Jesse Helms Died - Former Sen. Jesse Helms died on the Fourth of July, a fitting end to a career built on battling liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during 30 conservative years in Congress.
Jesse Helms died peacefully in the erlay morning hours, but will be remembered for his combative spirit and uncompromising beliefs.
“Compromise, hell! … If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?” Helms wrote in a 1959 editorial that foretold his political style.
Early on, his habit of blocking nominations and legislation won him a nickname of “Senator No.” He delighted in forcing roll-call votes that required Democrats to take politically difficult votes on federal funding for art he deemed pornographic, school busing, flag-burning and other cultural issues.
In 1993, when then-President Clinton sought confirmation for an openly homosexual assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Helms registered his disgust. “I’m not going to put a lesbian in a position like that,” he said in a newspaper interview at the time. “If you want to call me a bigot, fine.”
After Democrats killed the appointment of U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle, a former Helms aide, to a federal appeals court post in 1991, Helms blocked all of Clinton’s judicial nominations from North Carolina for eight years.
Helms also played a role in national GOP politics — supporting Ronald Reagan in 1976 in a presidential primary challenge to then-President Ford. Reagan’s candidacy was near collapse when it came time for the North Carolina primary. Helms was in charge of the effort, and Reagan won a startling upset that resurrected his challenge.
“It’s not saying too much to say that had Senator Helms not put his weight and his political organization behind Ronald Reagan so that he was able to win North Carolina, there may have never been a Reagan presidency,” Cobey said. “Most people feel like there would have never been a President Reagan had it not been for Jesse Helms.”
Asked to gauge Clinton’s performance overall, Helms said in 1995: “He’s a nice guy. He’s very pleasant. But … (as) Ronald Reagan used to say about another politician, `Deep down, he’s shallow.’”
Helms and his wife, Dorothy, had two daughters and a son. They adopted the boy in 1962 after the child, 9 years old and suffering from cerebral palsy, said in a newspaper article that he wanted parents.
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July 4th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
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