RIP, Jesse Helms

The longtime U.S. Senator from North Carolina sure was a lightning rod for controversy but was loved most for sticking it to the left whenever possible.

Rest in peace, Jesse Helms.

Jesse Helms, the five-term Republican Senator from North Carolina, has died, CBS News has confirmed. He was 86.

Helms died of natural causes in Raleigh at 1:15 this morning, according to the Jesse Helms Center in Wingate, North Carolina.

Helms built a career along the fault lines of racial politics and battled liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during his decades in Congress. He was slowed in later age by a variety of illnesses, including a bone disorder, prostate cancer and heart problems.

Helms retired from the Senate in 2003.

CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss called Helms a politician who knew no middle ground, one of the most conservative men to ever sit in the Senate - and proud of it. Bigger than life in his native North Carolina, he sometimes seemed that way to his political enemies in Washington, too.

Like most Southern politicians of his era, Helms began as a segregationist but later tried to reach out to African Americans.

But on most issues, he never gave an inch.

For 30 years Helms was the voice of the right in the Senate, battling communism, feminism and affirmative action. "Senator No," as he was sometimes known, cut funding for the United Nations and for what he considered "dirty art."

Helms reached the height of his power as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where his distrust extended from the Russians to our own State Department.

The U.N.-basher was never shy about wielding power.

Richard Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President Clinton, said of Helms, "I have seen him kill nominations. I've seen him kill treaties. But all I can say is he is true to his principles."

Naturally, the illiterate left celebrates his death.

Rather than a moment of silence in respect of the memory of Jesse Helms it is more appropriate to bellow a jingoistic, racist, msogynistic, homophobic inconmprehensible diatribe that pushes all the wrong buttons and increases the forces of intolerance because Jesse would have wanted it that way.

The comments are precious.

Or...how could they tell the difference

Let's hear the Hamnnity and Limbaugh eulogies start poring in for their hero.

Hey Helms, I will pour a beer over your grave but not before it has been filtered through my kidneys!

Obama/Dean 08 Strong unions for a strong America

by realwischeese on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 08:27:54 AM PDT

The Huffington Post just put the story up and has the comments open. This should be interesting (Update: They quickly closed them).

The folks here whine about a long ago election. Get Over. It.

Arn Gunnutes Says:

He once “veil” threatened Clinton, saying “If he comes down here, he’s going to need protection”.

Racist, LIAR, antiamerikkkan.

God rest his body.

His soul is with his MASTER Satan, just like TRAITOR Ronnie Reagan, and the Bushes as they expire…
July 4th, 2008 at 11:25 am

Classy.

Here's a very subtle headline: Racist, homophobe Jesse Helms is dead

Can't even begin to think of anything nice to say about this guy -- but a lot of other people will start praising Helms as if none of the hateful stuff matters. The hateful stuff matters. Let's reminisce on the life of one of America's biggest bigots who ruined the lives of so many.

Who said it wouldn't be a happy Independence Day for the left?

Another touching tribute.

I've never been 100 percent clear on why you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but suffice it to say that while there were many more vile politicians in the world than the now-dead Jesse Helms they were pretty much all brutal dictators and the like.

Update: The Kos Kidz are churning out the bilge at a record pace, Charles Johnson notes.

Daily Kos, as always, the epitome of class: Daily Kos: Jesse Helms, you rat bastard, burn in hell.

Daily Kos: A moment of anachronism for Jesse Helms death

Daily Kos: Please Excuse Me While I Dance Upon His Grave

Daily Kos: Jesse Helms Dead - How to Memorialize His Legacy

Nice touch by WRAL: Check out the URL for this story

http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/1755723/?good-riddance (H/T efuseakay).

Thanks to Sister Toldjah for the link and a Google screen cap of the WRAL URL.



Update: Someone claiming to be a WRAL editor left this comment.

The part with the question mark is NOT a part of the official URL and NOT generated by WRAL.com.

The official URL is here: http://www.wral.com/news/local/p.../story/1755723/

Anyone can tack on a question mark and some words to a URL, and the link will appear to load.

The comment came from an IP address in Miami. Indeed, if you do go to that link and add a question mark and text it still will load, so someone is being mischievous.