In Braun-Helms Fight, Senate Searched Soul (WP Puff Piece)

Washington Post ^ | Friday, December 12, 2003 ; Page A08 | Helen Dewar

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THE CONTENDERS : Defining Issues In Braun-Helms Fight, Senate Searched Soul

By Helen Dewar Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 12, 2003; Page A08

Second in an occasional series

At first, many senators failed to see the trouble ahead, figuring they were just doing a harmless favor for a colleague and one of his favorite groups. But, for then-Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.), renewal of a federal patent for the insignia of the United Daughters of the Confederacy -- which featured the first national flag of the Confederacy encased in a wreath -- was anything but a harmless exercise.

The result was one of the Senate's most dramatic days in years, including a rare burst of soul-searching rhetoric about how black and white Americans view their history and an equally rare defeat for a powerful senior senator -- Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) -- at the hands of a freshman who had been sworn in only six months before.

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As she neared the end of her six years in the Senate, questions about ethics appeared to trump her accomplishments, and she was defeated for reelection by Peter G. Fitzgerald (R). Braun was later tapped by President Bill Clinton as ambassador to New Zealand, winning confirmation over the objections of Helms and Fitzgerald.

As Braun saw it, she said in the Post interview, the United Daughters of the Confederacy patent debate has embarrassed Helms and turned him into "my nemesis thereafter." During consideration of her ambassadorial nomination, Helms "sent out blanket subpoenas, six subpoenas to all the government agencies, the State of Illinois, the Western world just about," she added.

Looking back on the debate over the insignia, Braun said in another interview that she sensed a "sea change in the direction of the Senate" in dealing with racial issues. "They felt they had done something good for the country on race," she added. "The feeling in the chamber was higher than I had experienced before or since."

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Helen here praises Candidate Mosley Brawn and castigates Senator Jesse Helms as a racist. She says something about Mosley Braun's ethical lapses and her loss to a republican. I think the reporter does us a dis-service in not mentioning what those lapses are in this PUFF piece for Braun.

Does anyone know what those Ethical Lapses were that brought this presently Democratic candidate down in the Senate. And What Jesse helms was getting after her in the end of this article.

This reporter is woefully deficient in serving the facts.