I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
-Mark Twain
Unlike Tim Russert, where my disapproval was mostly a matter of degree rather than of kind when I made some critical comments at the time of his death, I wish to be honest enough to say that Helms death came a bit too late. There was little I can perceive in either his public or private life that are worth celebrating; he was a despicable man who held deplorable political beliefs, and his death relieves us of the burden of having to recall that he is still among those stealing oxygen from the rest of us. One hopes the bacteria and worms benefit from his death far more than America ever did from his life.
UPDATE: Another title I like referring to Helms' demise:
Hell gets a little more crowded
UPDATE: At The Washington Note, Steve Clemons types the following:
We will be battling Helms as an ideological force for decades to come.
Actually, Helms' battles were those of a generation before he served, battles he lost. He represented, not conservatism in the Burkean mode, but a form of racial reactionary politics, far more venomous and destructive than that practiced by George Wallace or even Strom Thurmond in his own heyday. Helms never surrendered his belief that blacks were fundamentally inferior to whites, and should be denied a place at our political, cultural, and social table. It would a far better tribute to America to never again mention that Jesse Helms once held an office of importance and power; that would be a true monument to how far we've come than any "debate" or ideological "battle" over Helms' horrid legacy.
