Helms Preobit

Hendrick Hertzberg wrote the obituary Jesse Helms deserves back in September of 2001 when his retirement was announced. There we learn the odd fact that the always-interesting (and this is no exception!) Walter Russell Mead described Helms as "one of a handful of Southern statesmen who ensured the triumph of the civil rights revolution" because even though he was a racist and a segregationist he, unlike the 'Redemption' leaders of the 1960s and 70s, avoided "being directly and openly involved in the murder of black political leaders."

So there you have it: Jesse Helms, not a murderer, just a steadfast political supporter of murderers abroad.

Comments

As ever when such people kick the bucket, I sorta regret there is no hell.

Posted by Bill | July 6, 2008 9:03 AM

You know... a lot of people were upset with Fox News over their coverage of Tim Russerts death and how they were slandering his so-called "positions", however, we don't grant Mr. Helms the same kind of respect. Could we let a few days pass and then talk about Helms' "legacy"?

Posted by Luis | July 6, 2008 9:06 AM

Hell no Luis, the man died, everyone is talking about him, let us not pretend he was anything better than he was. Russert's legacy is somewhat ambivalent, but I think the larger complaint was the system in which he worked and in which he excelled. As a personal matter, I think Russert was worthy of much of the praise. I liked watching him, others did too, and it isn't too often that you find powerful people in DC who are decent in there private lives. That should be enough. But Jesse Helms wrought disprortionate damage to our political system--especially on his Foreign Relations perch--and deserves a heap of opprobrium.

Posted by David | July 6, 2008 9:13 AM

Shorter Luis:Why don't you liberals shut up so we conservatives can lie about how great Helms was?

Posted by Rob | July 6, 2008 9:15 AM

Luis--rright-wingers hate "relativism" until there's a false comparison to be made. Do you think that Russert's "sins" even approach the same level of Helms's? In the first case, we're talking about someone who tried and to a large extent succeeded in making our public debate more informed and better. Helms expended energy and political capital to advance discrimination and even deportation of our most vulnerable.

It's OK to make distinctions, buddy. Jesse Helms was a bad man with a cancerous influence.

Posted by Anthony | July 6, 2008 9:18 AM

Amen Anthony.

Posted by David | July 6, 2008 9:26 AM

Thanks David, and amen to you as well.

It is truly amazing to hear the same people who think that there is no moral distinction between, say, someone who went above and beyond the standards of his time and place to support murderous dictators and a journalist who, whatever his flaws, put public officials before a national audience turn around and decry "moral relativism" from liberals!

Russert's greatest "sins" were probably not always pushing a line of questioning as far as it should go, engaging in "gotcha" journalism, etc. It is indeed crass to harp on such things at the moment of a national institution's passing. Only an amoral mind could extrapolate from this that a powerful and vicious racist deserves the same discretion.

Posted by Anthony | July 6, 2008 9:32 AM

Bill Moyers on Rev. Jeremiah Wright:

His post-interview summary:

"He doesn't fire a shot in anger, put a noose around anyone's neck, call for insurrection, or plant a bomb in a church with children in Sunday school. What he does is to speak his mind in a language and style that unsettles some people ..."

How is that much different from the excuses made for Helms?

Posted by Quiddity | July 6, 2008 9:40 AM

Interesting point re intent of word usage. So Mr. Helms referred to all black people as Fred to end around spitting the n-word out in public. Bigots always find a way to spew "racial resentment," don't they?

The name is now forever ruined for me. How will I think of MacMurray and Flintstone, which I often do, without flinching?

Posted by Anonymous Sec's | July 6, 2008 9:46 AM

Quiddity--it's a little different.

1) Obama is being smeared as consorting with "radicals." The Weather Underground is even being trotted out. Pointing out that Wright is not a violent radical makes sense.

2) Moyers is also saying something about our national focus. There *are* people in public life, such as Helms, who felt called to keep races separate and didn't seem too put out by violence in the service of that cause. Wright's sermons and theories are no where near as poisonous as what I hear every time I put on right-wing radio.

I probably wouldn't have said what Moyers said, but pointing these things out isn't really equivalent to white-washing someone who used the halls of power to enable violent repression at home and abroad. (That's not hyperbole, either!)

Posted by Anthony | July 6, 2008 9:49 AM

"He doesn't fire a shot in anger, put a noose around anyone's neck, call for insurrection, or plant a bomb in a church with children in Sunday school. What he does is to speak his mind in a language and style that unsettles some people ..."

Jesse Helms gave aid, comfort and political cover to those who do.

Posted by calipygian | July 6, 2008 9:51 AM

I couldn't stand Helms either, especially with him as my Senator, but... I think we get the message. Really. Enough.

Posted by El Cid | July 6, 2008 9:57 AM

"Only an amoral mind could extrapolate from this that a powerful and vicious racist deserves the same discretion."

True, unless that person considers vicious racism an insignificant matter.

Posted by David | July 6, 2008 10:00 AM

Typo in the posting: 'Redemption' was 1860's and 70's...
When the Klan was created in Tennessee to fight against Reconstruction. If war is politics by other means, the Klan's terrorism was war by other means.
When did the Civil War end? At Appomattox? With the 13th-14th-15th Amendments? In the Compromise of 1876, ending Reconstruction? With Johnson's Civil Rights legislation? With Obama's Inaugural?

Posted by gsk+ | July 6, 2008 10:02 AM

Which Southern senators did not accept the civil rights laws and obey them? Isn't this the kind of criterion one could use to even praise unreconstructed racists like James Eastland and Lester Maddox? Think what a great hero of the civil rights movement George Wallace is by these standards.

What an utterly ridiculous statement.

Posted by John | July 6, 2008 10:23 AM

Anthony - points well taken. I'm not saying Wright = Helms by any means. But I was struck by Moyers lowering the bar in his peroration. And given the (justified) criticism of those who are making excuses for Helms, that it would be appropriate to revisit Moyers.

Maybe I'm out of step, but I think that we've got to be firm about honest assessments of everybody in politics. While that may include a dart at a liberal every so often, it's more likely to expose Republicans because their policies have not succeeded and they are not embraced by the majority.

Posted by Quiddity | July 6, 2008 10:43 AM

The tag of Herzberg's article - "The retirement of Jesse Helms has been hailed (and mourned) as 'the end of an era.' If only that were true." - still applies. Charlie Black, an operative in Helms' racially charged 1984 and 1990 Senate campaigns (and defender of the latter campaign's notorious "white hands" ad), is now chief strategist for the McCain campaign:

http://dyn.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/index.cfm/category/Senate

Posted by allbetsareoff | July 6, 2008 10:50 AM

I couldn't stand Helms either, especially with him as my Senator, but... I think we get the message. Really. Enough.

Enough what? Enough pointing out that the man was an awful bigot?

I've been sitting here in a suburb of Raleigh over this fine July 4th weekend watching politicians on my tv tell me how Jesse Helms was a "man of principle"... "agree with him or not, at least you knew where he stood" "a man of conviction"

Surely in the next few days I'm going to get an email from the local conservative think tank telling me that the "conservative movement lost a tireless leader" and other such crap.

Keep bashing Helms, Matt. This absurd notion that one does not speak ill of the dead is really grating. Helms is someone people need to speak ill of.

Posted by Joe Strummer | July 6, 2008 11:06 AM

Quiddity,

Along with the notion that Obama is advantaged because he is black in America, the notion that a white supremacist and a black preacher are morally equivalent because of their language is garbage.

Can you name three white supremacists who were lynched by black mobs during Jim Crow....or maybe just one white church that was firebombed...or perhaps you've got a KKK rally that had police dogs turned loose on it while the police beat the Klanners with rubber hoses?

Violence in Jim Crow was a one-way thing, and Jesse held their coats.

Posted by west coast | July 6, 2008 11:52 AM

Could we let a few days pass and then talk about Helms' "legacy"?

Oh please, spare us your bogus, limp-wristed invocation of superficial, formulaic observances of "respect." Especially for someone who doesn't deserve any. The truth stays true whether we "wait a few days" (I guess so we can all cross ourselves repeatedly and sing our fill of Amazing Grace) before discussing it. You're not serving some karmic cause by lodging your objections, any more than those who don't choose to "wait a few days" are somehow outraging the recently inanimate. If he's looking down or up at us I'm sure he couldn't care less. Fuck off.

Posted by Bill | July 6, 2008 1:05 PM

Jesse Helms' grave should become the in-place to stop when you're taking your dog for a walk.

Make it a huge steaming pile, Fido!

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | July 6, 2008 1:16 PM

I hope when Teddy dies the Right-wing blogs go on and on about what a coward and a criminal he was for leaving a women to die and drown.

Or what a skirt chasing drunk he was. Of course, the lefties will then object about how "rude" and "Unfair" this is.

People die but left-wing hypocrisy lives forever.

Posted by pablo H | July 6, 2008 2:49 PM

John: Actually I think that is just what Mead is trying to say. As usual Matt made a typo and ruined the meaning of the post, but Mead was supposed to be making a contrast between Helms (and, I suppose, Eastland, Thurmond, Maddox, Wallace, etc.) and the anti-black politicians of the 1860s and 1870s, who did indeed engage in wide-scale violence to achieve their goals. The original Klan triumphed, whereas the modern Klan quickly became impotent.

This is indeed pretty faint praise, but it is what Mead was driving at.

Posted by James Kabala | July 6, 2008 3:36 PM

pablo H writes: "I hope when Teddy dies the Right-wing blogs go on and on about what a coward and a criminal he was for leaving a women to die and drown.

Or what a skirt chasing drunk he was. Of course, the lefties will then object about how "rude" and "Unfair" this is.

People die but left-wing hypocrisy lives forever."

When the news of Kennedy's brain tumor broke the wingnuts said all of that and more. So what are you bitching about, pablo Hitler?

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | July 6, 2008 4:02 PM

I agree with El Cid and said it before he did in an earlier thread.

Enough with the Helms posts already, Matt!

We get it! He was a fucktard! He's dead!

Get over it! Move on!

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | July 6, 2008 5:44 PM

As Curly was wont to sing --

Pore Jesse’s daid,
Pore old Jesse Helms is daid,
All gather ’round his coffin now and cry
And cry!

He had a heart of brass
And a G-O-P pol’s ass
And that’s why such a feller had to die.

Pore Jesse’s daid
Pore old Jesse Helms is daid,
He’s lookin’ oh so peaceful and serene
And serene!

He’s all laid out to rest
With his hands acrost his chest
His robe and hood have never been so clean!

Pore Jesse’s daid
Pore old Jesse Helms is daid
His racist friends’ll weep for miles around
Miles around!

The daisies in the dell
Will give out a different smell
When Jesse Helms is underneath the ground.

Pore Jesse’s daid
A candle lights his haid
He’s layin’ in a coffin made of wood
Made of wood!

And some folks are feelin’ glad
Cause he used to treat ‘em bad
But now they know old Jesse’s gone for good.

Pore Jesse’s daid
A candle lights his haid!
He’s lookin’ oh so purty and so nice.
Oh so nice!

He looks like he’s asleep,
But we’re glad that he won’t keep
Cause it’s summer and they’re running out of ice.

Pore Jesse’s daid . . .

With apologies to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein

Posted by Joseph B. | July 6, 2008 11:42 PM