Jesse Helms RIP

[Moliere]

Former Republican N.C. Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86

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.

"Compromise, hell! That's what has happened to us all down the line - and that's the very cause of our woes. 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 writing in 1959 on compromise in politics.

"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." - Helms responding in 1956 to criticism that a fictional black character in his newspaper column was offensive.

"The destruction of this country can be pinpointed in terms of its beginnings to the time that our political leadership turned to socialism. They didn't call it socialism, of course. It was given deceptive names and adorned with fancy slogans. We heard about New Deals, and Fair Deals and New Frontiers and the Great Society." - From a Helms editorial at WRAL-TV in Raleigh.

"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 writing in 1956 on life in his hometown of Monroe, N.C.

"I'm so old-fashioned I believe in horse whipping." - During a debate in 1991 on an AIDS-related amendment.

[gellar]

I generally disapprove of dancing on people's graves, but this guy is a special case.  Helms was a racist and a bigot, plain and simple.

Some of his work, courtesy of Wiki:

* In 1950, Helms became an unofficial researcher for United States Senate candidate Willis Smith. Smith was a conservative Democratic lawyer and former president of the American Bar Association. While working on the primary campaign against Frank Porter Graham, Helms helped create an ad that read, "White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling of the races."

* Helms commented on the 1963 Civil Rights protests, "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."

* Helms played upon Galifianakis' ethnicity during the campaign, running under the slogan "Vote for Helms—He's One of Us!"

* Helms opposed the Martin Luther King Day bill in 1983 on grounds that King had two associates with communist ties, Stanley Levison and Jack O'Dell.  Helms led the Senatorial opposition to the bill and voiced disapproval of King's alleged philandering.

* Helms had close ties to the rightist Salvadoran death squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson and was considered a main sponsor of D'Aubuisson's political party, the Nationalist Republican Alliance.[7] When confronted with evidence that D'Aubuisson ran death squads that systematically murdered civilians, he replied that "[a]ll I know, is that D'Aubuisson is a free enterprise man and deeply religious."

* Helms ran for reelection in a nationally publicized campaign against the former mayor of Charlotte, Harvey Gantt. Helms' aired a late-running television commercial which showed a white man's hands ripping up a rejection notice from a company that gave the job to a "less qualified minority".

The ad was criticized for perceived subliminal content; As the hands crumple the rejection notice up, for a fraction of a second the letter fades to a picture of Mr. Gantt and the hands appear to be crushing his head.

* Helms once deeply offended a black colleague, Democratic Senator Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, by singing part of "Dixie" on a Capitol elevator.

    Soon after the Senate vote on the Confederate flag insignia, Sen. Jesse Helms (R.-N.C.) ran into Mosely-Braun in a Capitol elevator. Helms turned to his friend, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), and said, "Watch me make her cry. I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing 'Dixie' until she cries." He then proceeded to sing the song about "the good life" during slavery to Mosely-Braun (Gannett News Service, 1993-09-02; Time, 1993-08-16).[12]

And some choice Helms quotes, compiled by another:

http://home.att.net/~jrhsc/helms.html

My personal 'favorites'

"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)

"If homosexuals would only stop doing what they're doing,
There wouldn't be any more AIDS."

"The New York Times and The Washington Post are both infested with homosexuals themselves."

gellar

[Eduardo X]

I think there's a difference between dancing on somebody's grave and being honest and factual about a person upon their deaths. For example, speaking of Reagan's atrocities across Latin America and elsewhere is simply historical review, which turns out to be pretty important as it's frequently glossed over. I think Tim Russert did a poor job of challenging the pretty easily disproved "intelligence" from the Bushies on the road to war, and didn't do much to make up for it once everyone realized the media dropped the ball. Tim WAS part of a national problem, however, and his passion and dedication showed through.

People got on me for bringing up President Ford's involvement in the genocide (or simple mass murder, whichever you prefer) in East Timor. To ignore the horror of that approval, and the black mark it leaves on the US and Ford is something we should all be concerned about.

Jesse Helms is dead. Let's not try to start forgetting who he was so we can talk nicely about his life. I hope that people are honest about me when I die, as I try to be honest about others.

[CeeKay]

Courtesy of This is Fun PT 3:

[Hamsterball_Z]

[Fireball1244]

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[pr0ner]

So I guess it's OK to say negative things about Jesse Helms upon his death, but not about Ted Kennedy re: brain cancer?

Nice double standard.

[Mr. Fed]

So I guess it's OK to say negative things about Jesse Helms upon his death, but not about Ted Kennedy re: brain cancer?

Nice double standard.

That's arguable.

I know.  Let's look to Helms himself to see what the standard for decorum should be when someone dies.

Does that sound OK to you?

[Brendan]

So I guess it's OK to say negative things about Jesse Helms upon his death, but not about Ted Kennedy re: brain cancer?

When did Ted Kennedy die?

[Moliere]

So I guess it's OK to say negative things about Jesse Helms upon his death, but not about Ted Kennedy re: brain cancer?

When did Ted Kennedy die?

His soul died on July 19, 1969.

[Geezer]

So I guess it's OK to say negative things about Jesse Helms upon his death, but not about Ted Kennedy re: brain cancer?

When did Ted Kennedy die?

His soul died on July 19, 1969.

Perhaps it died in 1963, when his brother was shot and killed.  Or in 1964, when he survived a plane crash that killed the pilot and his aide.  Or maybe it died in 1968, when his other brother was shot and killed.

Judging a person by one reprehensible act is easy.  More likely, Kennedy is, like all of us, the result of innumerable life experiences that all interact in one way or another, and to flatly state that one act is the sum of a person is silly.

[Moliere]

Judging a person by one reprehensible act is easy.  More likely, Kennedy is, like all of us, the result of innumerable life experiences that all interact in one way or another, and to flatly state that one act is the sum of a person is silly.

True, one act is not the sum total of a person, but leaving a woman at the bottom of a pond is certainly an indication.

[rickfc]

Judging a person by one reprehensible act is easy.  More likely, Kennedy is, like all of us, the result of innumerable life experiences that all interact in one way or another, and to flatly state that one act is the sum of a person is silly.

True, one act is not the sum total of a person, but leaving a woman at the bottom of a pond is certainly an indication.

Agreed.  And Jesse Helms, I hope you burn in hell with Satan's big fat cock in your ass.

[Pyperkub]

So I guess it's OK to say negative things about Jesse Helms upon his death, but not about Ted Kennedy re: brain cancer?

Nice double standard.

Not a double standard - Helms' life is complete and he can be judged on it as he will.  Kennedy still has a chance for redemption and/or repentance, and as such, showing glee isn't looked on kindly, but rather one should hope that he gets better in time to see the 'evil' of his ways, such as you may perceive them.

[Pyperkub]

Jesse Helms, I hope you burn in hell with Satan's big fat cock in your ass.

More appropriate would be that he is reborn as a poor, gay black man in '50's North Carolina.

[rickfc]

Jesse Helms, I hope you burn in hell with Satan's big fat cock in your ass.

More appropriate would be that he is reborn as a poor, gay black man in '50's North Carolina.

I think that he'd be pretty uncomfortable with either. 

Kennedy still has a chance for redemption and/or repentance, and as such, showing glee isn't looked on kindly, but rather one should hope that he gets better in time to see the 'evil' of his ways, such as you may perceive them.

Someone that leaves another human being to drown and carries on as if nothing had happened has no chance of redemption, IMO.

[Eduardo X]

Kennedy has done some good stuff for the country. He also, essentially, murdered a person. He also has a big head, which makes it easy to make fun of him. I really don't think it's a problem, either: he'll do fine either way.
Jesse Helms did have a lifetime of shitty things to poke fun at, but he never murdered anybody. At least, not directly (though you can say any politician in the U.S. is guilty of some sort of murder).

[Pyperkub]

Jesse Helms, I hope you burn in hell with Satan's big fat cock in your ass.

More appropriate would be that he is reborn as a poor, gay black man in '50's North Carolina.

I think that he'd be pretty uncomfortable with either. 

Kennedy still has a chance for redemption and/or repentance, and as such, showing glee isn't looked on kindly, but rather one should hope that he gets better in time to see the 'evil' of his ways, such as you may perceive them.

Someone that leaves another human being to drown and carries on as if nothing had happened has no chance of redemption, IMO.

I think all human beings can redeem themselves somewhat, even though what he did was especially worthless, it doesn't mean that he can do no good moving forward - maybe he'll admit to everything publicly after surviving the surgery.  He's Catholic and he lives with it every day.  That may be quite a burden.  There's a chance he could have been President were it not for that event.