I’ve done my own reckoning with my past—maybe it’s time for Gerson to do some soul-searching of his own. After all, as George W. Bush’s top speechwriter, he helped reportedly helped inject the “mushroom cloud” scenario and “yellow-cake to Niger” language into the president’s speeches—the same language that helped scare the nation into going to war with Iraq in 2003.
Jack Kemp was one of the few high profile Republicans who possessed the wisdom and foresight to oppose that intervention. Said Kemp in 2003, “it would be a tragedy if a few war hawks pushed us into an unnecessary invasion and occupation of an Arab country.”
I will regret the stupid things I said as the “Southern Avenger” for the rest of my life and have denounced them. I do not know if Michael Gerson feels remorse for the damaging and misleading language he has helped craft—words that led to the national tragedy Jack Kemp warned us about.
But let’s leave Jack Kemp out of this. Fine, Rand Paul is not Jack Kemp. But no Republican today is doing more to honor and continue Kemp’s legacy of trying to bridge the longstanding gulf between black America and the Republican Party. We should be applauding him—not tearing him down.
