R.I.P. Jesse Helms
My first memory of former Senator Jesse Helms was when he took on Harvey Gantt. I was fresh out of college and a moderate moving right at the time. I had no dog in the fight, but I knew I didn’t like Jesse Helms. After all, I had heard of him from the press and they didn’t like him. That meant he had to be bad. Then I found out that Harvey Gantt was a sleaze bag. Plain and simple. The problem was he was a black sleaze bag and just like Barack, no one wanted to attack him for fear of being called racist. Well, Jesse was having none of that. He was a tough cookie. He went after Gantt like a lion chasing prey.
The press called him every name in the book and Jesse just laughed. I remember the ads too. One showed a white man holding a rejection letter. The announcer came on and said “You needed that job and were the most qualified, but they had to give it to a minority…” Oh, the libs had coronaries over that one. When confronted, he simply smiled and asked “what part of it is untrue”? Can you imagine the pansies that make up our current crop of republicans having that attitude? Oh, how we need that kind of attitude now. Here, watch the ad and imagine this ad being run against Barack or something similiar. You and I both know that this ad would be pulled under pressure and fast. But not with Jesse Helms.
By the time the race was over, I had finished my move to the right. It was this race that completed my turn from the dark side to the good guys. I remember smiling when Jesse gave his victory speech. Did he come out and say “It was a good fight and I want to congratulate Harvey for a good race?” Heck no. I am typing it as best as I can remember, but he came out with that big smile of this and his first words were something along the line of “the liberal butt wipes lost again! We kicked their rears again!” It was beautiful.
The more I see the spineless wimps in our party, the more I long for another Jesse Helms to step up. We need a fighter to step in and slay the democrats. One who will not allow the libs to set the tone. One who will laugh at their name calling and fire back. We need another Jesse Helms. Well, we need another 100 or so of him. So rest in peace Jesse. When you come across the libs that made it to Heaven with you, give ‘em hell!
The great Senator Jesse Helms of the state of North Carolina, dead at age 86. 7/4/2008.
South Beach Bum says:
A particularly nasty piece of shit. I hope he burns in hell where he belongs.
PaulW says:
Might I ask, what specifically made Gantt a sleaze bag? Shady business deals? Reverse racism? Associations with ‘questionable characters’ ala Rezko ? I’m glancing through the archives but not finding anything, unless I can get additional keywords for the search.
Beth says:
I could do without another Helms, but unlike the oh-so-charming “liberal” and “progressive” types like South Beach Bum (bum, indeed), I don’t wish anyone to “burn in hell.” That’s typical obnoxious lib hatred for you, a whole philosophy built on bitterness and venom. Pitiful, really.
Beth says:
(Yes, I know I’ve been MIA, I just had to respond to that pathetic commenter after checking the moderation queue. Disgusting.)
Miss y’all - I’ll be back, some time…just busy! :)
Chris says:
Paul,
Harvey had a lot of shady business dealings just not on the scale of say a Madison guaranty. Few would make the news outside of Raliegh. One of the major ones that sealed his fate was the sale of FCC licenses. Harvey, being black, was put at the front of the line to get broadcast licenses as part of the FCC’s minority first progam. He then turned and sold the license that he was awarded to a white media group for a substantial profit. People had a major problem with that since it just seemed to be the same kind of eploitation of the system people came to resent in most affirmative action/welfare programs.
As mayor he had a “for sale” reputation which is why Myrick beat his rear so badly. Add to that his support of quotas and all, and yeah, I think sleaze bag is fair.
PaulW says:
Okay, what I needed to know.
Maybe I can call Gantt and see how much it costs to start an all-sports FM station here in the Tampa area. All the sports are on AM around here and the reception gets crappy after sunset. :-/
Cat says:
Ya know…I was but a kinda wee lass in NC when Helms was at his peak, or shortly thereafter. I remember thinking that he was just a mean ol’ man because the media said so. Then I took some lessons from my good liberal arts education and started asking questions. Which is what authentic book learnin’ should teach people to do but I won’t throw the switch and go on that track. I took the time to really look at who he was, what he stood for and why. He was not a racist, bigot, or homophobe. What he was was someone who you could take at his word. He didn’t think public money (that’s from people who actually pay taxes) should be used for ‘art’ like the ‘PissChrist’ exhibit for instance. He didn’t pander to special groups, ethnicities or sexual orientations. That just got the libs’ thongs all in a bunch and he became in their eyes a mean ol’ man. What people did was their business unless they started demanding taxpayers fund their belief systems and peccadillos. He did believe we are all Americans and that’s that. Simple logic? Definitely. And much needed now. He was a man of his word and I wish there were more like him today. Most politicians are chameleons. Not Jesse. He will be missed.
Jay says:
It’s sad and frightening that so many cannot recognize the evil that fueled that man.
PaulW says:
My problem with Helms was that he disparaged groups, be they blacks or AIDS victims. Rather than focus on individuals by merit. Like when he kept claiming that AIDS/HIV was spread sexually - “There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy” - even though kids like Ryan White were getting the disease via tainted blood transfusions. Helms could have acknowledged that possibility, could have supported AIDS research and treatment on the grounds of protecting innocent people, but he didn’t. All because Helms didn’t want to dilute his anti-gay beliefs. There’s no other good reason for him to have stood against research/treatment, I can’t see it.
As for his opposition to affirmative action, I personally believe reform is needed there… but I don’t think Helms ever offered viable alternatives or pushed hard for genuine reform. He just opposed it, period. Did Helms ever promote merit-based hiring practices, or college enrollments…?
Cat says:
PaulW:
Perhaps you’d care to revise your opinion of Helms/AIDs if you’d take the time to read this:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/04/01/ED2779.DTL
BTW the statement you attribute to Helms was made early in the ‘AIDs’ crisis. It’s what we knew and understood at the time. And it can be argued effectively that the blood Ryan White received was tainted by someone that had engaged in the behavior Helm’s vilified. I will note here that while the AIDs epidemic was primarily a homosexual problem in the states early on, it was a heterosexual epidemic in many other parts of the world. I just detest people that look at a snapshot of someone in one moment and ignore or overlook the things they say or do later that negate that earlier stance. If Helms had held to that same opinion and assessment until he died then you’d have a point but the fact is he did not. I’m willing to bet you just love Robert ‘KKK’ Byrd–a Democrat–who has NEVER said he was sorry for the despicable things he has done as a member of that organization. And how many non-whites do you then Kennedy allowed be on his staff during the 70s and 80s, much less be in a position to advise him? Liberals need to stop bleating about the needles poking out of conservatives when they have plenty of 9 inch nails sticking out of themselves.
PaulW says:
That Helms reversed his course by the late 1990s on AIDS/HIV care, I would attribute that to a Bono Miracle (very obscure joke, try looking for a Snakes on a Plane fancomic from a couple years ago). But it didn’t matter who the tainted blood came from that afflicted White and other haemophiliacs (sp?), what mattered was that people - those who never even had sex - were suffering and Helms did nothing all because he viewed AIDS as a Gay Disease rather than just a disease. It had to take a continent of dying babies to wake him up to that fact. And if I may quote that article you linked, Helms still noted here at home
“I don’t have any idea on changing my views on that kind of activity, which is the primary cause of the doubling and redoubling of AIDS cases in the United States.”
HIV is a major health risk, same as cancer, same as ebola, same as Lyme disease or Legionnaires, and like all diseases it is and will always be a threat to everyone, and should be combated with as much fervor as we fight all other diseases. And even with Helms’ concern over HIV in Africa, I still see him viewing it as a sex disease that should be demeaned and punished rather than cured.
By the by, I don’t love Robert Byrd. He’s not from my state. My mom was born in West Virginia, though, so I can ask her… (finds his mom knitting a “Byrd Sucks” sweater). Maybe not. I actually despise Byrd: the SOB is a pork-barrel enthusiast who makes the Alaska bridge builders look like a pack of underspending noobs. P.S.S. I don’t give a rat’s ass who Kennedy (or anybody else) hired on his staff, just as long as they know the emergency exits in any cars they drive with him. P.S.S.S. Don’t call me a liberal. I’m a f-cking moderate. There is a difference (1. I’m sane. 2. I like cheddar and not brie).
Mike says:
Can’t say I was a big Helms fan. I’d put him in the same category as Ted Kennedy … Now tell me again why you keep electing him to office?
Perhaps as Cat suggests, there was more to him than you garnered from the national news (and some of the things suggested are qualities it would be nice to see more of) but my sense was that he was way to interested in peoples private lives vs. sticking to topics that would have benefited from his insights and assistance.