The Scrapbook’s colleague Fred Barnes took time out from his book tour last week to email us an exclusive addendum to his new biography of Jack Kemp, coauthored with Mort Kondracke.
Said Fred, “When you write a book, sometimes things get left out or cut or simply overlooked. I don’t really know what happened in the case of Lou Rotterman. But he was the forgotten man in Jack Kemp: The Bleeding-Heart Conservative Who Changed America. Rotterman was a newspaperman and a good one. He came to Washington in 1967 as the correspondent for the Dayton Daily News, and, one thing having led to another, he became the executive assistant and press secretary to a freshman House member from Buffalo in 1972—Kemp. A conservative, Rotterman liked Kemp’s style and his eagerness to cut taxes. And he was key to Kemp’s rise as a national political figure and influential policymaker.
“Rotterman was old school—that is, he kept his name out of the papers and Kemp’s name in. That was the way press secretaries used to operate. And maybe it was his anonymity that caused his name to be absent from the book. His son Marc, a political consultant, noticed his father’s name was not in the index, thus not in the book, and he informed me. I was chagrined. It was Lou Rotterman who had first hooked me up with Kemp.
“Rotterman helped Kemp get media attention, but that wasn’t all. He had Kemp’s back, particularly in Buffalo. Members of Congress who speak to a national audience, as Kemp did, often spend less time with their constituents. Rotterman took up the slack. ‘At the time Kemp was breaking out to become a national figure, Rotterman was essential,’ said David Smick, Kemp’s chief of staff. He pacified the Buffalo press corps. He negotiated with local officials. He took over some of Kemp’s administrative chores. And he also touted Kemp’s 30 percent cut in income tax rates, which Kemp persuaded Ronald Reagan to adopt, and Reagan sold to the country. Rotterman died in 2003.
“That his important behind-the-scenes role in Kemp’s rise didn’t make the pages of our book—all I can say is, Lou, I’m sorry.”
By the way, The Scrapbook can attest that Jack Kemp: The Bleeding-Heart Conservative Who Changed America is a great read, and we urge all of you to get a copy pronto, if you haven’t already done so.
