Jesse Helms, finally dead.

Can't honestly say rest in peace Helms, because I hope you'll soon be rollin' in your grave once we elect Obama president.

When my folks moved to NC in '01, Helms was their senator. My mom, who's a little liberal spitfire and active Move On member, went to visit his office one day, and was surprised to find that the people working there were encased in bulletproof glass. (no lie.)

I think I'd have to spend a long time trying to find anything that Jesse Helms did that I actually think helped to advance our country.

According to CNN, Helms once said that his job was to derail the freight train of liberalism. As racist and closed-minded as they come, Helms opposed affirmative action, abortion, gay rights, and even the creation of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., federal holiday.

Helms' local paper described his work in the Republican Party as, "Helms helped broaden the party to include religious conservatives and people who drank not just Chablis but sweet tea, and who drove not just BMWs but pickup trucks." That is one thing that has always amazed me. By and large the pickup truck and sweet tea crowd are harmed far more by the tax policies that favor the rich and the push for smaller government, yet something in the south draws them to the republican party (the baby Jesus, perhaps?). I have a few theories on that, but won't get into them today.

In a particularly enlightened moment, in 1956 (reports CNN), Helms wrote, "To rob the Negro of his reputation of thinking through a problem in his own fashion is about the same as trying to pretend that he doesn't have a natural instinct for rhythm and for singing and dancing."

How does a guy like that serve five terms (30 years) in the US Senate??