DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: fatman on July 04, 2008, 02:46:36 PM
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Not one of my favorite people in the Senate, but noteworthy for some of his accomplishments.
Former Republican N.C. Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86
By WHITNEY WOODWARD and DAVID ESPO, Associated Press Writers
1 hour, 8 minutes ago
RALEIGH, N.C. - Former Sen. Jesse Helms, who built a career along the fault lines of racial politics and battled liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during 30 conservative years in Congress, died on the Fourth of July. He was 86.
"It's just incredible that he would die on July 4, the same day of the Declaration of Independence and the same day that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died, and he certainly is a patriot in the mold of those great men," said former North Carolina GOP Rep. Bill Cobey, the chairman of The Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University.
Helms died at 1:15 a.m, the center said. He died in Raleigh of natural causes, said former chief of staff Jimmy Broughton.
"He was very comfortable," Broughton said.
Funeral arrangements were pending, the Helms center said.
"America lost a great public servant and true patriot today," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said few senators could match Helms' reputation.
"Today we lost a Senator whose stature in Congress had few equals. Senator Jesse Helms was a leading voice and courageous champion for the many causes he believed in," McConnell said in a statement.
Helms, who first became known to North Carolina voters as a newspaper and television commentator, won election to the Senate in 1972 and decided not to run for a sixth term in 2002.
"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.
As he aged, Helms was slowed by a variety of illnesses, including a bone disorder, prostate cancer and heart problems, and he made his way through the Capitol on a motorized scooter as his career neared an end. In April 2006, his family announced he had been moved into a convalescent center after being diagnosed with vascular dementia, in which repeated minor strokes damage the brain.
Helms' public appearances had dwindled as his health deteriorated. When his memoirs were published in August 2005, he appeared at a Raleigh book store to sign copies, but did not make a speech.
In an e-mail interview with The Associated Press at that time, Helms said he hoped what future generations learn about him "will be based on the truth and not the deliberate inaccuracies those who disagreed with me took such delight in repeating."
"My legacy will be up to others to describe," he added.
Helms served as chairman of the Agriculture Committee and Foreign Relations Committees over the years at times when the GOP held the Senate majority, using his posts to protect his state's tobacco growers and other farmers and place his stamp on foreign policy.
His opposition to Communism defined his foreign policy views. He took a dim view of many arms control treaties, opposed Fidel Castro at every turn, and supported the contras in Nicaragua as well as the right-wing government of El Salvador. He opposed the Panama Canal treaties that then-President Carter pushed through a reluctant Senate in 1977.
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 occasionally opted for compromise in later years in the Senate, working with Democrats on legislation to restructure the foreign policy bureaucracy and pay back debts to the United Nations, an organization be disdained for most of his career.
And he softened his views on AIDS after years of clashes with gay activists, advocating greater federal funding to fight the disease in Africa and elsewhere overseas.
But in his memoirs, Helms made clear that his opinions on other issues had hardly moderated since he left office. He likened abortion to the Holocaust and the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"I will never be silent about the death of those who cannot speak for themselves," he wrote in "Here's Where I Stand."
Helms never lost a race for the Senate, but he never won one by much, either, a reflection of his divisive political profile in his native state.
He knew it, too. "Well, there is no joy in Mudville tonight. The mighty ultraliberal establishment, and the liberal politicians and editors and commentators and columnists have struck out again," he said in 1990 after winning his fourth term.
He won the 1972 election after switching parties, and defeated then-Gov. Jim Hunt in an epic battle in 1984 in what was then the costliest Senate race on record.
He defeated black former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt in 1990 and 1996 in racially tinged campaigns. In the first race, a Helms commercial showed a white fist crumbling up a job application, these words underneath: "You needed that job ... but they had to give it to a minority."
"The tension that he creates, the fear he creates in people, is how he's won campaigns," Gantt said several years later.
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."
During the 1990s, Helms clashed frequently with Clinton, whom he deemed unqualified to be commander in chief. Even some Republicans cringed when Helms said Clinton was so unpopular he would need a bodyguard on North Carolina military bases. Helms said he hadn't meant it as a threat.
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 went out of his way to establish good relations with Madeleine Albright, Clinton's second secretary of state. But that didn't stop him from single-handedly blocking Clinton's appointment of William Weld ? a Republican ? as ambassador to Mexico.
Helms clashed with other Republicans over the years, including fellow Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana in 1987, after Democrats had won a Senate majority. Helms had promised in his 1984 campaign not to take the chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee, but he invoked seniority over Lugar to claim the seat as the panel's ranking Republican.
He was unafraid of inconveniencing his fellow senators ? sometimes all of them at once. "I did not come to Washington to win a popularity contest," he once said while holding the Senate in session with a filibuster that delayed the beginning of a Christmas break. And he once objected to a request by phoning in his dissent from home, where he was watching Senate proceedings on television.
Helms was born in Monroe, N.C., on Oct. 18, 1921. He attended Wake Forest College in 1941 but never graduated and was in the Navy during World War II.
In many ways, Helms' values were forged in the small town where his father was police chief.
"I shall always remember the shady streets, the quiet Sundays, the cotton wagons, the Fourth of July parades, the New Year's Eve firecrackers. I shall never forget the stream of school kids marching uptown to place flowers on the Courthouse Square monument on Confederate Memorial Day," Helms wrote in a newspaper column in 1956.
He took an active role in North Carolina politics early on, working to elect a segregationist candidate, Willis Smith, to the Senate in 1950. He worked as Smith's top staff aide for a time, then returned to Raleigh as executive director of the state bankers association.
Helms became a member of the Raleigh city council in 1957 and got his first public platform for espousing his conservative views when he became a television editorialist for WRAL in Raleigh in 1960. He also wrote a column that at one time was carried in 200 newspapers. Helms also was city editor at The Raleigh Times.
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.
Yahoo! (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080704/ap_on_re_us/obit_helms;_ylt=Agckqrj4HmFefKlnerZ6R1qs0NUE)
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Well.....couldn't have picked a grander day to pass away, I suppose. Rest in Peace, Jesse
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From JESSE HELMS, WHITE RACIST, by David Broder
Wednesday, August 29, 2001; Washington Post, Page A21
http://www.racematters.org/jessehelmswhiteracist.htm
<<What really sets Jesse Helms apart is that he is the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country -- a title that one hopes will now be permanently retired. A few editorials and columns came close to saying that. But the squeamishness of much of the press in characterizing Helms for what he is suggests an unwillingness to confront the reality of race in our national life.>>
from L.A. Times Obit
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-helms5-2008jul05,0,2320291.story
<<And he was the only senator to vote against making the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday. His lone dissent came only after he conducted a 16-day filibuster against the King holiday, during which Helms took to the Senate floor to decry the assassinated King, a pacifist and beloved civil rights leader, for his "action-oriented Marxism.">>
A thoroughly obnoxious, white racist pig. Rot in Hell, Jesse. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
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LOL....so ironic this posting coming from someone who's in complete admiration of a Black Racist
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I've got no good words for Jesse Helms. I hope that he made his reconciliation with God before he passed.
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<<LOL....so ironic this posting coming from someone who's in complete admiration of a Black Racist>>
Mr. Even Handed speaks again. Tell me, where is your condemnation of the white racist Jesse Helms equal to the vitriol you have heaped upon the so-called "black racist" Rev. Jeremiah Wright? Where, for that matter, is ANY condemnation of Jesse Helms?
Just askin.
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Condemnd his prior racist actions LONG ago Tee. Not surprising you've never payed attention
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I apologize, sirs. Must have slipped my mind. When did you condemn Helms for his racism?
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When was his last racist act? I mean actual racist act in public office, & not some non-support of something like AA, or patting Strom Thurmond on the back. When was his last racist act, and there you'd have your answer. Something along the lines of pushing for segregation practices, or advocating a White's Value system
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What really sets Jesse Helms apart is that he is the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country -- [...] And he was the only senator to vote against making the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday.
Wait... is that why someone called him an unabashed racist? Because he opposed making Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday into a national holiday? Is that all?
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Doesn't take much to be condemned a racist by Tee & company
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Jesse Helms was an obvious racist. He ran a commercial that played on racism "You were qualified for that job, but they had to give it to a minority". He called all Black men 'George".
There is no doubt he was a racist.
And a fool.
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<<When was his last racist act? I mean actual racist act in public office, & not some non-support of something like AA, or patting Strom Thurmond on the back. When was his last racist act, and there you'd have your answer. Something along the lines of pushing for segregation practices, or advocating a White's Value system>>
When was the last racist act of the Rev. Wright? I mean actual racist act as a minister and not some non-support of anti-racist initiatives or patting Louis Farrakhan on the back.
You "condemned" Jesse Helms but can't say when or what for? Give me a fucking break. You were quick to rush to judge the Rev. Wright as a "racist" for anything and everything he said, but on the occasion of Jesse Helms' death - - when his entire racist life and his entire racist career come under assessment - - you had not one bad word to say of him. The rank stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming.
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When was the last racist act of the Rev. Wright? I mean actual racist act as a minister and not some non-support of anti-racist initiatives or patting Louis Farrakhan on the back.
That'd be the ones currently, where he advocates segragation initiatives and a Black Value system. the current manifestation that has him proclaimings AIDS was the work of the white man to take out the blacks. In other words, the current version
You "condemned" Jesse Helms but can't say when or what for?
Still waiting........you can do it Tee, show us the when & what for. Should be a piece of cake for the likes of you
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<<Still waiting........[to see when and where Tee condemned the "racism" of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright] you can do it Tee, show us the when & what for. Should be a piece of cake for the likes of you>>
I don't consider Wright a racist. Since I already stated that I'd rather vote for Wright than for Obama, I can't imagine there'd be much of anything I'd want to condemn him for. Nothing he said was racist, as far as I am aware.
He damned America for what it had done to the non-white races of the world, and I happen to agree with him 100% on that.
I'm not familiar with "segregation initiatives" whatever that means, as and to the extent that they were allegedly advocated by Wright, so I certainly can't comment on that. ditto the "Black value system," although I'm not sure that there is one. Unless he meant by "Black" the same thing that Fanon meant by "negritude," i.e. the attitude of oppressed people of colour that arises not so much out of their "blackness" as out of the common factual situation of their oppression by men and women of another race.
I have never seen a detailed exposition in context of statements allegedly made by Wright blaming AIDS on attempted genocide and until I do, I won't comment on them either, except to say that given the Tuskegee Experiment and so-called "eugenics" programs of forced sterilization in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, particularly in the South, it is not as far-fetched an idea as those who know nothing of America's true racist history would suppose.
Helms on the other hand was a staunch backer of racial segregation based on ideas of white supremacy, of the entire Jim Crow system and did whatever he could to block any effort to eradicate those evils. He was an active and malevolent agent of white racism throughout his entire career and made no bones about it.
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<<Still waiting........[to see when and where Tee condemned the "racism" of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright] you can do it Tee, show us the when & what for. Should be a piece of cake for the likes of you>>
I don't consider Wright a racist.
LOL....of course not. It'd blow your blatant hypocrisy right out of the water. Even Fat, a fella just as critical on the war as you are, concedes he's a racist. A black racist, but still a racist. the fact you can embrace him while trying like mad to condemn Helms, and pretty much anyone from the south as being racist, speaks volumes, and goes to show the rest of the forum, and those peeking in, just how far you'll go to pull and Obama...having it both ways, and getting nailed for it
BTW, the waiting was for you to show us the when & where with Helms, not Wright. We already know the when's & where's with him
Still waiting, BTW
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<<LOL....of course not. It'd blow your blatant hypocrisy right out of the water. >>
No, it wouldn't. It would merely demonstrate the absurdity of calling Wright a racist.
<<Even Fat, a fella just as critical on the war as you are, concedes he's a racist. A black racist, but still a racist. >>
With all due respect to fatman, am I somehow prevented from disagreeing with him on some issues just because we agree on others? I would like to present the presumably novel idea that I have just as much right to my opinion on this as fatman does to his.
<< the fact you can embrace him while trying like mad to condemn Helms, and pretty much anyone from the south as being racist, speaks volumes, and goes to show the rest of the forum, and those peeking in, just how far you'll go to pull and Obama...having it both ways, and getting nailed for it>>
As far as I can see, all it demonstrates to any sane and normal individual is that I consider Helms a vicious racist for obvious reasons and I don't consider Wright to be a racist at all, or at most, if he is a racist, it's in a way that's nowhere near as harmful as Helms has been.
<<BTW, the waiting was for you to show us the when & where with Helms, not Wright. We already know the when's & where's with him
<<Still waiting, BTW>>
You're asking me the when's and where's of Helms' last racist act? In the context of MY question, of when did you last condemn him? That's a ridiculous trick question and I hope you don't think I am stupid enough to fall for it. I asked you when you last condemned Helms, rhetorically, because of course you have not condemned him. Refusing to answer MY question directly, you pretended it was as of his last racist act, an absurd standard unless you are talking to someone who is aware of every racist act that Helms ever committed. Particularly absurd in view of the fact that the racist pig has just died TODAY, which would be an excellent opportunity for comment on his evil and his racism, because when else does a man's life and career become more a subject for review and comment than on the occasion of his death?
I am still waiting for YOU to give me a direct and unambiguous answer to my question, when did you ever condemn Jesse Helms for anything? Please don't try to turn this around with a counter-question putting the onus on ME to tell you when Helms' last racist act was committed. YOU, if anyone, should be aware of when you last condemned this man, and shifting the burden on me to answer for all of Helms' racist acts is ridiculous.
You can't answer my question because you never did condemn Helms for anything. That's the simple truth. You jumped in with both feet on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's alleged "racism" but even on the occasion of Helms' death, had nothing critical to say about the man. Now THAT really speaks volumes.
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An old article, but a surprisingly sharpened one by David Broder.
Jesse Helms, White Racist
By David S. Broder
Wednesday, August 29, 2001; Washington Post, Page A21
Those who believe that the "liberal press" always has its knives sharpened for Republicans and conservatives must have been flummoxed by the coverage of Sen. Jesse Helms's announcement last week that he will not run for reelection next year in North Carolina. The reporting on his retirement was circumspect to the point of pussyfooting.
On the day his decision became known, the New York Times described him as "a conservative stalwart for nearly 30 years," the Boston Globe as "an unyielding icon of conservatives and an archenemy of liberals." The Washington Post identified Helms as "one of the most powerful conservatives on Capitol Hill for three decades."
Those were accurate descriptions. But they skirted the point. There are plenty of powerful conservatives in government. A few, such as Don Rumsfeld and Henry Hyde, have been around as long as Helms and have their own significant roles in 20th century political history. What really sets Jesse Helms apart is that he is the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country -- a title that one hopes will now be permanently retired. A few editorials and columns came close to saying that. But the squeamishness of much of the press in characterizing Helms for what he is suggests an unwillingness to confront the reality of race in our national life.
My own paper, The Washington Post, carried three stories about Helms's departure. In their 54 paragraphs, exactly two -- the 10th paragraph of one story and the last paragraph of another -- alluded to the subject of race.
Let me be clear. Helms has fought many battles in his career, and whether you agreed with him or not on small issues such as the funding of the arts or large ones such as Cuba, China, the Panama Canal and the United Nations, you had to respect his right as an elected and reelected senator to fight for his beliefs.
Even if you thought, as I did, that he was petty and vindictive in using his power as a committee chairman to block the appointment of former Massachusetts governor William Weld as ambassador to Mexico and, just this year, to force concessions from President Bush on textile imports before the top Treasury officials could be confirmed, you had to admit that other senators also have used their leverage to advance personal political agendas.
What is unique about Helms -- and from my viewpoint, unforgivable -- is his willingness to pick at the scab of the great wound of American history, the legacy of slavery and segregation, and to inflame racial resentment against African Americans.
Many of the accounts of Helms's retirement linked him with another prospective retiree, Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Both these Senate veterans switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party when the Democrats began pressing for civil rights legislation in the 1960s. But there is a great difference between them. Thurmond, who holds the record for the longest anti-civil rights filibuster, accepted change. For three decades he has treated African Americans and black institutions as respectfully as he treats all his other constituents.
To the best of my knowledge, Helms has never done what the late George Wallace did well before his death -- recant and apologize for his use of racial issues. And that use was blatant.
In 1984, when Helms faced his toughest opponent in Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt, the late Bill Peterson, one of the most evenhanded reporters I have ever known, summed up what "some said was the meanest Senate campaign in history."
"Racial epithets and standing in school doors are no longer fashionable," Peterson wrote, "but 1984 proved that the ugly politics of race are alive and well. Helms is their master."
A year before the election, when public polls showed Helms trailing by 20 points, he launched a Senate filibuster against the bill making the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. a national holiday. Thurmond and the Senate majority were on the other side, but the next poll showed Helms had halved his deficit.
All year, Peterson reported, "Helms campaign literature sounded a drumbeat of warnings about black voter-registration drives. . . . On election eve, he accused Hunt of being supported by 'homosexuals, the labor union bosses and the crooks' and said he feared a large 'bloc vote.' What did he mean? 'The black vote,' Helms said." He won, 52 percent to 48 percent.
In 1990, locked in a tight race with an African American Democrat, former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, Helms aired a final-week TV ad that showed a pair of white hands crumpling a rejection letter, while an announcer said, "You needed that job and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota." Once again, he pulled through.
That is not a history to be sanitized.
Article Link (http://www.racematters.org/jessehelmswhiteracist.htm)
Is this racist? I don't tend to think so, though it definitely plays to race fears.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIyewCdXMzk[/youtube]
And here are some somewhat startling quotes, the most recent as 1995 (it is worth noting that Helms never apologized for any of these quotes).
"There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy."
-- States News Service, 5/17/88
"What is really at stake is whether or not America will allow the cultural high ground in this nation to sink slowly into an abyss of slime to placate people who clearly seek or are willing to destroy the Judaic-Christian foundations of this republic."
-- 1990, on funding for the National Endowment for the Arts
"I've been portrayed as a caveman by some. That's not true. I'm a conservative progressive, and that means I think all men are equal, be they slants, beaners or niggers."
-- North Carolina Progressive, February 6, 1985
"Let me adjust my hearing aid. It could not accommodate the decibels of the Senator from Massachusetts. I can't match him in decibels or Jezebels, or anything else apparently."
-- 1993 Senate floor debate with Ted Kennedy
"All Latins are volatile people. Hence, I was not surprised at the volatile reaction."
-- stated by Helms after Mexicans protested his visit to Mexico in 1986 to investigate allegations of political corruption.
"To rob the Negro of his reputation of thinking through a problem in his own fashion is about the same as trying to pretend that he doesn't have a natural instinct for rhythm and for singing and dancing. The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men's rights."
When a caller to CNN's Larry King Live show praised guest Jesse Helms for 'everything you've done to help keep down the niggers,' Helms' response was to salute the camera
and say, 'Well, thank you, I think.'"
--- Wilmington Star-News, 9/16/95
"If God had wanted us to use the metric system, Jesus would have had 10 apostles."
"The New York Times and The Washington Post are both infested with homosexuals themselves."
University of North Carolina (UNC). "University of Negroes and Communists."
Metafilter (http://www.metafilter.com/73042/Former-United-States-Senator-Jesse-Helms-1921-2008)
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From JESSE HELMS, WHITE RACIST, by David Broder
Wednesday, August 29, 2001; Washington Post, Page A21
http://www.racematters.org/jessehelmswhiteracist.htm
<<What really sets Jesse Helms apart is that he is the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country -- a title that one hopes will now be permanently retired. A few editorials and columns came close to saying that. But the squeamishness of much of the press in characterizing Helms for what he is suggests an unwillingness to confront the reality of race in our national life.>>
from L.A. Times Obit
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-helms5-2008jul05,0,2320291.story
<<And he was the only senator to vote against making the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday. His lone dissent came only after he conducted a 16-day filibuster against the King holiday, during which Helms took to the Senate floor to decry the assassinated King, a pacifist and beloved civil rights leader, for his "action-oriented Marxism.">>
A thoroughly obnoxious, white racist pig. Rot in Hell, Jesse. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Really tacky. Real low-class. Gonna put a couch on your front porch next? So much for not speaking ill of the dead. Real crass.
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<<Really tacky. Real low-class. Gonna put a couch on your front porch next? So much for not speaking ill of the dead. Real crass.>>
So, Professor, ever said anything bad about Adolf Hitler? Stalin? Mao?
When the dead just happens to be a dead racist pig, what's REALLY tacky and low-class is to pretend there was nothing wrong with the guy and to whitewash everything he did.
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From JESSE HELMS, WHITE RACIST, by David Broder
Wednesday, August 29, 2001; Washington Post, Page A21
http://www.racematters.org/jessehelmswhiteracist.htm
<<What really sets Jesse Helms apart is that he is the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country -- a title that one hopes will now be permanently retired. A few editorials and columns came close to saying that. But the squeamishness of much of the press in characterizing Helms for what he is suggests an unwillingness to confront the reality of race in our national life.>>
from L.A. Times Obit
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-helms5-2008jul05,0,2320291.story
<<And he was the only senator to vote against making the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday. His lone dissent came only after he conducted a 16-day filibuster against the King holiday, during which Helms took to the Senate floor to decry the assassinated King, a pacifist and beloved civil rights leader, for his "action-oriented Marxism.">>
A thoroughly obnoxious, white racist pig. Rot in Hell, Jesse. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Really tacky. Real low-class. Gonna put a couch on your front porch next? So much for not speaking ill of the dead. Real crass.
I agree with that position Professor. But allow me to point out for clarification that those comments weren't part of the Broder column, but in the comments section where any registered user can submit a comment. Not everyone online has the thought processes of the people who populate this forum (and be thankful that they haven't found this place yet!)
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<<But allow me to point out for clarification that those comments weren't part of the Broder column, but in the comments section where any registered user can submit a comment. Not everyone online has the thought processes of the people who populate this forum (and be thankful that they haven't found this place yet!)>>
Huh? Allow ME to point out for clarification that I am the originator of those comments and I stand behind them 100%. A dead racist pig is a dead racist pig. No point in placing a top-hat on his head and calling him a statesman.
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Oh God, my bad MT.
I don't know what the hell I was thinking.
My apologies.
And for the record, I don't like and never have liked Helms. His early stance on AIDS, his unapologetic form of racism and his desire to continue institutionalized racism through segregation, and his attitude towards gays really turn me off. But on the other hand, I don't tend to celebrate anyone's death, even if they deserve it. That doesn't make me morally better than you, just a differing perspective on the matter.
Again, my apologies for miscontruing that.
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Thanks, fatman, apology accepted. No hard feelings.
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From JESSE HELMS, WHITE RACIST, by David Broder
Wednesday, August 29, 2001; Washington Post, Page A21
http://www.racematters.org/jessehelmswhiteracist.htm
<<What really sets Jesse Helms apart is that he is the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country -- a title that one hopes will now be permanently retired. A few editorials and columns came close to saying that. But the squeamishness of much of the press in characterizing Helms for what he is suggests an unwillingness to confront the reality of race in our national life.>>
from L.A. Times Obit
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-helms5-2008jul05,0,2320291.story
<<And he was the only senator to vote against making the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday. His lone dissent came only after he conducted a 16-day filibuster against the King holiday, during which Helms took to the Senate floor to decry the assassinated King, a pacifist and beloved civil rights leader, for his "action-oriented Marxism.">>
A thoroughly obnoxious, white racist pig. Rot in Hell, Jesse. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Really tacky. Real low-class. Gonna put a couch on your front porch next? So much for not speaking ill of the dead. Real crass.
Why not? Who here pulls punches for Hitler, Stalin, Chairman Mao? Why then should Mike pussyfoot around for Jesse Helms. And before some over-sensitive weasel says that I'm comparing Helms to Hitler, I'm not. But truth be told, some of Helms' views weren't all that much different. The man was an old Southern racist.
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The guy was a real asshole. But he got votes because he brought home the bacon. Even people that voted for him generally hated his guts.
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I didn?t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
-Mark Twain
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<<I didn?t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.>>
Now THAT'S funny. Some of the folks around here probably would have sent condolence cards and insisted afterwards how much they really, really, really disapproved of "some of"his policies.
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Now THAT'S funny. Some of the folks around here probably would have sent condolence cards and insisted afterwards how much they really, really, really disapproved of "some of"his policies.
Tom Clancy is a real asshole, and I avoid him like the plague whenever we're in the same place, but I still read his books.
As I said, Helms is a real asshole, but he got votes because he did things that his constituents wanted him to do. His low point was probably singing "Dixie" to Carol Moseley Braun while she was in an elevator with him.
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Some of the folks around here probably would have sent condolence cards and insisted afterwards how much they really, really, really disapproved of "some of"his policies.
I can't think of any policies in which I disagreed with Jesse Helms. In fact, history has vindicated his positions. He was a strong anti-Communist, he tried to shut down the NEA and he tried to cut off funding to the UN. He was right on all fronts. He's somebody who truly advocated a limited government that was strong on national defense. I appreciate everything he did to get Ronald Reagan elected. Some say he resurrected Reagan's career in 1976. It breaks my heart to see all these rabid left wingers in here cheering his death. You guys are better than that; I would certainly hope so anyway.
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<<But allow me to point out for clarification that those comments weren't part of the Broder column, but in the comments section where any registered user can submit a comment. Not everyone online has the thought processes of the people who populate this forum (and be thankful that they haven't found this place yet!)>>
Huh? Allow ME to point out for clarification that I am the originator of those comments and I stand behind them 100%. A dead racist pig is a dead racist pig. No point in placing a top-hat on his head and calling him a statesman.
So? Your comments were still tacky. Give the man some time at least to be deceased before you step all over his grave...geeeesh.
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You have to consider the source, Professor :-\
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Which is yet another reason I seldom stop by here anymore, Sirs.
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Your thoughts are indeed missed.
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Don't let it get you down, Prof.
You just have to laugh at it. These left wingers are so filled with rage that they are going on their second day of cheering a man's death who didn't even represent them in the senate. It's an orgy of hate. That's what the modern day Democrat party has come to represent, unfortunately.
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Should people we disagree with have representation in the Senate?
No?
In matters of Race I don't agree with Helms much , but he was a genuine representative of his state and of many who weren't in his state . To quash these people without any hope of some representation is to ask for revolution.
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Here's a noble representative of his state, the same state:
Sam Ervin.
http://www.cmhpf.org/senator%20sam%20ervin.htm
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Sam Ervin was a strong opponent of the desegregation of schools and signed the Southern Manifesto in 1956. He also opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKervin.htm
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<<Give the man some time at least to be deceased before you step all over his grave...geeeesh.>>
NOW is the opportunity to comment on the dead pig, Professor. A month from now, no one will ever think of the little swine. Right now when folks are saying nice or semi-nice or even mildly disapproving things about him, is the time to remind everyone what a really unredeemable piece of filth he actually was. NOT later, when everyone's forgotten all about him.
I look on this as line-drawing time: Racists and racist sympathizers will billow fake clouds of pompous pseudo-outrage at the "desecration" of this noble soul's memory. The real anti-racists will call that dead pig on his racism WHENEVER the subject arises and despite any and all attempts to whitewash.