the Torch to VP Pick Ryan

This week,The Daily Beastfirst reported [10] that Abrams' latest act is advising Republican GOP candidate Ryan on foreign policy. Abrams told the website Ryan "knows more about foreign policy than people may think, in view of his concentration on the economy." Other right-wing foreign policy experts told The Daily Beast that despite Ryan's professed fiscal conservatism, he, like Reagan, supports spending billions or trillions to preserve U.S. military power and international influence. 

Ryan has long been mentored by neoconservative Republican leaders who advanced U.S. policy in El Salvador. His first job in D.C. was as an aide to Sen. Bob Kasten of Wisconsin, a cheerleader for sending billions to El Salvador's brutal military government and who in the 1980s chaired the Senate foreign operations appropriations subcommittee responsible for approving those funds.

After Kasten lost his seat to Russ Feingold in 1992, Ryan became a speechwriter for the right-wing think tank Empower America, which was founded by Jeane Kirkpatrick and Jack Kemp. As a foreign policy adviser to Reagan in 1980 Kirkpatrick famously defended the rape, murder, and torture of four American Catholic missionaries (three of whom were nuns and one a lay missionary) at the hands of El Salvador's government forces, claiming "the nuns were not just nuns. The nuns were also political activists." Kirkpatrick went on to become Reagan's UN Ambassador.Kemp, who Ryan **recently identified** [11] as a key mentor, was also a major supporter of U.S. funding to El Salvador's military government.

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Now Kemp did not become President, but he did become Secretary of HUD under Bush the First. And—of course—Charlie cashed in on the connection. On July 3, 1989, an article in U.S. News & World Report, "Can Jack Kemp clean up the HUD mess?" connected Black to a growing s- See more at: http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/kemp_jack#sthash.2yphRcjq.dpuf