Why Southern Arizona mourns the loss of the patriot from Patagonia
From time to time Congressman Jim Kolbe would stop in to meet with our Editorial Board here at the Star to take questions and give us updates on what he’d been working on back east in the U.S. House of Representatives. The first time I met Jim at one of these meetings I remember I was seething with malice aforethought because back in ’84 he had defeated the progressive Congressman Jim McNulty, an Arizonan who was sure to be our state’s next Mo Udall.
In private conversation after the meeting, I asked Jim about his combat duty with the swift boat force in Vietnam and I shared with him that both of my brothers had served in the war and that my oldest brother Don, who had been a medic in Charlie Company, had just died. The Congressman sat down with me and asked me about both of my brothers, their tours of duty, about their return and what had become of them when they returned to the states after the war.
In 2018, his beloved Republican Party, the Party of Goldwater, had branded him a RINO, a Republican in name only. There was no room in their shrinking “Big Tent” anymore for a “Thinking Republican.” Jim became an Independent. It was civic pleasure to spar with Jim, whether it was over doing away with the penny or his vote for the Defense of Marriage Act, because he was so damned civil.
The last time I saw Gentleman Jim was in a 2021 Zoom interview. To the end Jim was cheerfully focused on effecting positive change for the nation he loved.
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