I’ve often admired Ed Koch’s thinking. I haven’t always agreed with him but I appreciate his bipartisanship. That bipartisanship is manifested in this column about his life. Let’s look at him through his eyes, starting with this:

I had been told by Congressman and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Manny Celler, with whom I discussed how to assist the Soviet Jews and others seeking visas to leave the Soviet Union, that I should visit with Ford. He was soon to become vice president and then president of the United States. At that time, we did not know it. In those days, everyone in the House, on both sides of the aisle, was on a first-name basis. I said, “Jerry, I need your help to bring those permitted to leave the Soviet Union into the country.” His reply was, “I will help, these are good people, they will never go on welfare.” Little did we know how many did. But he helped and saved many lives.

Mayor Koch’s thoughtfulness is as apparent as his priorities. It’s apparent that Koch put a high priority on saving lives. It didn’t matter to him who was willing to help. He simply appreciated anyone willing to step in. That’s the primary characteristic of a statesman. Ed Koch certainly surpasses that threshold with ease. The next part is my personal favorite from this column:

Ford lost to Jimmy Carter. I came to know Carter well.

When he ran for reelection, he asked me to campaign for him in 1980; I was by then Mayor of New York City, and I said that I would vote for him, but not campaign for him because he was then engaging in hostile acts towards Israel. I was popular with the Jewish community and when I would not campaign for him unless he changed his position, he called me to his hotel in New York when attending a fundraiser and said, “You have done me more damage than any man in America.” I felt proud then, and even more today, since we now know what a miserable president he was then and the miserable human being he is now as he prepares to meet with Hamas.

Anyone that thinks of Jimmy Carter as reprehensible because he’s anti-semitic and pro terrorist gets an A+ from me. I can’t cite anything redeeming about Carter. That Mayor Koch would call President Carter “a miserable president” speaks volumes about Mayor Koch’s principles.

Finally, there’s this:

Now we come to the last president on this list, George W. Bush. I campaigned for his reelection and have no regrets. I believe that history will treat him more kindly than current public opinion polls indicate. He and Tony Blair recognized the danger of Islamic terrorism to the Western world when most world leaders did not. In addition, he is a very nice guy.

Mayor Koch has likely earned the ire of the nutroots with that statement but he should wear that as a badge of honor. I’ve long maintained that President Bush will earn a higher grade from historians than he’s currently getting. The impressive thing is that Mayor Koch won’t let partisanship stand in the way of his priorities. The US House and Senate would be much better off if Ed Koch and the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan roamed the halls instead of Eliot Engel and Hillary Clinton.

I can’t say that Mayor Koch believes in all the right things. His enthusiastic support of liberal social programs prevents me from saying that. That aside, I’m perfectly comfortable in saying that Mayor Koch’s foreign policy and national security policies are as good as it gets.

That’s why I consider Ed Koch to have lived life well.

Technorati Tags: Ed Koch, Statesman, National Security, Israel, Jimmy Carter, Hamas, President Bush, Terrorism, Pat Moynihan, Hillary

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog