One of my heroes died last night.

Jeane Kirkpatrick was a genuine intellectual; brilliant, honest, ever curious, blunt, even “acerbic” – an adjective I’ve seen on three different obits already. One wonders if Ambassador Kirkpatrick had been male if she would have been described that way.

She may have invented snark. Her cutting wit was justly famous around Georgetown University where she taught before getting the call from Reagan to be Ambassador to the United Nations. She served on his foreign policy transition team and impressed the President with her spirited defense of democracy and Israel. Her article in Commentary Magazine “Dictatorships and Double Standards” gave an ideological answer to leftists who wanted to cut off American aid to dictatorships for violating human rights at a time when the Soviets were on the march.

And despite the controversy of the subject, I will point out that Kirkpatrick, Ben Wattenberg, and Irving Kristol – former liberal Democrats all – helped define neo-conservatism.

They epitomized the neo-conservative movement. Liberal on social issues, moderately conservative on economic issues, and dyed in the wool anti-communists who left the Democratic party not only for their ruinous economic policies but also their pacifism in the face of Soviet aggression. They were warily welcomed by Republicans of the time who had learned over the years to have a healthy mistrust of Democratic intellectuals. But Kirkpatrick and others made deep thinking popular among rank and file conservatives again. In fact, thanks to Reagan, who brought several genuine conservative intellectuals into government like Martin Anderson, conservatives began to embrace the ideas bubbling up from think tanks and academia. In those heady days in Washington, ideas mattered a great deal. And seminal thinkers like Jeane Kirkpatrick whose vigorous defense of America at the United Nations became the stuff of legend, was in the forefront of the most important foreign policy debates of the time.

She was also a wife and mother – something she never let people forget. In a press conference following a particularly grueling UN session on the Middle East, Kirkpatrick said:

When the Syrian ambassador acted up, what I really felt like saying to him was, “Go to your room!”

And this in response to a question at one of her numerous seminars given at college campuses across the country:

Truth, which is important to a scholar, has got to be concrete. And there is nothing more concrete than dealing with babies, burps and bottles, frogs and mud.

But what endeared her more than anything to conservatives was her speech at the 1984 Republican Convention were she invented the term “Blame America First” regarding liberal Democrats of the time:

They said that saving Grenada from terror and totalitarianism was the wrong thing to do – they didn’t blame Cuba or the communists for threatening American students and murdering Grenadians – they blamed the United States instead.

But then, somehow, they always blame America first.

When our Marines, sent to Lebanon on a multinational peacekeeping mission with the consent of the United States Congress, were murdered in their sleep, the “blame America first crowd” didn’t blame the terrorists who murdered the Marines, they blamed the United States.

But then, they always blame America first.

When the Soviet Union walked out of arms control negotiations, and refused even to discuss the issues, the San Francisco Democrats didn’t blame Soviet intransigence. They blamed the United States.

But then, they always blame America first.

The crowd went nuts. And the Democrats have been on the defensive about foreign policy ever since.

It is perhaps inevitable that with her forceful personality that she should be compared to John Bolton who was a good friend and was queried today about his thoughts:

She took with her [to the UN] a reputation as a hard-liner on foreign policy. Because of this, she often was a lightning rod for the opposition. In some respects, she shared Bolton’s controversial profile. Bolton recently decided to resign when it became clear the Senate would not approve him full-time as U.N. ambassador.

Describing his work with Kirkpatrick at the American Enterprise Institute, Bolton told reporters Friday: “When I was at AEI in the late ‘90s for most of that time our offices were right next to each other and…” His voice then broke, and near tears he closed his eyes briefly, cleared his throat, and then continued in a quavering voice, “I benefited very greatly. It really is very sad for America, but she will be greatly missed.”

When a reporter noted that Bolton and Kirkpatrick had very similar attitudes, he replied, “I don’t really want to address that question.”

Yes, I suppose they did have similar “attitudes” – as if an American ambassador to the United Nations shouldn’t aggressively represent our interests in that body. The question reveals more about the reporter than it does about Bolton or Kirkpatrick.

In the end, of all that she had accomplished and was known for, she would probably be proudest of the fact that first and foremost, she was an American. And I might add, an American original at that.

One of our country’s best friends is gone. And I can’t think of a time when we needed her wisdom, her courage, and her driving personality more than right now.