Jesse Helms, a former senator (R-NC) died on the Forth of July of natural causes. The blogosphere has been relatively silent about his death given the controversy that his live managed to create. Those on the left seem almost gleeful that the old man who suffered dementia passed. The headline on a village voice article reads Jesse Helms finally dies.
While Barack Obama appears to be silent the Associated Press Notes:
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said in a statement: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Senator Jesse Helms. At this time, let us remember a life dedicated to serving this nation."
So if the left is so glad that Helms has passed, why is he so mimicked in their techniques?
Jesse Helms is perhaps best remembered for his infamous hands ad which I have embedded below:
Here he plays to the bias of North Carolianians who are steadfastly opposed to affirmative action. He never won reelection by much, and he rejoiced in liberals sorrow at his successes.
He was the first in Congress to engage in fact-finding missions, as described in the Wall Street Journal:
It was Helms who first sent his own foreign policy advisers overseas to second-guess the executive branch's foreign policy. Many liberals have no qualms in doing the same today.
His assistance to Ronald Regan in his primary challenge against Gerald Ford is reminiscent of the grassroots effort Hillary Clinton used against Barack Obama in Pennsylvania. From the Wall Street Journal:
Reagan lost the first five primaries, and he entered the North Carolina contest broke and under pressure to pull out. But Helms and his chief strategist Tom Ellis refused to give up. They employed Helms's huge, direct-mail list to build a grass-roots army of volunteers and raise money to air 30-minute speeches by Reagan across the state.Emphasizing the Panama Canal "giveaway" and smaller government, Reagan won an upset victory and was able to battle Ford all the way to the GOP convention. He showed such strength at the convention that Ford invited him to deliver off-the-cuff remarks to the delegates. Reagan was so inspiring that some of Ford's own delegates exclaimed, "We just nominated the wrong candidate." Reagan later acknowledged how Helms's intervention rescued his political career.
Jesse Helms legacy is more the methods of advancing his views than their substance in his early years.