Posted 11:10 AM by Gene

How you look upon Jesse Helms must depend, alas, on where on the political spectrum you are, and how firmly wedded you remain to eighties shibboleths. If you're a liberal he was a Nazi; if you're a con-SER-va-tive he was God's gift to man, even if he was from Dixieland. The truth has a way of defying caricature. He was in some indelible ways a crank (he was, after all, an early TV pundit), and sometimes suffered from guilt by association with the Old South, an association he never exactly severed; but it is hard to imagine Reaganism (or Reagan) without him, as he gave it its essential backbone, and in the final analysis his heart was in the right place (no pun intended), and his right hand over it, and he was clearly a Southern gentleman. That he died on July 4 is most potent symbolism.

(Via CNN)

P. S. at 4:20 P.M.

Former U.S. senator Jesse Helms dies; UNYIELDING SOUTHERNER RELIED ON RACE-BAITING CAMPAIGN TACTICS!!!!! [Unyielding overemphasis added]

1. Still angry after all these years? 2. Layoffs? What layoffs? 3. This version of the hed appears on the BOTTOM of the home page, and in the story -- but not at the TOP of the home page; see no. 2.

We have slightly amended our original post. Obviously lots of people still think the late Sen. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL because of his politics, just as lots of con-ser-va-tives will when Sen. Kennedy goes. Even PINCH shrugged His shoulders and merely called him a "conservative force." Haven't we had enough tantrums?