“I’m talkin’ about friendship. I’m talkin’ about character. I’m talkin’ about - hell. Leo, I ain’t embarrassed to use the word - I’m talkin’ about ethics.”–Johnny Caspar, Miller’s Crossing
Huffington Post
Frank Schaeffer
The Cult of The Warrior –
Jack Kemp Was Right: McCain Would Be Too Dangerous as President
Posted May 18, 2008 | 10:01 PM (EST)
In 2000 Jack Kemp (former congressman and Bob Dole’s vice presidential candidate) told me, “McCain is a war maker, and I’m a peacemaker, so is George Bush. McCain would be too dangerous as President.” (By the way, I noted this conversation in my book Crazy For God long before McCain was running for President in 2008 — and therefore before Kemp’s statement was topical.)
Jack and I were arguing on the phone about the then Republican primaries. I still had Jack’s home number from back in the 80s when I was a right wing activist and regular guest in his home. In 2000 I liked McCain — in contrast to Bush — so I had briefly jumped back into some Republican political activism, something I’d gotten rusty at after I bailed because of what might be called post right-wing-nut stress disorder, i.e., burnout. Trying to stop Bush seemed like a patriotic duty, so I dusted off old phone books and sallied forth to no avail. Bush not only won, Bush soon sent my Marine son to a war of choice.
These days Jack Kemp (just like the rest of the Republican establishment) is supporting McCain. But in 2000 the Republican establishment’s suspicion of McCain was overt. McCain — went the word in the insider’s Republican network — was “unstable.”
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Images: (Miller’s Crossing) via usmovies1.yimg.com via pulpetti.blogspot.com; (sailor hat) worldoffancydress.com;(McCain) AP Photo by Mary Altaffer via huffingtonpost.com (Quote) imdb.com