Former Sen. Jesse Helms Dies At 86 »
Posted By TechnologyExpert 3 months, 1 week ago in NewsJesse Helms, the five-term Republican Senator from North Carolina, has died, CBS News has confirmed. He was 86.
Read Full Story at cbsnews.com »
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Comments So Far: 329
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HanymanComment removed: User banned.83 Replies
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mesodude3 months, 1 week ago
Dang...I wanted to be the first to sign the "condolence" card. ;-( Good riddance to a bitter, hateful, and demented individual.
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tomohawk3 months, 1 week ago
And so goes the last of (one of the last?) great
icons and stand-bearers of apartheid in America,
who, well into the 1960's, opposed voting rights
and legislation to end segregation, calling these
"the most dangerous" acts to be passed in the US.
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RIP
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KicBoxStallion3 months, 1 week ago
speaking of remembering, didn't he also try to label Dr.King "a commie", with the typical hate, smear and fear mongering, and if this sounds familiar(?), its exactly the way his foot-step disciples today, right here (watch voting), are trying to label Obama, "a commie" and "marxist" ..
so much for his legacy !!!
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Lincoln853 months, 1 week ago
so much for compassionate liberals. This vile hatred seems to fit right in with nazis, Klansmen, and Islamic extremists. Maybe you guys can start your own club med and vacation with each other.
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jordan113 months, 1 week ago
so much for compassionate liberals>>>
We are compassionate, but we aren't stupid. As a liberal, my compassion is for the people whose equal rights the man worked so hard to hold down. The harm he did was incalculable. He will have my pity that he lived his life with such a lack of compassion. He missed so much.
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cushi3 months, 1 week ago
Not only that, but you reap what you sow, and God has a way of evening the score. Jesse Helms chose to lead a life of hatred and contempt for anyone who didn't "fit" into his idea of what the world should be. He didn't have sense enough to realize that hatred feeds on itself, and it is no respecter of persons. It turned right around and consumed him in the end! If he did not want to have a legacy of being despised and disrespected by the masses, he should have been a better person. He could have been, but he chose not to be.
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jordan113 months, 1 week ago
Well said. That's why I said it was ironic he passed away on the fourth of July. "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal." Helmes spent his life spitting on those words.
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cushi3 months, 1 week ago
Apparently you regard truth telling to be a hateful thing if you can't stomach it. That explains why you are able to embrace and defend a group of unsavory characters like Bush, Cheney, Rove, Libby, Haastert, Craig, Gonzales - the whole sorry lot of neocons.
By the way, the truth is not always pretty or convenient. It is what it is.
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slate3 months, 1 week ago
Apparently I can't stand your hypocrisy Cushi. The truth isn't even convenient for you.
Now let's all have group hug for those you defend on a regular basis, such as Wright, Pheleger (sp), Jesse Heimy town Jackson, Al Waneda Sharpton, Sheets Byrd, Farrakhan, Ted (breast stroke) Kennedy, Cold cash Jackson, Johnson, JFK and the hosts on infamous characters on the left shall we?
Don't forget like Jesus, you're supposed to be above all this, you Christian you.
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cushi3 months, 1 week ago
Then you should avoid mirrors at all costs!
Jesus didn't have any problems telling it like it is, and if you know so much about Christianity, you would know that, too! He didn't mind using phrases toward the pharisees and saducees (the know-it-all hypocrites of his day like you are today: "whitewashed tombs", "Your father is the father of lies - the devil!" he also said. He took a whip and ran the money changers out of temple for disrespecting God's house, telling them they would not turn his Father's temple into a den of thieves. He told the woman at the well about herself: "You have had several "husbands' and the man you are with now is not your husband!" He didn't mince words or sugarcoat things to appease people. Saying that Jesse Helms has earned whatever disrespect and contempt heaped upon him at his death is not a statement of hate. It is merely a statement of fact. If you can't handle that, it's your issue, not mine.
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slate3 months, 1 week ago
There you go comapring yourself to Jesus again,,,, you know what, Jesus was a perfect man, who died for your sins,,, I'd say he has the right to speak up about others sins,,,, I'd not try and elevate myself to the same level as Jesus Iffn I were you.
You are one prideful puffed up Christian,,,,
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slate3 months, 1 week ago
We are compassionate, but we aren't stupid. As a liberal, my compassion is for the people whose equal rights the man worked so hard to hold down.
I really think you guys are going to be very nice when Byrd and Kennedy die,,,, as you should be but fr you it will be hypocritical since those tow will deserve to be talked about as badly as this man when they die. I woun't be talking smack about them but I'll lok for you to do so.
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mesodude3 months, 1 week ago
"I really think you guys are going to be very nice when Byrd and Kennedy die,,,,"
--No comparsion whatsoever, slate. Byrd repented and IMO both he and Kennedy more than atoned for any perceived evil they did. To the bitter end, Helms was an unapologetic, uncompromising bigot who took great pleasure in antagonizing the targets of his hateful rhetoric and legislation. You might hate the Kennedys and the Clintons but no one could argue that they delighted in making life difficult for them. And Kennedy and Byrd are respected by their colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Helms was a disgrace and I am not surprised that someone who had a sick obsession with all things homosexual would eventually be found to have dementia. I also think the people of North Carolina will also have much to answer for.
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Endoscopy3 months, 1 week ago
So lets hear about Senator Byrd who was a top level KKK member while he was a Congressman and later Senator. He is one of yours. Helms said he regretted those actions of the past. But that is ignored.
Oh but he's a Democrat. Can't say anything bad about them.
Obama goes to a church where the pastor regularly condemns America but that is all right.
Hypocrites.
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AnteUp3 months, 1 week ago
lincoln85 ~
Oh - wait, I've got to go pull the Jesse Helms quote
I just posted on an article about Latin America.
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AnteUp3 months, 1 week ago
Lincoln85 ~
Here ya go - Too bad for poor old El Salvador but what a
great rep for Democracy - eh?
Some are mourning the passing of Jesse Helms? He liked
nothing better than luncheon (here in the USA!) with
Roberto D'Aubuisson also known as "Blowtorch Bob," or simply
"The Blowtorch," for his alleged preference in using a
blowtorch to torture political prisoners. When asked about
the death squads and Roberto's actions, Helms replied,
"All I know, is that D'Aubuisson is a free enterprise man
and deeply religious."
Oh yeah.....let me get a tissue!
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libsRfunny3 months, 1 week ago
"Good riddance to a bitter, hateful, and demented individual."
Oh, I didn't know you were leaving us.
It's not at all surprising to see the hate-filled lefties of Propeller proving their complete lack of class and tact. Not that I expected any better.
Ted Kennedy definitely got a much classier response from conservatives when stricken with cancer with only a very few exceptions.
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earthlingerer3 months, 1 week ago
THAT'S the difference...
Ted Kennedy even got a huge honor and award from the George H.W. Bush library foundation for being a great american.
Helms LOVED Pinochet. OPPOSED Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
"The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men's rights." - Jesse Helms.
He was certainly a lovable, freedom-embracing trailblazer...
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TimALoftis3 months, 1 week ago
While I mourn for the family of Senator Helms, it is very difficult to shed a tear for the Senator himself. This is not and should not be about Conservative vs. Liberal. For me, its all about Jesse Helms hatred toward Gays and Lesbians, African Americans, and all minorities within our Country. Some of the remarks that he made during his lifetime and was obviously able to get away with truly makes my head spin to this day.
I hope that in his latter years that he was able to make peace with God over these issues.
RIP
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slate3 months, 1 week ago
Seeng how Byrd found it OK to use the N word on TV I don't think he's had the major turn about that you pose as his salvation in your eyes.
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Lincoln853 months ago
yea I guess the ends justifies the means..huh. Byrd is still a racist. He had to change his public belief system for his political survival. Check out the movie Gods and Generals, he is in it playing a confederate general (during the bonnie blue flag song)...that apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
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mesodude3 months, 1 week ago
"While I mourn for the family of Senator Helms, it is very difficult to shed a tear for the Senator himself. "
--Very well said (and classy, even ;-P ). I can only imagine what family gatherings at the holidays were like.
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mesodude3 months, 1 week ago
"Oh, I didn't know you were leaving us."
--LOL...It seem the concept of a moral high ground eludes cons. No wonder you people have no clue why torture and spreading democracy don't exactly go hand in hand. Anyway, I can't believe you're comparing these two men. At least give me credit for consistency. I despised Helms from very first moment I heard him speak and I am absolutely not sorry to see him go. I felt the same way about Reagan. Guys like Helms, William Dannemeyer, Dick Santorum, and Lou Sheldon make it their mission in life to torment others. They are a total waste of oxygen.
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ADAGUY3 months, 1 week ago
I seldom agree with anything you say, but I must agree with this. Regardless of political, moral and ethical differences with Helms, bitter and hate filled remarks are better left unsaid!
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splitrch3 months, 1 week ago
"Regardless of political, moral and ethical differences with Helms, bitter and hate filled remarks are better left unsaid!"
I disagree. I think his hate filled remarks should be repeated and often. It is better to know what he stood for and those who voted for him stand for. Sweeping dirt under the carpet will ensure more of the same dirt being spread by others. Helms may be dead but hatred is alive and kicking. The only thing bigots hate more than people they view as different is daylight (why do you think they wear hoods and burn crosses at night?). Just like the cockroaches they are, they will scatter when light is shone them. They are pathetic people and we should not allow them any power over us.
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HanymanComment removed: User banned.12 Replies
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splitrch3 months, 1 week ago
when we get negged for these comments we find out who the really ignorant bigots are.
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slate3 months, 1 week ago
I think it's fair to say that 'most' every person on this site have said nasty 'racial or bigoted' things about others in their lifetime, so if that is the bench mark for hell, most of us will sitting with Jesse, asking to tell us the 'ropes' of how things are done there.
I can't wait to hear the folks come in here and act piously and say they Neva have said these things.
I'll stack a pile of stones for you without sin to be the first to take aim.
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slate3 months, 1 week ago
LOL where did you get that from? I'm defending nothing,,, I 'm pointing out that you guys are behaving badly and most likey have said things as bad as the man you are vilifying,,,,, of course you don't read what I posted or you are too far in your fog to get the point
I want you to tell me you've never said any of the things I posted, then you may that's a big may have the right to your piety
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splitrch3 months, 1 week ago
Who's behaving badly? I never tried to keep anybody in the gutter the way Helms did. I never called for segregation.
Everyone dies. His legacy is not one I would want. Personally I don't believe in heaven or hell so Helms got away with being a lousy human being. If I'm wrong about what happens after death, I doubt if he will enter the pearly gates.
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cushi3 months, 1 week ago
Even if (and you know how much space there is between the "i" and the "f") what you say is true, there remains the fact that Helms was in a position of great influence and used it to perpetuate hatred, harm, cruelty, mean-spiritedness, bigotry, torture - not even enough space to list all the negatives that one man injected and stirred among people who looked up to his leadership.
Ordinary citizens do not come close to the large sphere of influence he enjoyed. The damage he did eclipses anything an average citizen may or may not have said in their lifetime. Furthermore, anyone who spreads that kind of virulent hatred on a regular basis, unrepentant, is as deserving of disdain as Mr. Helms was and is. Death is not a deal breaker.
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slate3 months, 1 week ago
You everyone of us belongs there with him, because those brty thoughts and words have come from all we failible humans.
Death is not a deal breaker, the deal is Go and God alone has a say in what he decides to do with people for how they lived their lives, not you or I. I suggest you spend more time worrying about your own sins and less on the sins of others.
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cushi3 months, 1 week ago
One thing you have deliberately ignored is that I have not said anything vile about Jesse Helms. I have only stated that he has earned the contempt he is receiving, which is a the truth. I guess you just can't handle the truth, Slate.
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slate3 months, 1 week ago
Ah see once again you are wrong,,, I for one never defended Helms, my beef is the lack of ability of folks on the right to not dance on the graves of the right,,,, and I pointed out Ted Kennedy and the right's reaction to the news he was sick as an example folks on the right should follow,,, all the other things came after the usual lines from people like you that said well he deserved it,,, heck so did Ted but we on the right did not pile on when he was at his lowest moment nor will most of us when is dies.
Stick that in your pious hat,,,
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mesodude3 months, 1 week ago
slate, unless you're black and/or gay, you aren't really in any position to say you fully understand the negative impact Helms bigotry has had on these groups. It's pretty arrogant for you to suggest that you do.
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Laurel_MicheleComment removed: User banned.25 Replies
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VMan3 months, 1 week ago
And your point is? Jesse had nothing in common with Ted Kennedy and Laura Bush? To quote Cheney, "So?"
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Codi69343 months, 1 week ago
Comparing the accident between Ted and Laura is the same as comparing apples and oranges. Here we go again. Liberals circling the wagons to protect one of there own.
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browntiger3 months, 1 week ago
You think for a moment anyone can believe Laura story of running into her boyfriend car she had fight early and killing him was an accident?
Repukes think everyone is stupid.
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cushi3 months, 1 week ago
That is not what I said. Are you verbally challenged, too? Geez!! Let me see if I can simply it for you: Both incidents (assuming you are correct in your statement about Ted Kennedy and only God knows if you are or are not), both speak to lack of character and both could've lead to death. The fact that in one instance it did, does not in any way negate the fact that the other could have as well.
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Codi69343 months, 1 week ago
The point is both were accidents, but Dick did the hard right and reported it, got help, etc. Ted ,on the other hand did the easy wrong, left, waited, allowed her to die, and only called for help when he realized it could not be covered up.
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AnteUp3 months, 1 week ago
Codi6934 ~
I'll tell you what there is NO comparison on between those
two - the amount of PRESS coverage!
Has everyone and their dog heard about Sen.Kennedy's
ethical challenges? You bet.
Now tell me how many people have ever even HEARD that
Sen.Jesse Helms supported right-wing death squads in
Central America? Just like Reagan,Kissinger,Kirkpatrick
and Bill Casey...and way too many other champions of
Democracy, Jesse Helms could get all dressed up and attend
a Washington D.C. gala without a shred of blood showing.
Did all the thousands of ordinary men,women and children who
regarded the USA as a great dream, understand that we
were encouraging and funding their torturers? Do you?
These are not rumors from the fringes - it is the honest
to God truth.......look it up.
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Codi69343 months, 1 week ago
Bad dope deals were made from Truman to present. Let it go, move on! Sound familiar!! Look at what was going on, the Cold War. Enemy of my enemy is now my friend. Do you think the Soviet Union wasn't doing the same thing. You are naive if you don't!! I am sure we have learned a few things since then. Some the hard way. Get over it!! The Cold War is over, we won!! We have bigger problems now.
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Codi69343 months, 1 week ago
No,not at all. It is just we don't live in a black and white world. We have allot of gray areas and we had to deal in those gray areas for national sercurity. You can argue right or wrong, but I thing for sure is we still have a free society that we call the USA.
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slate3 months, 1 week ago
I don't know, do you think maybe the name Kennedy helped him not be charged with Murder? He knew the lady was in the car under water and left. What would you call it then?
You defending such an act is what I'd consider as INSANE
As far as Libby, I never said he deserved a pardon, in fact I said just the opposite
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slate3 months, 1 week ago
As far as Libby, I never said he deserved a pardon, in fact I said just the opposite (distorted?)
Kennedy left the lady in the car, That;s a hard truth not a view,,, the Libby statement was a view,,,, you believing that it was ok for Kennedy to leave the lady makes your views vacuous.
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mesodude3 months, 1 week ago
And Michelle Obama didn't steal drug prescriptions from charities to support an addiction to powerful painkillers and then use her millions and her husband's connections to avoid prison but you'd probably pimp your own mother to make sure a woman who did becomes our next First Lady. Am I right? Of course I am...What do you think that says about you? Exactly... You're really no better than Ted Kennedy so probably not a good idea to throw stones (especially the same, tired, worn out stones born of a sad warped obsession with the Kennedys) is it? Something to ponder, huh? ;-P
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nostalgia3 months, 1 week ago
Here's one of the Kennedy stories
http://news.propeller.com/story/2008/05/20/ted-...
Go read it then tell me whether more conservatives were spewing hated on that thread or if more "compassionate" liberals are expressing hatred on this one
We'll be able to determine who is "smoking" based upon your response
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mesodude3 months, 1 week ago
Yes and, nostalgia, when I hear people who have been saying hateful things about someone else all their lives suddenly do an about face when that person suffers a misfortune, my reaction is usually a combination of disbelief and disgust. What? You think cons deserve some special award for suppressing their natural urge to be @ssholes for one day out of 365? You hate the Kennedys and the Clintons (btw, I loved all the concern and support wingers showed Hillary following the Lewinsky scandal), and I don't think it's noble or "classy" to trot out some phony expressions of concern just because you want to score some redemption points or because you think you ought to. If you hate me and you show up at my funeral, just walk by my casket and wave. I'd rather you said nothing than if you said something just because you thought it sounded "classy."
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mesodude3 months, 1 week ago
"Actually Mesodude, many people actually believe that every human life has value. It's not a matter of being "noble or classy"
Is that a foreign concept for you?"
--No, but speaking of foreign...We killed a million people in Iraq (including who knows how many unborn babies) so please think carefully before making a statement like the one you did above. We don't care about every human life. Because if we did we wouldn't have casually invaded Iraq the way we did.
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cushi3 months, 1 week ago
No, it was a foreign concept to Jesse Helms, which is why his death is not creating warm fuzzy feelings among the majority of Americans.
Do you not understand that we were given the ability to discern between good and evil for a reason? We CAN distinguish between the two, even if we don't always do so! (The latter applies to you, by the way.)
Jesse Helms was an evil man. You can make all the excuses for him you want, but you cannot change the fact or the negative feelings his death invokes because of it.
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Poulenc3 months, 1 week ago
A demagogue, a force of reaction, virulent homophobe who fought tooth-and-nail against Federal aid for AIDS research...
....racist par excellence, of course (recall his campaign ad launched during his 1990 reelection bid against black opponent Harvey Grant, in which white hands belonging to a job-seeker crumpled a rejection slip as the voice-over explained that the position had gone to an "unqualified member of a minority")....
One almost hopes that hell exists just so Mr. Helms can be housed there--for a very, very long time....
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splitrch3 months, 1 week ago
If Jesse Helms knew of this, supported it or just turned a blind eye, he should roast in hell.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06202008/prof...
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vor3 months, 1 week ago
I knew Jesse growing up. He sometimes attended our church and his daughter taught my sister's 1st grade class. Every night, ironically before Walter Cronkite came on, we would see Jesse's editorial on WRAL in Raleigh. I knew then that I felt a certain distaste for his views. He was arrogant and condescending. Not physical imposing but more like a Southern Baptist fire and brimstone preacher shouting out his condemnation. A bully without the brawn. Hard to relate that to the quiet little man who would sometimes bring us candy at school.
But I knew, even back then, that these would not become my views. He would rant and rave in favor of Nixon and the war and it all seemed quite backward to me. He was no compromise, like Bush and Cheney with his black/white view of the world. And he sure didn't like the black. I remember him as the first political fear monger I recall.
I wont overly condemn him today. I don't mess with the dead (don't like the karmic implications).
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UnusualSuspect3 months, 1 week ago
Unlike VOR, I didn't know Jesse Helms. I grew up hearing about him; on TV, on radio, and in print.
The one thing I remember most about him was his seemly strong intolerance of blacks and other minorities.
Then I discovered this 20 mins. ago, taken from Wikipedia, regarding Helms support of a man running for office:
" 'In 1950, Helms became an unofficial researcher for United States Senate candidate Willis Smith. Smith was a conservative Democratic lawyer and former president of the American Bar Association. While working on the primary campaign against Frank Porter Graham, Helms helped create an ad that read, "White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham
