Jesse Helms, R.I.P.
Sen. Jesse Helms died today. He was a staunch foe of communism, the United Nations’ worst enemy, and the conservative Republican the media loved to hate. The News and Observer has a chronology of his political career. Roger Clegg weighs in on the racial quota ad that every news account will mention.
The Jesse Helms Center website is here, with a signature quote:
In 1978 the Raleigh News & Observer dubbed me “Senator No.” It wasn’t meant as a compliment, but I certainly took it as one. – Sen. Jesse Helms
***
The Heritage Foundation pays tribute.
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God Bless Jesse, RIP
RIP, Senator.
As one would expect, there’s a leftwing orgy of hate going on today.
Classy.
Thomas Jefferson
John Adams
Jesse Helms
Went to be with their Lord JULY 4
I remember growing up and hearing Jesse Helms speak his mind. Usually, he was right. I questioned some of his racial prejudices, but overall a friend to the American citizen and tax payer. He was the great Anti-Kennedy!
May he rest in peace.
A true conservative. RIP
It is sick is it not JWF? I am glad this blog did not choose the path liberals take when we heard about Kennedy. We know who has class.
Never was a big fan of Jesse Helms. I always thought he was a crazy old man, like Robert Byrd. Except without the KKK part…
A true fiscal conservative, Jesse Helms opposed any foreign aid. American tax dollars were not to be given away to other countries, humanitarian aid maybe, but handing over billions of taxpayers money to foreign governments, never. The wasteful morons in the U.S. Senate today should follow the example of Sen. Helms.
May you rest in peace Jesse!
Uh, are you out of your mind. Go back to the Kennedy thread and you’ll see plenty of insensitive remarks and invective.
May Jesse Helms rest in peace. I hope he came around on racism and homophobia before he passed away.
A great man has passed.
As the Roger Clegg link notes, the 1990 TV ad was accurate, honest and passionately all-American in its sentiments.
Rusty, you are so bitter, as most liberals are. Being against same-sex “marriage” is not “homophobic.” Being against racist quotas is not “racist.”
Jesse Helms was a true patriot, and he stood up for American ideals. Here are his principles, as given in the Jesse Helms Center:
Compare them to the Barack Hussein Obama “principles”:
1) Talk with all tyrants and help boost them at home.
2) Attend a Marxist, anti-American church for 20 years.
3) Try to “change” the best, most generous, and most prosperous country in the world to make it more like Venezuela.
4) Do ANYTHING to trick the American people into electing him.
How far conservatism has fallen! We used to have people like Helms, now we have Senators like Graham, McConnell, and McCain.
A liberal can no more stop lying than a fish can stop swimming.
Good news! He came around on them in his teens. You, on the other hand, have still to gain any maturity on these and other topics. You still think and talk as a child.
Lots of loony libs on this site.
A lot of what liberals think of as racist is not!!
Is it racist to wish independence for people who have only known slavery? Slavery first to the white man, and now, slavery to welfare. I pray for success and common sense for all. The American Dream is alive and well and available to all who are willing to go after it.
Rest in Peace Jesse, Thank you for what you gave America.
Job well done, good and faithful servant.
Rest in Peace Senator.
May God rest his Soul and comfort his family.
I had the pleasure of meeting Senator Helms, and he was nothing less than a consumate, utter Southern Gentleman. While he may have had an exercise in racism in the 60’s, so did many other Southerners who’ve been long since forgiven. They grew up and out of it, and so did Jesse.
He spent his Senate career fighting for justice for all. He opposed racial quotas because they hurt majorities while providing a false sense of security and hope to minorities – and because of the damage such a law would do to small business owners black and white.
He was a politician who believed his office was a responsibility granted to him by his constituents, and he lived it. When he told you something, it was because he believed it to be true. An honest politician… a contradiction in terms in the flesh.
Rest in peace, Jesse.
Senator Helms is a legendarily effective fiscal conservative. He deserves credit for that. But most of his record should be of great shame to thw GOP.
Don’t call me bitter. It makes you an elitist.
Someone scrubbed his wiki page after his death. How cowardly.
Calling the UNC the University of Negroes and Communists is racist. Singing “Dixie” to a black senator “until she cries” is racist. Vothing and campaigning against basic civil rights like segregation is racist. Refusing to vote for confirmation of any gay or lesbian appointed official is both a great disservice to “advise and consent” and is the very definition of homphobic.
Writing this political ad is racist:
Oh, and he supported death squads and threatened the life of a sitting president!
I’m the liar? Please.
And so on and so forth. So who’s the liar, liar?
I’m far from that. You probably should do some checking before you open your cake-hole and remove all doubt.
Who gives a f…? Piss off you little douchebag.
It’s a shame we don’t have enough senators like Jesse Helms, or that my own senators are like him.
Rest in peace, Senator Helms.
The shame should be that all the times he was right, he was vilified by people who were wrong.
He was right on the UN long before the rest of the country woke up. He was right on Affirmative Action long before the Supreme Court ruled many of the ‘laws’ that were inacted were unconstitutional.
He exclaimed the FACT that AIDS is primarily a homosexual disease that is highly preventable in America. Unlike the homosexual community who wants to act like the tobacco companies used to concerning lung cancer.
All of these things he was factually RIGHT on, but he got skewered by those with racist, anti-American (UN), and militant homosexual agendas that are counter to the prosperity and success of this country.
Jesse Helms is the father of the Conservative movement. He wasn’t a politician. He had conviction about what he said without regard to how it made him look. Now we have a bunch of politicians with no conviction. They only say what they have to to get elected.
30 years in the senate was not enough. When he left, the conservative movement in DC ended.
Great post from start to finish. Couldn’t agree more.
And now we know the whole story.
Well. He was prejudiced in his time, but we all were back then. Now it’s only the black who is prejudiced from what I see.
In lieu of flowers, a donation may be made to the Jesse Helms Center.
A fond farewell to Senator ‘No Sir’
________________________________________
Posted: January 2, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jane Chastain
______________________________________
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
The liberal press dubbed him “Senator No.” However, the gentleman, who represented the people of North Carolina in the Upper Chamber of the United States Congress longer than anyone in history, was much too polite to use that simple two-letter word all by itself. Southern tradition demands the addition of a simple title of respect. Jesse Helms was much more likely to say, “No, sir.”
I never will forget our first meeting. It was not in Washington. It was at the studios of WRAL-TV in Raleigh where I had presented myself as a candidate for employment. The year was 1967. I was an out-of-towner, about to become the bride of Roger Chastain, an industrial designer in the city.
I had managed to carve out a career as a television sportscaster at WAGA in Atlanta – which was a progressive city. I was quite sure my sportscasting days were numbered because I had heard they rolled up the sidewalks every night in Raleigh. Nevertheless, I decided to visit the (then) two television stations in the area before walking down the aisle to say, “I do.”
The station in Durham offered me a job as a weather girl. WRAL was my last and best hope.
As I stood in the expansive office of the president of Capitol Broadcasting, which owned WRAL, Fred Fletcher took one look at me and said, “Sports? You just can’t do sports for us.” That’s when his executive vice-president in charge of programming spoke up and said, “Oh, yes she can!” Jesse Helms hired me on the spot.
At that time, television, particularly in the South, was a white male bastion, but I found WRAL had employed a number of women and minorities. Everyone was treated with fairness and respect. Much to my surprise, opportunities there had no gender or color barrier.
Jesse Helms also did the station’s editorials. It was my first exposure to political issues and, yes, he influenced me a great deal. My sports career took me to other cities and eventually the CBS network. It would be years before I began speaking out on political issues myself. I now realize that there is a little bit of Jesse Helms in every broadcast I do and every column I write.
In 1989, while visiting Sen. Helms in Washington, I was not at all surprised to find James Meredith, the courageous African-American who integrated the University of Mississippi working on his staff.
I was surprised, however, when I first heard the liberal media assert that Sen. Jesse Helms was against women and a racist! That’s before I learned that when liberals have no arguments to offer against conservative logic, in desperation, they call you names. If they call you names often enough and these epithets are repeated by their friends in the media, they often stick.
When the New York Times or Washington Post wrote unflattering editorials about him or published columns with vacuous slurs, Sen. Helms often would console his staff by saying, “I don’t care what the New York Times says about me, and anyone I care about doesn’t care much either.” He proudly displayed a big “No!” rubber stamp on his desk.
While his accomplishments are many, I believe his biggest accomplishment was the example he set for others in the party by standing firmly by his principles.
For 30 years, he consistently voted “no” on higher taxes and bills designed to increase the size of government. He voted “no” on foreign aid money destined for dictators and thugs. He voted “no” on quotas and set-asides. He voted “no” on bills designed to limit our right to keep and bear arms.
He stood against the National Endowment for the Arts when it was funding blasphemous and homo-erotic art. He voted “no” on taxpayer funding of abortion and abortions in military hospitals. He voted “no” on AIDS programs designed to promote homosexuality and he voted “no” on programs that reward bad behavior.
More importantly, he personally blocked or led the charge against the passage of many dangerous treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Kyoto Protocol (global warming), the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the radical Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women.
In Congress, there is so much pressure to go along, to get along. However, Sen. Helms never was afraid to put his foot down and, as a gentleman, simply and politely say, “No sir!” The Senate will not be the same without him.
Jesse Helms says his father was his hero. Well, Jesse Helms is mine.
I am speechless.
That was a wonderful, no….a brilliant testament to a great man!
Absolutely. Death is always saddening, but to argue that Helms wasn’t exactly what he was — and he certainly deserves credit for never trying to hide it — is just silly. To admire what he stood for is the right of any American, but be honest about what those things are. It’s your absolute right to be as bigoted and intolerant and you like!
Anyway — off the celebrate the 4th and enjoy the fireworks! Enjoy!
Next to Sen. Helms, John McCain looks like Ted Kennedy.
I meant that as a compliment to Sen Helms. A great patriot and conservative.
You already opened your own cake-hole and removed all doubt.
I’m as tolerant of witless liberal bigots as the next person, but Rusty seems to be pushing things to an extreme.
Good Lord. nyk citing Rusty.
It’s not pretty when a dumbass racist cites an intolerant f*ckwit.
Go away with your slander and let the dead rest in peace.
May the good Senator RIP,
Looks as though his stance on affirmative action has panned out.
On July 4th, 2008 at 3:11 pm, flenser said: “Lots of loony libs on this site”
You got that part right.
Interesting. Moseley-Braun came out of the same Hyde Park, South Side, U, Chicago Mafia that produced the Onamas. She was a prototype and I am confident that her example was carefully studied in preparing the new version. Everyone assumes that U. Chicago means reliable and conservative but that of course is a fallacy. Campus politics are as vicious as anywhere or more so and there is a long tradition of leftist politics and community politics to link into. Also the University. particularly the hospitals, have proved to be a money tree.
Senator Helms was a Patriot and a great American.
Scream Racist all you want but Obama is a racist and a marxist.
I would gladly trade 10 dozen punk assed affirmative action Obama types for one Senator Helms in his prime.
All you liberals will cry when Robert KKK Byrd dies.
Drinks will be on me and BBQ at my place in Montana will be offered gratis!
What’s particularly galling is that Sen. Braun-tasaurus is a confessed welfare cheat. Yet when a gentleman responded to her clenched-fist salute by whistlingm he’s the bad guy. What’s never mentioned is that Braun-tasaurus went out of her way to target a women’s civic group from NC simply because they were headquartered in Sen. Helms’ state.
Sorry for the typos.
First time posting from a Q. Just waiting for the fireworks in St. Louis. God Bless America!
I was back in the USA when Helms beat back the liberal onslaught of Ghant, the former Charlotte mayor. I recall the lies printed by the Charlotte Obfuscator and other liberal rags in NC. Ironically it was the black vote that pushed Helms over the top. He worked very hard among the black people of NC. His tough rhetoric was for the black power thugs such as…BHO’s crowd. America has lost a great patriot and an overall man of stature.
Flenser, you can EABOD.
Where is the citation on the “black power” salute and Moseley Braun? I’d never heard that.
R.I.P., Sen. Helms.
After living in Chapel Hill, and livng the tyranny that is diversity, My favorite Jesse comment…
“North Carolina doesn’t need a zoo, just put a fence around Chapel Hill.”
It’s from the same source as the “whistling Dixie” claim: Senators Helms and Braun.
Why are we splitting hairs over that elevator incident? Jesse Helms was a fervent segregationist. Period. He never renounced that, but after it became politically incorrect to state those views, he still did whatever he could to exploit voters’ racism.
And this from people who can’t quit yammering about Robert Byrd being a member of the KKK for less than a year (and has since called it the greatest mistake he has ever made)?
There are legitimate reasons to oppose affirmative action and welfare, but a little intellectual honesty is in order to acknowledge that a great deal of support for that opposition comes from unabashed racists like Jesse Helms.
As a young Republican…I can’t relate to old segregationist politician’s and will be relieved when they’ve all been put out to pasture.
From all I’ve read about Senator Helms, it seems that he did both good and sad in his 86 years.
No one’s splitting hairs. I’d rather be using facts to refute liars like RSS who are stuck in 1950 in their evaluation of this man. It really takes gall, balls or sheer mendacity to ignore the testimony of those who knew the man best–those who said he was definitely not a racist or a segregationist–and accept the hate spewing from the left.
More from those who knew or studied him well:
Hippie, you are intellectually dishonest. Offer a RIP to Sen. Helms and praise his positive attributes if you see fit, but you look like a buffoon when you ignore reality and revise history.
You must have missed the tribute. I think you miss a lot.
And frankly it’s a buffoon who can’t back up an argument with facts and posts statements like this and this. But it’s a thoughtless clod who posts hate on a memorial post.
Would appreciate any reference to Helms ever claiming he was responding to a “black power” fist or any thing of that sort in the Braun incident. Yours is the only reference I have seen to that Hippy.
Making things up like that only undermines our arguments.
Where’s the “hate” Hippie? Hyperbole much? Credit where credit is due though. Sen. Helms should be applauded for his work with Bono regarding Africa. These two forged an unusual and effective friendship late in Helms’ life.
BTW, Gabe has a long history of toolishness on this board. You’re catching up quickly though Hippie…so you have that going for you, which is nice.
Hey sport, I’m not making up anything. Refer to my previous posts if you need confirmation. Second, I’m not responsible for everything you’ve never heard before.
I lived in North Carolina at the time the story broke, so it garnered major coverage as a local story. Everything I heard came from radio news.
Keep in mind that the whole incident–fist, whistling, crying–occurred without witnesses in a Senate elevator where the public is not allowed. So everything was “She said, he said.”
I recall radio breaking the story about whistling, then the faux outrage, then Braun-tasaurus filing a complaint within the Senate, then the Senate refusing to act on the complaint when the other side of the story was introduced.
If you want transcripts, you might try drilling down through the Senate website. Please share what you find.
As long as it’s some good Eastern North Carolina BBQ in honor of Jesse…
You know – as long as some of you guys are pushing the idea that he was an ongoing, constant racist, I was wondering if any of you could provide actual facts, as opposed to the hyperbole you’ve been pushing.
For instance, whistlin’ Dixie? Who cares if Mosley-Braun was offended. She’s an idiot, and if an idiot is offended, it’s usually because they’re an idiot. If I ever run into her, I’ll be sure to actually sing “Dixie” and skip the whistle.
As for the “University of Negroes and Communists” remark, Mr. Helms came up with this one in the 1950’s. The Nine Teen Fif Tees. During a campaign for Willis Smith, a Democrat. Back then, “negroes” wasn’t a bad word, and “communists” were actually bad people. It wasn’t a racist remark for the time or the culture, although it certainly is by today’s standards.
Don’t hold your breath waiting, 5minutes.
Barbie: “Math is hard.”
Trolls: “Facts is harder. Can’t we substitute urban legend and innuendo?”
Love the tribute. You know the MSM is only going to talk about the things they didnt like. As for him being a “crazy old man”, those are the comments of someone who didnt know him very well. I had the pleasure of voting for him several times and my friends in NYC were always appalled when I would mention that. He was a gentlemen and nothing like the image painted by the liberal media. The main reason I voted for him was you never had to worry about Jesse winning an election and then going to Washington and changing his tune. As Bob Dole said about Jesse, you never had to look under the table for Jesse, you always knew where he stood. I didnt always agree with him, but I never wondered if he believed in what he said. Watch Obama tap dance around his Iraq comments for a study in contrast.
Just odd, sport, that I can find no reference after google or Lexis-Nexis (which includes radio/tv broadcast transcripts) searches to a fist or black power salute or to any other provocation.
In other words, you made that one up.
Sorry durrrrrrrrrrrrrrl. You must have given up to quickly and gone back to Googling “nekkid boys.”
Took me less than fifteen minutes to find three links. Quitters never win.
1, 2, 3.
Look like someone else called you out three years ago:
And what’s with this comment of yours?
No conservative I know would spout bilge like that. You’re nothing more than a liberal troll.
Funny that no publication or other media source, mainstream or otherwise reported the reason for dismissal of the complaint. Truly weird.
Don’t read much do you?
I surprised that you don’t have problems with conflicting MSM reports that he sang or whistled (pick one) and that Sen. Hatch was or wasn’t there (pick one).
To recap, two (or three) Senators in an elevator. No public or press present. Next thing, there’s a story all over the MSM about the horrible, villainous Jesse. So who do you think was the sole source for that story? When it comes to choosing between the words of those two, I’ll take the gentleman over the welfare cheat any day.
Backed into a corner you can only insult. I’m merely looking for some confirmation that Senator Helms or anyone ever reported that a “black power” fist or anything of the sort was involved in the elevator incident. You just can’t produce the goods.
I’ve not been able to find any MSM reports of a black power fist, but I have found at least one quote from the Winston-Salem Journal that indicates that Senator Moseley-Braun thought the incident was hilarious:
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/jul/05/jesse-helms-oct-18-1921-july-4-2008/
I appreciate that 5minutes. Thanks for looking.
I did produce “the goods” here. The brown text are hyperlinks. You must click on those to get to the references. I can’t do that for you. Ask your helper monkey. Frankly I doubt that you’re interested in the story at all.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not inclined to extend courtesy to anyone making a foolish statement like this:
DHD, can you really post those links with a straight face? One says “[citation needed]” right after your great smoking one, another is a message board not unlike this one, and another is a “RACIST HALL OF FAME.”
Sorry, no good.
Fact is, he spent half his life trying to keep black people separated and inferior, then spent the other half keeping them from getting the benefits they needed to help them overcome their second-class status that he was personally responsible for! The man truly had no shame. He was a blight on this great nation, and any conservative who has been singing his praises the last couple days, including Michelle Malkin, owes all African Americans a sincere apology for not calling a duck a duck. That is, an unrepentent racist.
Rusty, not feeling sorry for Teddy Kennedy does not make one evil. I feel sorry that anyone has to suffer but he’s not someone I think about from one moment to the next unless we’re treated to your information about how horrid we are.
BTW-I’m sick to death of a person who has no problems with the deaths of the unborn constantly telling people like me that we’re homophobic because we think marriage should be between a man and a woman. You should look to your own deportment before saying anything to us. Having a choice is all you care about when it comes to the killing of innocents and I am sick and tired of your constant rants about how terrible we are here at mm.com.
RedState Skeptic-please, tell us about Robert Byrd? I’m sure he’s a great hero of yours because he’s one of your blue state pals.
Terrig, I saw you responded to Rusty’s post (#8) which outlined remarks about Sen. Kennedy.
Can you respond to Rusty’s above post (#18)? I’m interested in your opinion on that quote and others listed in the post by Rusty.
I would be happy to tell you about Robert Byrd! Robert Byrd, unlike Jesse Helms, has completely recanted his racist and segregationist past over his career. In recent years (as in the last quarter century or so!) he has a 100% rating from the NAACP. He has apologized and shown his deep shame and humility for his obviously deeply shameful past. Good for him!
Jesse Helms never did anything of the sort, and as I mentioned went out of his way to keep blacks from getting assistance to help remedy the discrimination for which he was, again, personally responsible! The man boycotted Nelson Mandela’s speech to Congress!!
The fact that we have this Helms hagiography from conservatives who can’t help screaming about Byrd (including MM) is the utter height of hypocrisy. Not that praising Jesse Helms would be any less heinous if they weren’t playing the Byrd card.
By the way, Helms wasn’t homophobic for his stand on gay marriage; he was homophobic for calling them “degenerates” and “weak, morally sick wretches” and exercising his Senator No powers on a judge solely because she was a lesbian.
But go on and have pride in this member of your caucus for so long.
C’mon Hippie…those links were embarrassing. Game, set and match derel. My guess is that what you admired most about Helms are the views in question. You are further proof that the hard/ideological left and the hard/ideological right are really pretty indistinguishable. Not to worry though Hippie. The rest of us will handle solving problems and getting things done.
Dark Knight, you consistently want me to respond to something to make yourself feel that you are so superior to myself and everyone else here. I did not comment on Helms, I don’t feel he’s worth commenting on. Unlike you and your democratic ilk, I do not herald everyone who has an R behind their name. This really gets tiresome with you.
As for the Skeptic-I think you drank too much of the kool aid. I did not praise Helms, you are a lap dog for Byrd. I would ask if you also belong to the KKK but you would feign indignation.
I already responded to this:
And…
I’m not sure why this is good. Senator Byrd may have said pretty words to impress his fellow liberals in the NAACP, but his actions show that he’s still practicing the same racism he grew up with.
Senator Helms, on the other hand, demonstrated his beliefs through deed, not word. He hired blacks when no one else would. He fought against lowering the bar for people based on race because he believed that the ability to achieve wasn’t based on skin color.
For the record, unlike many who are on this board, I didn’t think much of Jesse Helms because of his views. But libs also tend to forget it was the dims who weren’t too keen on the idea of Civil Rights but that’s revisionist right?
My problem with Rusty is he’s always mortified at conservatives and yet happily goes on about his life and rejoices at “choices” but the only “choice” that people can make is the killing of the unborn. If one has a view that marriage should be between a man or a woman-well that person is horrible, and mean and should just rot in hell. It’s old.
#74, what deeds are you talking about that Byrd still practices racism? That 100% NAACP rating is on his votes, not his words.
As I said before, hiring blacks (while calling them “n*ggers” at least as recent as 1982) does not absolve you of racism, and was quite common among segregationist politicians.
#75, why do you think Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond and hundreds of other southern politicians left the Democratic party for the Republicans? Of course because the non-southern Dems championed the Civil Rights Act in 1964. If you look at presidential voting trends in the south, the CRA was what changed everything. In 1960, Kennedy carried every southern state, and in 1964, Johnson (a southerner) lost every southern state. The south has not gone D since then, except for Jimmy Carter in Georgia in 1976 and Bill Clinton in 1992.
Do you honestly think it’s a coincidence that the people who championed segregation for so long are the same people who oppose welfare and affirmative action, policies that attempt to remedy the centuries of discrimination against African Americans? Whatever legitimate non-racist reasons you might have for opposing those policies, you have to accept that the Republican party is the heir to white racism.
No I will not accept your little credo. The Dims are the true racists and if you are okay with supporting those on welfare for life-do it with your money, not mine. You are a total clown if you think only African Americans are on welfare-or you’re a racist.
Dims are the true racists-they believe that blacks cannot do for themselves-the government must do for them. Keeping generations in poverty is the hallmark of the dimocraptic party-the true heirs of racisim to use your words.
Also, I just asked you if you were a fan of Byrd’s and his past ways, I think you have me confused with # 73. You might want to check that out, Sport.
His 100% rating is also from the NAACP, which is well-known for its own racism.
Byrd’s made public, racist comments fairly recently, but we can start with his 14-hour filibuster of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and opposition to later Civil Rights Acts. We can then move up to his very public use of the n-word as recently as 2001 (not supposed quote from Helms from 1985, not 1982, that’s only found in “progressive” media”) and Byrd’s ongoing opposition to the appointment of blacks to high office. He’s the only Senator to have opposed the appointment of both black SCOTUS justices and has actively opposed many of Bush’s black nominees to office.
You all can extrapolate all you want. (I love the part about me being a klansman though!)
The bottom line is Michelle Malkin, George Bush, the Wall Street Journal, and most other mainstream conservatives are heaping tons and tons of unqualified praise on a man who typified southern racism for so long without ever renouncing or apologizing for his ways.
#79, it is just laughable to say that a Democrat is racist because he blocks black conservative judicial nominees — the same nominees who block locally-supported affirmative action programs in college and high school. Obviously Thurgood Marshall’s nomination came when Byrd was still one of the bad guys.
Byrd’s “white n*gger” remark was uncalled for, just as Joe Biden’s remarks about black politicians were last year, and just as George Allen’s macaca remarks were last year. I won’t apologizing for Byrd here, but I believe his actions supporting affirmative action to try to remedy the suppression of black people by people like himself speak louder than words. Which I think was the point you were trying to make about Jesse Helms.
Terri, my opinion on gay marriage stands. You can disagree. Just like I disagree about your views on abortion. Fine.
But there is no way that you can say voting against appointed officials solely because of their sexual orientation isn’t the definition of homophobic.
You may not be a big fan of Senator Helms, but conservative websites heaping praise on this bigot speaks volumes about the state of the conservative movement, does it not?
terrig:
I’m with you. Ambassadors represent the entire United States–not just Folsom Street. I couldn’t think of anything more embarrassing to the U.S. or offensive to a host nation than having an “Ambassador McGreevey” incident.
Imagine this headline in the Bangkok Post:
AMBASSADOR FRANK BUSTED IN BOY PROSTITUTION RAID
Oh yeah. That’d help our image.
Zebras don’t change their stripes. What we have here is not a “he did this when he was one of the bad guys” moment, but a pattern of behavior by a known, admitted racist.
Macaca? Until someone threw a fit about it on teh intertube webs, I had absolutely zero idea that macaca was a racist term. I’ve lived in the South for all but my first 3 years, and I’ve never – not once – heard the term “macaca” used to refer to anything.
Allen, more than likely, was trying to be funny and failed miserably… but racist? I think not.
Why is it that you think affirmative action (aka “money and opportunities given to people because of the color of their skin”) isn’t racist?
5minutes:
If the trolls ever bothered to listen to black people instead of their “annointed spokesmen,” they might hear sentiments such as this:
“Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights. It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind.”
–Dr. James H. Meredith, first African-American student admitted to the University of Mississippi
Then their little troll heads would explode.
Zebras don’t change their stripes.
So what’s with the Saint Jesse treatment?
What we have here is not a “he did this when he was one of the bad guys” moment, but a pattern of behavior by a known, admitted racist.
No, this is switching from actively anti-black to actively pro-black. That’s a big change. And obviously not one that Jesse Helms made.
Macaca?
Never heard it either, but it is a racist term and Allen also said rumors (actually true) of his Jewish heritage were “casting aspersions,” so I don’t know why you’d give this guy the benefit of the doubt. (Then again, Barack says that being called a Muslim is a “smear” so pick your poison.)
Why is it that you think affirmative action (aka “money and opportunities given to people because of the color of their skin”) isn’t racist?
Please. You know as well as I that being racist means disliking people of another race or viewing them inferior. Byrd and Helms both fit into this category at one time, and only one had the courage and good character to renounce segregation and apologize.
Whether or not you approve of affirmative action (and I have my own reservations), it is a noble attempt to remedy institutional discrimination by this very country, or parts of it. It doesn’t have a thing to do with racism.
You may feel that government-sanctioned race-based classifications have no part in this country, but it has nothing to do with Jesse Helms hatred.
Whazzamatta RSS? Having trouble responding to the facts. Keep
trollingtrying.Jesse Helms,
Anyone who truely respects this country would be happy he and his legacy are gone.
No true conservative could support a man like that.
Piss off, troll.
Either that, or Byrd is a racist who’s consitently racist, especially against those who don’t adopt his socialist beliefs.
I’d give it. If Allen had a consistent history of racist comments, that’d be one thing, but he doesn’t.
Sure it does. It’s telling black people that they aren’t good enough to make it without good ol’ Uncle Govt’s help. It’s telling poor white people they don’t deserve money from the government because they happen to have lighter skin.
I’m still waiting on proof of his hatred.
Here’s their proof: He didn’t vote the way Ted Kennedy would have. W-a-a-a-h.