Jesse Helms

R.I.P. Jesse Helms

How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and Found Inner Peace

July 4th Chris at VRWC marks Jesse's passing with the best kind of tribute, relating how he was pivotal in moving her from the dark side of politics into the light of the vast right wing conspiracy. Oddly, my fist thought upon learning of his death was this. During the 1991 Senate Ethics Committee's trial of the "Keating Five," Alan Cranston, who was ultimately deemed the worst of the lot, announced a sudden case of prostate cancer would keep him from appearing.  Cranston lived another 10 years, dying not of cancer, which had been "cured," but of old age at 86. Only after the hearings was it revealed that Sen. Helms, who served on the Committee throughout, was being treated for real cancer with daily chemotherapy, and without a peep. If the measure of a man is the degree of hatred, slander and lies heaped upon him by the very worst elements of society, then Helms was a great man. R.I.P., indeed.