Former Sen. Jesse Helms Dies At 86

Firebrand North Carolina Republican Served As Voice For The Right For Five Terms

(CBS/AP)  Jesse Helms, the five-term Republican Senator from North Carolina, has died. He was 86.

Helms died 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.

"He was very comfortable," said former chief of staff Jimmy Broughton, who added Helms died of natural causes.

Helms retired from the Senate in 2003.

"Watching Jesse Helms move through a crowd reminded you of a tin lizzy - old-fashioned, cranky, proud of it. He never tried to avoid the potholes of American politics. He just lurched through them," said CBS News Chief Washington correspondent and "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer.

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.

Born in Monroe, N.C. in 1921, Helms worked as a reporter and a Navy recruiter before entering politics after World War II, when he worked for North Carolina Senator Willis Smith in Washington.

He returned to Raleigh where he won a seat on the city council, but became best known when he joined Capitol Broadcasting Company, the owner of WRAL (which is now a CBS affiliate), in 1960.

Over the next decade, Helms offered editorial messages, broadcast after the nightly newscasts, which were decidedly ideological - in one, he proposed building a wall around UNC-Chapel Hill (which he dubbed "the University of Negroes and Communists") to contain its "liberal" influence.

In 1972, Helms - who had switched from the Democratic Party to the Republicans because of differences over civil rights legislation - ran for the U.S. Senate, winning on the coat-tails of President Nixon's landslide re-election. He was the first Republican Senator from North Carolina in decades.

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."

He led opposition to making Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a national holiday.

Helms served as chairman of the Agriculture Committee and Foreign Relations Committees when the Republicans held the Senate majority, using his posts to protect his state's tobacco growers and other farmers and place his stamp on foreign policy.

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 Southern state.

In 1990 his Senate campaign aired a controversial commercial in which a white man crumples up a rejection letter, having lost out on a job to a less-qualified minority "because of a racial quota." Helms defeated Harvey Gantt, an African American and former mayor of Charlotte.

"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 Republican politics - supporting Ronald Reagan in 1976 in a presidential primary challenge to then-President Gerald R. 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.

Helms reached the height of his power as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee beginning in 1994, where his distrust extended from the Russians to our own State Department.

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.

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."

Helms spent years fighting to keep the Panama Canal, and was notorious for blocking ambassadorial appointments of people he didn't approve of … and it didn't matter if they were nominated by a Republican president.

Former Senate leader Bob Dole described Helms' style: "He sticks to his guns and he doesn't mind firing them, either."

During the 1990s, Helms clashed frequently with President Bill Clinton, whom he deemed unqualified to be commander in chief.

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 also clashed with fellow Republicans over the years, and 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 stalling tactic that delayed the beginning of a Christmas break.

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.

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.

Helms' public appearances 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 April 2006, his family announced that he had been moved into a convalescent center after being diagnosed with vascular dementia, in which repeated minor strokes damage the brain.

Towards the end of his Senate career, Helms was asked how he'd like to be remembered:

"I would like for them to say, 'Well, he did the best he could.' If they say that, that'd be enough."

[kansas1946]

My condolences to his family, but he won''t be missed in politics.

[toolmangler-2009]

There is nothing honorable about being staunch and hardworking when your beliefs are evil.
Posted by tru_america1 at 07:59 AM : Jul 07, 2008


There is if you believe yourself to be in the right. We see Islamic terrorists as evil, they see themselves as Devout, God fearing men who are fighting the ''Great Satan'', That in itself does not make them ''less honorable'' than we are. Only an uneducated non-thinker would take such a stance. I am not defending Helms beliefs or politics, just his courage as a human being.

[antoniof123]

If you liked him or not is of no concern this is wrong he is dead let the histrorians analyze him that is fitting for all who attempt to effect history.

[toolmangler-2009]

I never said he was a good senator and I certainly never supported him or his policies, all I ever said was that he was my kind of man where it counts (internally). If his politics and beliefs had been agreeable to me then he would have been a great Democrat. But I guess that you will not understand what I just said. So lets see what kind of vitriol you spew this time.

[toolmangler-2009]

Grandma didn''''t know this ******.
Posted by raoul12 at 07:32 PM : Jul 06, 2008



And you did? I did...

[raoul12-2009]

Grandma always said "you should not speak bad of the dead"....

Posted by angryman55 at 04:14 AM : Jul 06, 2008
__________________

Grandma didn''t know this ******.

[raoul12-2009]

He was not nearly as spiteful and full of hate as many of the posters relishing in his demise.

Posted by ToolMangler at 05:49 PM : Jul 06, 2008
________________

BS! His hateful conduct caused misery to millions. And to top it off, he had a daughter by a black woman. May he rot forever.

[raoul12-2009]

The only thing I''m sorry about is that this worthless piece of ***** didn''t die about 86 years ago. I don''t need anyone to tell me that is not a Christianlike attitude because I couldn''t care less. I am not a Christian.

[toolmangler-2009]

...shame on his mother for carrying this clown to term.
He''''s the perfect example why you must have the right to live birth abortions.
Posted by whitemale08 at 11:23 PM : Jul 05, 2008




Hey!!!! You talk just like him, hatefully intolerant of anything concerning the man.
Justt one quetion, do you have the integrity that he diplayed? Will you stand up for what you believe the way he did? Or when the going gets tough, will you melt like the other pansies? He didn''t, I am a lifelong Democrat that never voted for him because I disagreed with his beliefs and policies. I tell you now as a North Carolinian that knew him, He was not nearly as spiteful and full of hate as many of the posters relishing in his demise.

[jon2012-2009]

Grandma always said "you should not speak bad of the dead".....I can not believe the callous vile remarks being made by these LIBS....sheesh

Posted by angryman55 at 04:14 AM : Jul 06, 2008

You''re being hypocritical. ''Vile remarks''--vicious rhetorics--are staples of the Republican slime machine. Democrats have yet to close the gap. I don''t think they ever will, that there will always be this line that separates these two.

[kidofstl]

the man that played Bozo the Clown passed away about the same time and I think his death was more newsworthy. He made people laugh will Helms only made people cry.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Obama doesn''''t even have a clue!!" Posted by JTait2

Totally irrelevant, and besides, neither do you.

[mcvet]

Grandma always said "you should not speak bad of the dead".....I can not believe the callous vile remarks being made by these LIBS....sheesh

Posted by angryman55 at 04:14 AM : Jul 06, 2008
+ report abuse

Really? So we should NOT bring up the evil, hate and vile conduct of Hitler? I''d say you and your granny should adjust your thinking here. WE MUST, at this time, look back on the life of the PERSON who has left us. IF that person has given to the people and to the Country as he is supposed to have, then the majority of post will be positive. IF, on the other hand, he has given HATE, Division, Bigotry and vile fascism, as is the case here, the post will reflex that. It''s only TRUTH and what he''s memory will be from this point on!! You can''t DO the things this nazi did and expect different. SIEG HEIL BUSH

[mcvet]

Oh yeah your tolerant alright, wishing death to people who dont agree with you politically...and calling me stupid and hypocritical?? blow me Biotch!

Posted by angryman55 at 06:40 AM : Jul 06, 2008
+ report abuse

Those of us who fought so hard to stop the Lynching and Bombing during the 60''s know all to well of what the poster speaks. YOU want hate? YOU want PURE vile evil? Go pull up what this disgusting Bigot said during those times...statements he NEVER even acknowledged were grossly wrong. NO ONE who cares about what this nation stands for can honestly say they do NOT enjoy the fact that this "person" is dead. So much Hate! So much Division! So much Intollerance is NOW GONE! We all should be happy. Sieg Heil Bush

[hungry1968]

You are one evil rotten vile disgusting individual. A rotten sorry excuse for a human being for saying these WICKED things. Betcha weren''''t saying anything of the such when the foul mouthed anti-Christian bigot George Carlin died a couple weeks ago, were you, mr anti-Christ hastener?

You''''ll get your anti-Christ and your "world peace" in due time. Don''''t say you weren''''t warned you nut!

Posted by globalcool08 at 12:02 AM : Jul 06, 2008





Sorry dingbat, but I don''t believe in your myth-illogical "anti-christ", anymore than I believe in your myth-illogical "christ".

Either way, why do you have to bring your bizarre, convoluted religion into the discussion of this fascist? Are you admitting that fascists follow your religion?

And I''m sorry if my hopes for world peace offend you. I know you christians want the world to end in a flaming ball - Armageddon (sick as that is) - and world peace will threaten that.

[tulcak]

Oh yeah your tolerant alright, wishing death to people who dont agree with you politically...and calling me stupid and hypocritical?? blow me Biotch!
Posted by angryman55
----------------
just stop. this isn''t about disagring over politics, you dumba*s*s. racism is wrong. period. end of sentence. I disagree with you and this evil man over racism and intolerance. not about "more" government vs. "less" government. you really are stupid.

[tulcak]

WOW! talk about intolerance look at what you posted.....jeeezzzz
Posted by angryman55
--------------------------------
are you really as stupid as you sound? another intolerant trying to show how hypocritical us tolerant types are... please, give it a break. when you truly become tolerant, then, you can start examining others. until then, instead of trying to discredit people who point out intolerance, why don''t you work on yourself and your own intolerance. also, when posting, if the IQ level of the participants and above yours, just acknowledge it... you will look a whole lot smarter.

[tulcak]

good riddance, if only more like him would die and relieve of us the evil and intolerance and do nothing philosophy. guns are ok, *** are not. i will be celebrating another republican demise.

[whitemale08]

...shame on his mother for carrying this clown to term.

He''s the perfect example why you must have the right to live birth abortions.

[rushlimpdrug]

"He never tried to avoid the potholes of American politics. He just lurched through them," said CBS News Chief Washington correspondent and "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer."


Thanks Bob for once again saying nothing in sooo
many words.

Some of the reeeetard correspondents CBs
hans can be so telling about themselves.
They remind me of "reminded you of a tin lizzy - old-fashioned, . . . proud of it."

Donuts anyone?

Looks like fat boy jesse had one
to many dozen donuts.