One dead racist s.o.b.

I know you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but there are some dead about whom you can't tell the truth without speaking anything but ill.

Jesse Helms is now one of those dead.

I didn't expect any of his obituaries in venues like the New York Times or AP to include the words "racist son of a bitch" but I did think the Times at least could have found more than a single phrase, "against civil rights" to deal with the truth that drove and sustained that bastard's political career---he hated black people.

The Times does make it clear that he hated gay people too.

And hippies.

And Commies.

And Liberals, whom he equated with all of the above.

If you were to go by the AP's obit, you'd think that the worst that could be said of the man's penchant for hating was that he didn't like Bill Clinton much.

No mention in either obit that Helms' crankiness about Bill Clinton gave us Kenneth Starr and the whole Impeachment Charade.  Helms' greatest political contribution to the country in the 1990s was to help get the attempted Right Wing coup underway.  And he had his sights set on Al Gore. If the Republicans had gotten Clinton, Helms would have led the next assault, against Gore, to finish the job of taking over the White House.

Helms was a racist Right Wing Reactionary, a purely destructive force in American politics, who did nothing good for the country while he was in Congress and the least ill that can be said of him as a public figure---and it's only as a public figure that he's earned an obit in the Times, so what a good friend, father, husband, or neighbor he might have been is irrelevant to the nation's interest in the news of his death---is that he appears to have liked it when high school classes visited his office.

I'd like to say may he rest in peace anyway, but he's not about to.  I'm sure the fact the country's poised to elect a black man President will keep him spinning in his grave for a long time to come.

________

Helms, in his own words, speaking ill of himself, from TBogg and Pam, who manages a few kind, if very qualified words, as well.

Hat tip to Scott Lemieux, who notes, "In fairness, [Helms] was consistent: he supported apartheid in South Africa almost as strongly as he supported it at home."

Updated later to say this is what I get for not posting earlier:  AP has revised its obit.  Helms' contempt for Bill Clinton has been downplayed in order to play up his "friendship" with Bono and the news that he went to a U2 concert and had to turn off his hearing aid, how cute.  And the point of this is...what?  See, in the end Helms wasn't so bad after all, just a loveable if cranky old coot who tried to understand the kids and their crazy music?

Comments

[Queequeg]

Wow. I didn't see THIS coming. The Associated Press has gone all WSJ on us. They're so in-the-tank for the Republicans, even the dead ones, that it's mystifying. This is frightening, because the honchos at the AP wouldn't take this risk unless they thought there was a good chance that they could deliver McCain the electoral votes to win. They're not only placing all their bets on the Republicans, they have the capability of influencing many political races.

I was a reporter for the AP 20 years ago, and my, how things have changed!

[Kevin Wolf]

When I heard the news of Helms's death, the words "good riddance" popped into my head. Having now had time to reflect upon this snap judgement, I stand by it.

[Tom Hilton]

I'm not so bothered by the obits--it's what they do--but seeing all the wingnuts talk about what a 'great American' he was makes me physically ill.

[Mike]

What Tom said. With George Wallace and Strom Thurmond, it was at least plausible to treat them gently as repentant sinners; Helms was a racist asshole to the end of his days.

[Chris The Cop]

I heard he treated his dog pk, though...

[Uncle Merlin]

I love this quote from a post at Tbogggggggggg...

"For evermore, Independence Day in America will be the day Jesse Helms died.

Do you still dare to be an atheist?"

[Linkmeister]

In the comments at Balloon Juice:

I can only hope there’s some sort of affirmative action program in Heaven, and he loses his spot there because they had to give it to a minority.

I had a thought as well.

[Daniel]

I don't know about the AP going in the tank. They seem to have snuck in a Bushism:

"And today, from Central America to Central Europe and beyond, people remember: in the dark days when the forces of tyranny seemed on the rise, Jesse Helms took their side."

Poor editing? Or something else?

[Victoria]

Thanks for saying this.

In case you missed this at Kos:

Best eulogy of Jesse Helms, from Hendrick Hertzberg:

Far too late for it to do anybody any good, Jesse Helms has died. He has done so on Independence Day, which, since he was born too late to own slaves and in too liberal an age to allow him to outlaw sedition, will forever be his only resemblance to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

It is rude to speak ill of the dead. Luckily, I did so ahead of time.
- - -

Honestly - if a news report can't include the major facts of the man's life...!

[Linkmeister]

The UK's Guardian has an obit. Unlike most US papers, which are circumspect, it says what it's editorial board thinks.

[Linkmeister]

Ack. That apostrophe shouldn't be there. It would be useful if the captcha screen also showed the comment as it will appear.

[Judith]

I think the best thing for me to do in this situation is keep my mouth firmly shut. I have to respect the dead, though in all honesty we were crossing the street once when I was a little kid (I'm from Raleigh) and Jesse crossed in front of the car and I started hissing "run him down, Daddy, run him down!" But I can't really, truly wish death on anyone. You know, it's funny, the only reason my mom started voting when she was 18 was to get rid of Jesse Helms. Fat lot of good that did, but she did vote at least every six years for that purpose.