Helms' career was an open book
My column today:
You wouldn't expect Jesse Helms' new autobiography, "Here's Where I Stand," to offer any surprises ...
The former senator's life and career was an open book. What you saw was what you got. Everybody knew where Jesse Helms stood.
So I have to wonder why the Web site of the Jesse Helms Center is touting the book, to be published in August by Random House, as a "Helms tells all."
What's left to tell?
Helms' record in the Senate was absolutely consistent: He voted "no" on everything for 30 years.
His views never changed.
His personal life was dull.
Only his campaigns were interesting, in that he practically invented the political attack ad.
What's he going to give readers in 336 pages that's worth $25.95?
I hope it's more than the sample he offered in a very friendly interview by Judson Cox of the North Carolina Conservative in April.
NCC: "What is your vision for the future of our state and our nation?"
Helms: "My vision of the future would be a state and a nation where we were united in our desire to stand firm on our foundations. I want our young people to believe as we did that there is no goal too high to reach if they are willing to work. I want our government to encourage and protect freedom as well as our traditions of faith and family."
NCC: "Who was the most colorful North Carolina political figure you ever encountered, and why?"
Helms: "This is an area where North Carolina does excel. I have known more colorful North Carolina political figures than I have colorless ones."
Details like that would make for quite a page-turner.
Perhaps I'm despairing too soon. Maybe the 83-year-old Helms will bare his soul, confess to the same doubts and uncertainties we all experience in life, admit to some mistakes along with his successes, express a few regrets and -- is it possible? -- show a sense of humor.
Just for example, he could let us in on a harmless little secret: He enjoyed lounging around the house in a caveman outfit, just like Raleigh News & Observer cartoonist Dwane Powell always drew him.
Or, he could report the times he and Strom Thurmond used to secretly cruise through Georgetown late at night whistling at pretty girls. They invited Bill Clinton to join them once, but he wanted to pick up the girls, so they left him behind.
He could show his tender side, including endearing poems written to a mysterious, unknown lady (referred to only as Madame Secretary).
Maybe the book will reveal a wistful Helms, recounting his dream of teaching journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill, so that he would be loved and admired by generations of North Carolina reporters and editors -- instead of constantly castigated by those liberal villains.
Helms could confess his misjudgments: siding with Argentina against the British in the Falklands War; backing bloody dictators in El Salvador; blocking countless nominations of judges, ambassadors and other officials, rather than allowing them "up-or-down votes," all for partisan reasons.
And then, the regrets: Pioneering campaign tactics that played to the worst fears of voters, as far back as 1950 when he helped Willis Smith defeat Frank Porter Graham in a Senate primary. The tool that time was race, and it would return many times.
Helms must be sorry that he raised tens of millions of dollars for his Senate campaigns and spent so much of it on negative TV ads, prompting opponents to respond in kind and setting a pattern for other candidates all across the country. If political campaigns today resemble mud-wrestling matches, much of the credit goes to Helms, and he can't be proud of that.
I don't think Helms will repudiate his beliefs and values, and he shouldn't. After all, he did stand for the right things sometimes.
Yet, I'd be interested in reading whether he thinks he could have found a better way to represent the people of North Carolina in the U.S. Senate.
Helms was a polarizing figure, defiant of those with whom he didn't agree. If he ever sought ways to smooth over differences, to seek middle ground for the sake of harmony, I missed it. If he ever acted as if he respected the opinions of the 45 to 48 percent of North Carolinians who didn't vote for him, it wasn't apparent to me.
We're a nation divided by politics, often bitterly. The fault line runs through North Carolina and even Guilford County, largely because politicians play one side against the other and gain power by splitting people apart. Helms was good at that, and I'd like to think, in his retirement, his conscience nags him just a bit and he ponders how me might have been more of a leader for everyone than a warrior for sometimes-narrow causes.
But, I'm sure I'll be disappointed. Helms wrote his life story long ago and no doubt he's sticking to it.
Comments (10)
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Yes, he was Senator No, and I loved him for it! He single handedly stopped more garbage than than New York could produce.
It was so refreshing to get a direct answer on questions.
Posted on June 8, 2005 9:19 AM
Doug --
What a well-written column. You deftly walked a very fine line while accurately describing an extremely controversial figure.
No doubt slightly more than half of my fellow North Carolinians agreed with the politics of "Senator No." But the rest of us couldn't stomach his intolerant, arrogant and vicious views.
Funny, I moved from North Carolina to Boston eight years ago. My representation in Congress went from one extreme (Jesse Helms) to another (Ted Kennedy). My politics are pretty much somewhere between the two, but I came to realize that Ted, though sometimes misguided, acted out of compassion, while Jesse acted out of fear and hate.
Johann
Posted on June 8, 2005 3:20 PM
Thanks, Johann. Now Teddy could write a heckuva tell-all.
Posted on June 8, 2005 5:38 PM
Agree or disagree with Helms, at least you always knew where he stood on an issue. Jesse didn't need to read poll numbers to decide on his position.
In regards to Ted Kennedy and "compassion", this is a man who let Mary Jo Kopechne drown while he decided what was best for his political career. When Ted is ready to publish 336 pages for $25.95 that can defend or explain his actions in that incident, I will buy it!
In Greensboro, a drunken driver hits a car and kills three women and he goes on trial for murder. In Massachusetts, a drunken driver drives off a bridge and a women drowns, they elect him as their senator. This may be more of that red state, blue state stuff!
Posted on June 9, 2005 11:30 AM
Thanks, Gilbert.
I'd love for Teddy to finally come clean about Chappaquiddick.
I'd also be interested in an honest memoir of his personal life and Kennedy family insights. Whether you love him or hate him, you have to admit he'd have some fascinating stories to tell.
I'm not a Ted Kennedy fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I was moved by a portion of "The Last Brother" by Joe McGinnis (a book that otherwise had some serious problems) describing Ted's reaction to his brother Bobby's assassination in June 1968.
That was a tumultuous time, to say the least. I'd call 1968 one of the worst years in our nation's history. The Democratic Party certainly was on the verge of a meltdown. McGinnis makes the point, however, that the party would have rallied around Ted Kennedy as its presidential candidate, filling Bobby's shoes -- if only Ted were available.
Instead, he was hiding out in the Greek islands on a 30-day bender, according to McGinnis.
Typical Teddy? Well, what's typical about seeing your older brother murdered during his presidential campaign less than five years after your other older brother, the president, was assassinated? What was Ted to think was likely to happen to him?
Furthermore, McGinnis portrayed a special bond between Ted and Bobby. Ted was the youngest child in a large family headed by globetrotting and emotionally distant parents. It was Bobby, out of everyone in the family, who took young Teddy under his wing, giving him the love and guidance he lacked otherwise. In turn, Teddy idolized Bobby. So Bobby's murder was devastating to him.
A year later came Chappaquiddick as Teddy continued on a course of personal self-destruction.
He righted himself later and mounted a decent challenge to Jimmy Carter's renomination in 1980. But a man once thought to be a prime candidate for president never really came close.
I say forget Jesse's book. I'd like to read Teddy's.
Posted on June 9, 2005 1:14 PM
"Agree or disagree with Helms, at least you always knew where he stood on an issue."
I'm so tired of hearing this. It is usually said by people who knew well where Helms stood on a particular issue and were embarrassed to say that they completely agreed with him. So they say, "Well, that's just ole Jess'. You always know where he stands. Heh heh."
You're right. We know where he stands, and we know where he would like to have stood. On the necks of African Americans.
Doug is exactly right to have brought up the Willis Smith campaign. That was the most deeply embarrssing political episode, outside of the Wilmington coup d'etat, in North Carolina political history. And that's saying something. And, based on his interview in the N&O yesterday, Helms wouldn't have changed a single, solitary racist word of it.
Posted on June 10, 2005 2:40 PM
Thanks, DFL. We'll have more to say in a Saturday editorial.
Check out DrFrankLives' full take on Helms at http://stinging-nettle.blogspot.com
Posted on June 10, 2005 2:48 PM
Thanks, Doug. I look forward to reading the editorial.
Posted on June 10, 2005 3:38 PM
"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 favors mingling of the races."
I hope y'all will put that in the editorial.
Posted on June 10, 2005 3:56 PM
The sad thing is you don't have to go back to 1950 for examples of Helms' attitudes.
He's a living argument against evolution.
Posted on June 10, 2005 3:59 PM