Senator Jesse Helms 1921-2008

Jesse Helms couldn't have planned it any better.

The consummate politician, a man who never stopped spinning and never stopped campaigning, I'm sure would've been thrilled to pass away on July 4th. And while many in the world of conservative punditry have attempted to link him to our great founding fathers Jefferson and Adams, who also died on Independence Day, I just don't believe he belongs anywhere near that category.

Historians will still have their say about Helms in the years to come, and his mild attempts at altering his record near the end of his career and life may have a limited affect. Yet he will forever be tarnished for his words, votes and actions that for so many years made him the enforcer of the hard right of the Republican Party.

His self-labeled bigotry, opposition to arts funding and even suggesting a U.S. President would be unsafe on an American military base will be remembered by those who watched him in the Senate for those many years. Generations to come will, however, remember his opposition to the Civil Rights Act and racially motivated campaigns that will always hang around his neck. Worse, unlike other conservatives who ultimately saw the wrong of their ways, Helms was unrepentant about his own racism and vitriol.

While I always have admiration for anyone who gives up their life to public service, especially those who do so with true conviction evident in their record, I find it hard to have much admiration for Jesse Helms. When, on a day that we pause to honor the founding of our great democracy, it is hard to have imagined Washington, Jefferson, Adams or Franklin acting out with as much hate as Helms so often did. Even though we know none of these men were perfect, they kept dignity about themselves and had respect for government. Helms injected hate, race and rancor into the process, and won races by being the "lesser of two evils".

In the end, as a country we are worse off for his service than better for it. A sad legacy for any man.