Jesse Helms Is Dead

Former five term North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms died on Friday.

There certainly was no middle ground on Jesse Helms. He was a larger than life, "love him or hate him" politician that was revered by conservatives and openly despised by progressives and liberals.

Helms was given the nickname of Senator No, due to his refusal to support government funding on anything at all. He did make exceptions for tobacco companies though.

Helms' low point, while tough to pick just one, was when he refused to acknowledge the mother of Ryan White while the two of them were riding alone in a Senate building elevator together. White was the boy that died of AIDS after contracting the disease through a blood transfusion. She was in Washington that day to deliver testimony in support of an AIDS research funding bill that was named after her son.

The bill passed, however not without the vocal opposition of Jesse Helms.

Helms pontificated on the Senate Floor that he wasn't aware of one case of AIDS that hadn't been contracted by an act of sodomy.

That must have been an extremely awkward elevator ride.

Jesse Helms didn't appear to be a conservative to me. A conservative is a champion for individual liberty and freedom for our citizens.

Jesse Helms lived up to his Senator No moniker every time civil rights legislation entered Senate chambers.

Jesse Helms, by logical measure of his voting record and speech archives, was nothing more - or less - than a bigot.

God rest his soul, and good luck finding it.