Redstate

about Jeanne Kirpactick. I hadn't heard of her before your post. Thanks!

In Pace Requiescat Jeanne.

-Miles Christianus
The U.S. Constitution - It's in there; look it up.

Some other things to remember about Jeane Kirkpatrick:

She was a leftist early in her academic career and later joined the Democratic Party, becoming active in party politics and political campaigns in the 1970s. But she grew disillusioned with the foreign policy of President Jimmy Carter and eventually left the party, aligning herself with the conservative policies of Ronald Reagan.

And that epiphany of hers explains a great deal about why she was so roundly despised by the American Left and in much of academia during her tenure at the United Nations. As David Horowitz (and, to a much more modest extent, myself) have learned pointedly: once you leave the plantation you can expect to be treated as the enemy.

And speaking of her role in American foreign policy, anyone who doesn't think that John Bolton's inability to be confirmed as U.N. Ambassador by this Senate doesn't bode ill for America and its role in the world isn't thinking clearly. If anything, Kirkpatrick was a more forceful advocate for America than Bolton has been during his short tenure, and we couldn't even muster the votes to keep him there:

Kirkpatrick advised Reagan on foreign policy during his 1980 presidential campaign, and he nominated her as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations after defeating Carter that year. Kirkpatrick served in the U.N. post from 1981 to 1985 and was a member of Reagan's Cabinet.

After leaving the administration, she returned to the American Enterprise Institute and to Georgetown University.

At the United Nations, "she never forgot who she was representing," Bolton told reporters this morning in a brief tribute to Kirkpatrick. "She was a great scholar. She was one of the most outstanding advocates of American foreign policy in our history."

Bolton, who formerly worked with Kirkpatrick at AEI, became emotional as he recalled her influence on him. "I benefited very greatly," he said, his voice quaking.

"She spoke clearly for liberty in the world [and] made it clear during tensions in the Cold War that America's interests here at the U.N. were advanced when the cause of liberty was advanced," Bolton said.

With the death of Jeane Kirkpatrick, the resignation of Bolton and Rumsfeld, the Donks in control of bouth Houses, the President defenestrated, and the vast mediocrity and defeatist intonations of the ISG report playing in the background, this is a grim day for America, and I expect more of them to come. Who can blame our enemies for rejoicing and predicting the End of America?

From the GayPatriot, the end of the speech (or is that the "rest of the story"), highlighting is mine...

The American people know that it's dangerous to blame ourselves for terrible problems that we did not cause.

They understand just as the distinguished French writer, Jean Francois Revel, understands the dangers of endless self- criticism and self-denigration.

He wrote: "Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself."

With the election of Ronald Reagan, the American people declared to the world that we have the necessary energy and conviction to defend ourselves, and that we have as well a deep commitment to peace.

And now, the American people, proud of our country, proud of our freedom, proud of ourselves, will reject the San Francisco Democrats and send Ronald Reagan back to the White House.

God I miss Jeanne Kirkpatrick.
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If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"?

It's only grim if you accept defeat. Bush sounded anything but defeatist yesterday. And McCain and Giuliani have both made clear that the ISG is not part of the future that they will have anything to do with (haven't heard from Romney yet, but I doubt he'll be much different). Let's see all the Republican candidates running on the James Baker platform. 22 years since Kirkpatrick gave her address, the debate has returned. The GOP stands for a strong assertion of American purpose and interests, while the Democrats blame the US first and seek appeasement from weakness.

First Milton Friedman and now Jeane Kirkpatrick. We've truly lost some of our best and brightest this year.

She earned a spot as one of the truly great minds in the history of American foreign policy. She will be deeply missed.

Jeanne, say hi to Ronnie up there for us.

mbecker, What a great post, I think the world of her. No Dems left like her, well, maybe Lieberman on a good day. History will treat her very well.

I remember Kirkpatrick calling herself a “welfare conservative” (in the 1980s) because she still had sympathy for the Democratic domestic agenda. It quite a statement when people of her caliber (for example, Zell Miller) have to turn away from the Democratic Party in disgust. She’s what Ed Koch might call a “common sense liberal.” Such people made the Democratic Party a worthy contender in its better days.

I’d welcome a revived Democratic Party in the FDR, Truman, JFK mold. I don’t share their domestic agenda but at least they weren’t part of the hate-America chorus. They were a worthy opposition.

Hey--great minds think alike. It's a truly great speech, though, and bears repeating!

"I'm kind of old-fashioned. I like to engage my brain before my mouth." Donald Rumsfeld

courtesy of National Review OnLine

America's Iron Lady [Bill Bennett]

It was early in the Reagan administration—a lot of the older-GOP guard was still a little distrustful of this neoconservative group, wasn't sure what to make of us, or even to trust us. Some of us were still Democrats after all (including Jeane and myself).

Members of the administration used to give talks to the larger administration, I think they were in Constitution Hall. Jeane's turn came and I remember feeling a chill in the room...until she took to the podium. She took her glasses off in that wonderful professorial way she had, cleared her throat, and said, "The U.S. has been getting kicked around a lot lately at the UN, and I just want you to know President Reagan and I think that's wrong. And as long as I'm here, we're not going to be kicked around anymore!" The place went crazy. All doubts left the room right there and then.

She and I became closer and closer over the years. She was a strong woman who believed in a strong America because she believed strongly in freedom and democracy. She made us all better, she made America better. She was our, America's, Iron Lady.

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If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"?

in my moral morass, I deemed her unworthy. But by 1984 the scales had fallen from my eyes [pace St. Paul] and I had largely come around to her world view.

Bill Bennett is right about her being made of iron, as she had a bit of a prickly disposition which made her unpopular in Foggy Bottom.

But she was prescient about San Francisco Democrats....

We need more leaders and thinkers like Jeanne Kirkpatrick -- quickly, before it's too late. May she rest in peace.

Leonidas

While a democrat, this giant was one of the people that caused me to question the democrats from the beginning of my adult involvement. When I saw her dignity in the face of hysterical college crowds denouncing what I deemed the obvious truth about the evil that was communism and the exceptional good that is America, I was forced to begin one of many self re-definitions of what "kind" of democrat I was.

She had what I have. An assurance of righteousness born of having been up close and personal with lib-dems behind closed doors. Its not pretty. Girded with that knowledge, no one can shake the faith in conservatism that I have. Nor could they shake JK's.

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"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
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