Give Jack Kemp credit. He spurned Bob Dole and endorsed Steve Forbes for the Republican presidential nomination on a matter of principle. But the way he delivered his endorsement — well, that’s another story.
Kemp fumed over attacks by Dole partisans in New York on Forbes’s proposal for a 17 percent flat tax. On March 3, he bawled out Buffalo congressman Bill Paxon, a Kemp protege, in the green room at CNN’s Washington bureau, threatening to stump for Forbes in New York before the March 7 primary. Two days later, he read that Dole himself had said the fiat tax would ruin New York’s economy.
That was it for Kemp; he was ready to back Forbes. But he was supposed to meet the next morning with big contributors ($ 25,000 minimum) to Empower America, the think tank where Kemp has a perch. He sent word he was sick with the flu. Bill Bennett, also at Empower America, thought Kemp was giving a speech in Missouri. Kemp’s press guy, Christian Pinkston, also didn’t know of Kemp’s plan. When he arrived at the airport to fly with Kemp to Missouri, the pilot told him they were going to Albany instead.
Bottom line: Forbes was happy, the contributors furious, Bennett miffed. Maddest of all was Newt Gingrich, who’s trying to unify the party behind Dole. He told friends he won’t meet with Kemp anymore. Oddly, the Dole forces weren’t too upset. “At least,” a senior adviser said, “we won’t have to put Kemp in the cabinet now.”
