Jesse Helms 1921-2008
By Ben Domenech Posted in Jesse Helms | Republicans | RIP — Comments (65) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Jesse Helms, a warrior for the conservative cause, passed away this morning.
Jesse Helms was a controversial figure to the American left, but he was beloved by his colleagues and by many of his ideological foes. Madeleine Albright kissed and danced with him. Joe Biden loved him. Elizabeth Edwards said her husband was just like him. Helms considered Bono a personal friend.
Helms in person was very unlike the caricature the left painted of him. He was strongly opposed to the United Nations and what he saw as encroachment on American liberty, and yet was one of the first Republicans to endorse a strong worldwide foreign aid policy on AIDS relief. He never graduated from college, and never shook off his lower class upbringing, but through hard work and commitment earned the respect of his friends, his colleagues and even his enemies.
Ever a fighter against the encroachment of bureaucracy and ever-expanding big government, Helms was an old school conservative in that regard. Once, when facing the prospect of a government shutdown, he is supposed to have said to his colleagues: ""Every day these buildings are closed, the Republic grows stronger." And he certainly believed it.
He was a warrior and a patriot. The date of his death is fitting indeed.
RIP.
Who speaks for conservatives who are both fiscally and socially conservative? Not McCain. Not Rudy. Not Huckabee. And, sadly, not Romney.
Maybe Tom Coburn is our guy. I like the fact that he hates pork barrel politics. McCain should consider Coburn for the Veepstakes.
Proudly supporting John S. McCain for President (McCain/Romney?)
Per Mitch McConnell upon Helms' retirement in 2002;
"There's an enormous temptation once you come here to try to please your critics," McConnell said. "Senator Helms has resisted that temptation."
And it is precisely what made him so well respected by every single member of the US Senate. He knew where the lines were and he refused to sit back in the name of Comity™, Get Things Done™ and/or Bipartisanship™ and let them be crossed, his critics be damned.
If there is a lesson to be learned by Republicans from this man's career, it is that fighting for what you believe in is what makes the difference. Helms fought, and because of that he left a mark that a compromiser never would.
RIP Jesse Helms. I wish you left behind more like you.
"First you win the argument, then you win the vote." - MARGARET THATCHER.
So let's start winning the argument.
Despite the hate and vitriol directed at him by the left, Senator Helms never once wavered from his principles. His passing and his refusal to bend when it came to principle highlights the paucity of statesmanship and spine on the Republican side of the aisle these days.
RIP Senator Helms. You were on the side of conservatives, and on the side of America.
Of all the things I have been able to do in politics and all the people I have been able to meet, meeting Senator Helms is one of my favorites.
I met the Senator on two occasions. I was running a congressional campaign in North Carolina during the 2004 cycle and I attended two dinners that the Senator also attended. Both times he was incredibly gracious.
The second dinner I had two of my best college volunteers. When they saw the Senator, they were in awe. I asked the Senator after dinner if my volunteers could have their picture taken with him. He said, "Of course. And what about you? Do you want a picture?"
What makes that encounter even more impressive was Senator Helms has already endorsed another candidate in my race. He knew who I was working for and still was as kind as he could be. He had to have known that me getting a picture of the Senator with my volunteers would only make them help out even more. He didn't care. He truly loved young people and would do anything for them.
McCain for POTUS so the left can't ruin SCOTUS.
Fitting that he should pass on Independence Day.
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Just like PayPal, except it's free and a $25 bonus to sign up!
...posters would celebrate Helms' death.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/4/11388/55738/621/546543
Why does a dog lick his ****, because he can.
The modern version, Why do KOS kids have no class, because as children they can.
Vote for the Adults, vote Republican.
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NObama...no way!.....McCain '08 !
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." - The Chief Justice
if we can expect the same diary to appear at Kos when Senator Byrd passes?
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Just like PayPal, except it's free and a $25 bonus to sign up!
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Just sayin', it's not going to be balanced or respectful as they were to him.
The best thing about Jesse Helms is that all the right people hated him.
Helmes won his seat five times because he did not sway in his beliefs. Thank God.
It's my opinion, and everyone's entitled to it.
I was proud, and the citizens of North Carolina were privileged, that you served as our esteemed senator for thirty years.
You were a true patriot, and America is a much better place because of your unselfish devotion to this great country.
***
“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.” – Ronald Reagan
Liberals are doing the normal hateful snide comments on a man that just died
Liberals always said Jesse was a racist
Helms fought to protect the life of the unborn no matter their race -thats not racist to me
He fought for Thomas to be a SC Justice- thats not racist to me
Jesse fought for largest AIDS package which benefits many Africans-thats not racist to me
Liberals long to still use the race card no matter how much denying it they do
HATE is the only family value that the left embraces.
Slip inside the eye of your mind
Dont you know you might find
A better place to play
You said that youve never been (sounds like bean in order to rhyme w/seen)
But all the things that youve seen
They slowly fade away
So Ill start a revolution from my bed
cuz you said the brains I had went to my head
Step outside, summertimes in bloom
Stand up beside the fireplace
Take that look from off your face
You aint ever gonna burn my heart out
And so, sally can wait
She knows its too late as were walking on by
Her soul slides away
But dont look back in anger
I heard you say
Take me to the place where you go
Where nobody knows
If its not our day
Please dont put your life in the hands
Of a rock and roll band
[and? youll? ] throw it all away
Im gonna start a revolution from my bed
cuz you said the brains I had went to my head
Step outside, cuz summertimes in bloom
Stand up beside the fireplace
Take that look from off your face
cuz you aint ever gonna burn my heart out
And so, sally can wait
She knows its too late as shes walking on by
My soul slides away
But dont look back in anger
I heard you say
So, sally can wait
She knows its too late as were walking on by
Her soul slides away
But dont look back in anger
I heard you say
So, sally can wait
She knows its too late as shes walking on by
My soul slides away
But dont look back in anger
Dont look back in anger
I heard you say
At least not today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-ysg62GmFo
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." - The Chief Justice
In addition to Sen. Jesse Helms, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826. Five years later James Monroe died on july 4, 1831.
Extreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive government competition with business … frustrated minorities and forgotten Americans are not the products of free enterprise.Ronald Reagan
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." - The Chief Justice
I write as one who worked in Jesse Helms' first Senate campaign as a college student and who once served as a USDA attorney under the sponsorship of Helms' office. Jesse Helms did not hate black people, which seems to be the hardest thing his detractors have to understand. He supported segregation, as did Sam Ervin and other racial moderates (non-firebrands) of that earlier generation who believed that few blacks could compete and thrive in white society and that the best interests of both races would be served by keeping them apart. This was also the position, during his time, of Booker T Washington. When that battle was lost, and the time of segregation had passed in the minds of both races, Helms insisted, with other conservatives, that competition between the races then be strictly impartial and equal, without the subterfuge of quotas and set-asides to "cook" the outcome. This was the meaning of the "hands" commercial, which had nothing to do with Harvey Gantt's race, but with his support for the race-based programs Helms and most North Carolinians found to be pernicious.
Helms did hate communism. This is why he opposed the King holiday, believing the man to have been the tool of communists, if not one himself. And those who have been quick to jump on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, even among Democrats, have conveniently forgotten that Martin Luther King engaged in the same inflammatory anti-war rhetoric in his day.
Helms opposed "gay" sex for the same reason he opposed alcohol and narcotic drug abuse. These are activities which not only poison the body (as does tobacco), but also the mind and soul of those who engage. And it was the human soul, for Helms, a life-long Sunday School teacher, which was the paramount concern. As your obituary acknowledges, he would show compassion even for those who had sown the seeds of their own misery.
Jesse Helms held convictions which his adversaries found wrong-headed, but the one charge they could never get to stick, except in their own ignorant minds, was hypocrisy.
And, by the way, Helms' antecedents were not "lower class". His father was a political leader in his community. Jesse went to college at a time few of his high school classmates did. And he didn't "finish" because he left Wake Forest to enlist in the Navy in 1942. Unlike some of his colleagues on Capitol Hill, Helms did not suffer from lack of intelligence or education.
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." - The Chief Justice
Whether you happen to agree with Helms' views on any other issue is up to you, but wishing away his racism as a side-effect of the times in which he lived is pure silliness.
This is the man who bragged about tracking down Carol Mosley-Braun in a Senate elevator, so that he could sing Dixie to her. His segregationist rhetoric went far beyond that of Booker T. Washington and other more moderate segregationists of his day.
"Dixie" was the tune played at sign-off by WRAL-TV when Jesse Helms worked there and for years thereater. It's a sentimental favorite to many of us who were taught to revere the memory of the Confederacy, to whom our great-grandparents gave their lives, blood and fortune. The incident you recount was prompted by Moseley-Braun's gratuitous slap in Sen. Helms' face, blocking an insignificant piece of legislation he sponsored concerning a copyright on Confederate memorabilia. If this is the worst Jesse Helms ever did to anyone, he was a saint without peer.
Barack Obama, Illinois' second black U.S. Senator, by the way, would have the good sense to whistle along. That is why he may be elected President, even in southern states.
On former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois
After Moseley Braun fought Helms' effort to renew a Confederate flag insignia for the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1993, the two found themselves in an elevator.
“I jokingly told her I was going to sing ‘Dixie' until she cried. Entering into the good-natured banter, she slapped me on the back and told me to hush. We all laughed. Somewhere between the elevator and her office, Senator Braun began to repeat endlessly a story that made it sound like I had taunted her and she begged me to stop. That was not reality.”
http://www.charlotte.com/171/story/700320.html
1993: Helms gets into the Senate elevator with black colleague (and rival) Carol Moseley-Braun and begins singing "Dixie," telling another senator, "I’m going to sing ’Dixie’ until she cries." Moseley-Braun’s response: "Senator Helms, your singing would make me cry if you sang ’Rock of Ages.’ "
http://www.charlotte.com/112/story/699660.html
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." - The Chief Justice
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
I'm sure the man had redeeming qualities, yet to praise him for those accomplishments and ignore his blatant racism is dishonest.
Because I know Jesse Helms, and that is not the Jesse Helms I know.
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“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.” – Ronald Reagan
Can you be so stupid as to think we'll pay any attention to a propaganda group like FAIR?
I mean, your hateful ideas aside, it's just dumb to link to a group like that, some biased group with no credibility as a fair arbiter of anything, and expect to use it to bolster your cause.
but you can't discount the facts. That's fine. I felt bad about even getting involved in speaking ill of the dead especially so soon after his death. I offer my prayers to his family and I pray that God have mercy on his sould.
However, I think it's crazy to try pretend that Sen Helms was something he was not.
And given that they're an advocacy group that has a long track record of attacking conservatives, anyone should be able to see they're not a credible source when arguing about the facts of conservatives.
You can call me ignorant, but I didn't know this was a left wing advocacy site. However, their quotes and examples are quite thoroughly cited. I'll try to find a less biased site to cite or just go to the source material in the future.
Maybe you should leave Senator Helms and his family out of your prayers, and include yourself. They don't need them, and maybe you do.
I do feel bad about bringing it up a day or two after his death. But the whitewash of Sen Helms' views (no pun intended) was a bit much to bear.
So, I don't apologize for offering a prayer nor do I apologize for pointing out the obvious about the Senator. I do pray for wisdom and humility and am grateful if others would pray for me also.
obvious about Helms what you think obvious, when I was ignorant, is that the obvious people that ACT racist are those that treat Blacks as inferior, i.e. liberal dems' affimative action and welfare laws, and that
Helms' ad was not racist at all.
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." - The Chief Justice
know about? Senator Helms was a good man and the judgement you've passed on him is ridiculous. FAIR? really?
Tim Schieferecke
I never spoke with Helms personally, but I know from his public speeches and comments that he believed in white racial superiority to blacks, at least into most of his adulthood. This was not a sign of prejudice or bigotry, but simply an empirical analysis, such as William Shockley's. By the same token, many people believe in the racial superiority of Chinese over whites, or of Jews over other whites. In this sense I would call Helms a "racialist".
But most people use the word "racist" as an epithet denoting hatred or bigotry. Neither of these was characteristic of Jesse Helms. He wished the best for black people, but didn't believe the objectives of the Civil Rights lobby would achieve that. What he saw as the "fruit" of the civil rights movement were the kinds of racial division which breed hatred between the races, from which we still suffer today. And in that I think Helms was prescient. While blacks have achieved positions of prominence unheard of in my youth, there is far less a sense of hope and optimism heard from blacks reported in the media today. A greater percentage of blacks go to all black schools today than when the public schools were integrated in the 60's and 70's, and yet that is considered barely an issue today. African Americans were sold a bill of goods as to what integration would do for them two generations ago, and that, together with the preferences given to minorities in government and major corporations, more than anything else, including latent white racism, is responsible for today's hardened attitudes and continued racial animosity.
Barack Obama, in some of his comments, and his unusual experience as a man with black skin growing up in a white liberal environment, gives indication that he understands these things. If he is elected President, I have some hope real progress might be made in this regard. He could be the equivalent of the anti-communist Nixon going to Red China in the area of U.S. racial relations. But I won't hold my breath.
It will be interesting to hear what obituary Obama gives Helms.
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." - The Chief Justice
A belief in "white racial superiority to blacks" in any meaningful way is racism. That there are degrees does not change the definition of the word itself.
It is generally assumed that Helms, as with many white Southerners of his age, was a racist in his youth and young adulthood, believing in "white racial superiority to blacks." It is also generally assumed that Helms, as with many white Southerners of his age, gave up such racist beliefs after the debate over segregation had been settled.
I know of no convincing evidence that would contradict the latter assumption in the case of Jesse Helms. If you have some, then by all means bring it to the table. But if you do not, then you should know that baselessly associating Helms' name with that of the eugenicist William Shockley is not a terribly effective way of defending his reputation.
what really matters is not so much what one thinks of IQ averages of groups, nor even what one might say about groups in private (and on this, I am not speaking of Helms), but rather how one treats individuals in life and the laws one supports.
After segregation
Helms favored NON-race based laws. He favored judging all individuals as individuals. He treated all people equally in public and private.
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." - The Chief Justice
And I don't think that going into Steve Sailer territory is necessarily indicative of racism (certainly not in the case of Sailer himself), although it's an area where one should tread very, very carefully.
But I've never heard of any evidence that Helms even went in for this business. And I'm sure that if there were any evidence that he had, this would have featured prominently on the list of allegedly horrible things that Jesse Helms said and did, as has long been circulated amongst his opponents.
Instead, the "proof" of his alleged racism in his senatorial career is pinned upon dodgy stories about whistling in elevators, rather than him actually saying or doing anything racist according to any definition other than "disagreeing with liberals." This, along with your observation that he treated people equally in both his personal and professional life, leads me to conclude that he didn't believe in the superiority of whites over blacks in any sense, and that he held no intellectual common ground with eugenicists.
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." - The Chief Justice
Both men died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
If I recall correctly, Jefferson's last words where, "Is it the fourth yet?". And Adam's last words where "Jefferson lives on" when in fact Jefferson had died earlier that same day.
Not only that, it was the same July 4th. 1826.
Smaller Government! Lower Taxes! Stronger Defense! More Liberty!
The New York Times observed: "Few senators in the modern era have done more to resist the tide of progress," and Robert Pastor, whose ambassadorship to Panama was scuppered by Helms in 1995, commented that, "nothing Jesse Helms did in his entire career will enhance America's national security more than his retirement."
The NYT conspired with Stalin to cover up for the starvation genocide in Ukraine. They conspire to telegraph to the terrorists what our plans against them are. And they hated Senator Helms.
Hmm.
You have qualified for the "Redstate Idiots Hall of Fame".
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." - The Chief Justice
When Ted Kennedy gets a brain tumor, the MSM spends days praising him. When Jesse Helms dies they mention his death briefly and then they bring up racism.
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"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
We should be throwing our hats into the air and praising racists EVERYWHERE!!!
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE MSM!!! OMFG!!!
Next time a racist dies, we'd better all be singing him praises. To do otherwise would be a DISGRACE!!!!
Therefore, MSM is hypocritical in its attitude toward both Kennedy and Helms. What else is new?
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Daniel 2:20 And he [God] changeth the times and seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding.
this man (happens to be Black and from Helms' hometown) could:
Jimmy Williams, who is black, owns a beauty supply store in Monroe's Main Street. A Democrat and Monroe native, Williams, 61, said he never voted for Helms.
“But the one thing you can say is that he was steadfast in his beliefs,” Williams said. “Some people hate him, but I would say he was a fair man.”
Many lib dems have insisted since the 60s thru today, that Blacks can't compete against whites and that they can't be held to the same moral standards. They are the racists.
Helms was not.
http://www.charlotte.com/171/story/700290.html
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." - The Chief Justice
I had a different take from almost everyone when that happened. As I saw it, the NEA exists first to help bring fine arts to communities across the country, mostly smaller cities that really need grants for community theater and the like. I remember thinking two things about Mapplethorpe; first, he should have had enough friends and supporters in the NYC arts community to not need an NEA grant (he only really needed a few hundred dollars for those prints), and second, someone at the NEA should have been empowered to say "no" to any frivolous application. I think Helms was trying to hold an agency accountable to its mission.
God rest his soul. For ten or twenty of his type in the Senate I think this republic might stand a chance!
Stand up, and let's acquit ourselves like men.