THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608110112
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO LENGTH: 69 lines
Bob Dole, after citing six guidelines for selecting a vice presidential candidate, picked Jack Kemp for just one reason: Kemp can excite and energize a crowd and connect with minorities.
Democrats were caught off guard. Kemp is the choice they fear the most as being most like them.
High on Dole's list of reasons was compatibility with his running mate, but he and Kemp are a political Odd Couple, long at cross purposes.
Dole is laconic, as sparing with words as a miser counting pennies from his purse. Kemp is voluble and effervescent, spewing words as a clown on the loose with a seltzer bottle. Dole is guarded, cautious; Kemp, open and emotional - which will enable him, some Republicans believe, to appeal to young voters.
While secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Kemp irked President Bush by criticizing the administration's policies.
Some Republicans distrust Kemp because he talks at times like a Democrat. They have tended to shunt him aside as if he were contaminated with a rare, dread disease: a streak of kindness.
Put off-balance by Dole's selection, Democrats sprang to attack Kemp, issuing 10 reasons Kemp was unfit for the job, the prime one being his ``extremism,'' which placed him outside the mainstream. But it is as if Dole had selected one of them.
When a show of compassion was in order, GOP leaders have called Kemp out of exile to tour riot-torn Los Angeles in 1992 and speak to the NAACP and the National Urban League. His sway with black organizations can be traced to his 14 years as a professional quarterback with Pittsburgh, San Diego and Buffalo. Kemp learned teamwork and brotherhood behind the line of guards, tackles and ends who protected him from being sacked by hard-charging foes.
Even the style of his silver white hair cupping his head and cut straight across the brow is reminiscent of a football helmet.
On the platform, his urgent, imperative high-pitched voice springs from the days when, calling signals on the gridiron, it cut through the roars of 50,000 fans.
Dole was outraged during this year's primaries when Kemp, who had promised to endorse him, plumped instead for a close friend, publisher Steve Forbes, whose campaign was breaking apart in the New York primary. Dole was cold to Kemp's officious efforts to bring together the two candidates after the primaries.
Among the issues on which they disagree, Dole would abolish affirmative action, Kemp favors it. Kemp also differs from Dole in opposing laws that would prevent illegal immigrants from receiving public benefits. The Republican platform would abolish the HUD.
But now, Dole has swung from being a deficit hawk to join Kemp as a tax-cutting, supply-side advocate.
Kemp's role as chairman of an economic commission advocating tax cuts equips him to carry the ball on that message, sparing Dole some of that stomach-turning duty.
At the 1992 convention in Houston, after Pat Buchanan had scared some of the delegates in calling for a cultural revolution and Phil Gramm had nearly bored them out of their wits, Kemp won them with an emotional appeal. ``This is the message of Los Angeles and every other pocket of poverty: We must be the party that gives everyone a stake in the system.''
Kemp, a candidate for president in 1995, withdrew on Super Bowl Sunday because he couldn't raise $30 million to wage a campaign. After years of living on a government paycheck, he said, he wanted to make some money for his family.
He did it by serving on corporate boards and making speeches for fat fees. Now he'll speak for free for a broader objective.
When Bob Dole deigned to recruit Kemp for his running mate, he showed his determination to do anything to win.
KEYWORDS: REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION 1996 by CNB