Posted on 07/04/2008 7:30:57 AM PDT by jern
jesse helms has passed away
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
RIP I’m sure the Moonbat blogs will go nuts over this
On July 4; for a patriot like Jesse, no other day could be more fitting.
Jesse Helms was a ba`al tesuvah when it came to Israel, a man who was originally an enemy (even calling for breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel after the '82 Lebanon invasion) but who (thanks to Jerry Falwell) became a friend, and true friend he was! He helped get a "politically incorrect" rabbi freed who was being held in jail in Israel.
Back in my bitter post-Birch Society days I had an angry argument with him through the mail (snail mail, of course). His conversion to the mainstream Fundamentalist position on Israel was always a source of satisfaction to me.
And he died on July 4--how appropriate.
Wow, he dies on my moms’ birthday.
Of same mind -thanks for your comments also.
“In the 1990 campaign against Gantt, for example, a Helms television ad showed a white man’s hands crumpling a rejection notice from a company that had used an affirmative action program to hire a black job candidate.”
...I remember that ad...it was hated by the Left because it pointed out the hypocrisy of using racial quotas in hiring....the last time I saw Helms was at Clinton’s impeachment...he passed by in the Senate hall on his scooter...he looked very frail and in poor health then...I’ll miss him.
No doubt the “news” media obits will be full of snarky comments about race, etc. But Jesse was such a man of principle. Even few Republicans could match his tenacity or be willing to stand up for freedom and strength even if it was unpopular. His margins of victory were never overwhelming but Jesse managed to convince a majority of NC voters to stick with him 4 times. Not bad.
Died on the 4th of July. God rest his soul.
+1
I met Jesse Helms when I flew a charter booked by him at a last minute notice. The passengers were Helms, Henry Kissenger, and Elizabeth Dole. We were flying one of them to Minnesota for specialized cancer treatment. The other two were accompanying their friend for encouragement and support. (p)That was in 1995.
He hesitated on retiring in 2002 but I guess it is good he did. It gave him time to rest and spend with his family. If he had not survived this term then he might have been replaced by a Dem. How sad would that be.
Jesse was such a nice man on a personal level too. Even lefties said he was always polite to them. There was a news story about how the evil left wing Sen Lowell Weicker trashed Jesse as an extremist once during a debate on school prayer. Moments after the debate ended Jesse turned to Weicker and offered him a mint. He certainly had class.
And he was sooooooooooooooooo great in speaking out against the homosexual agenda.
The Democrats have their Jesse, too.
I always liked ours a lot better.
RIP, Senator Helms
He was a great American. May he rest in peace. I’m sure the DU idiots are ecstatic over his passing.
Maybe he be blessed and protected.
How sad.
Even though we all die, it still is sad.
I really liked this guy, he was/is a patriot.
Read the comments being posted over at WRAL.com
Most are very positive - but the few who are attack posts are vile. Perhaps the “GOLO” moderators are not posting the worst of the attacks, though.
“I hope he likes things hot”
“Will he be buried in his sheets” (posted no doubt by an ignorant racist who ignores the FACT that Senator Helms was never in the Klan while one of THEIR champions, Senator KKK Byrd, was a grand dragon of of the Klan!)
I had the honor of meeting the senator when he spoke at CPAC in 1986. This was just days after the Challenger accident and he spoke very movingly about the memorial service he had attended in Houston the day before. He talked about the daughter of his fellow North Carolinian Mike Smith, copilot of the shuttle. “His little girl was clutching her teddy hear. She missed her daddy because he was gone, but he’s not really gone. He’ll live forever as long as she remembers him.” I nearly wept then and could burst into tears when I think of it now....
He then compared the accidental loss of the shuttle with the willful, deliberate mass murder by the Soviets of Korean Airlines flight 7. You can imagine the passion in his voice. Too bad not every Republican senator had the same attitude about the USSR.
After he spoke I was part of the crowd trying to shake his hand. I told him how his words had moved me and he said he would continue to be very supportive of the space program. I was so pleased I had a chance to meet him.
Ironically, Jesse was originally scheduled to fly on the South Korean flight that the Russians shot down (because the atheists’ motherland was “sacred”). If he had we’d have lost him much sooner and while he was still serving in the Senate.
RIP
Jesse was a great Senator and a great man.
And now, here comes the Democrat left-wing smear machine, aka, the “mainstream press”.
God Bless You Jesse!
The Lord surely selected this day on purpose, for you to be called Home.
Prayers to the Helms family and friends everywhere.
America has lost a great Patriot.
Ronald Reagan is greeting an old friend upstairs.
Heaven is enriched.
It is truly a sad day in the Ole North State and in America in losing such a great and honorable American. He is my Senator and will always be my beloved Senator. He was a fellow North Carolinian and a fellow American who truly understood , as he once said, the honor it was to grace the halls of the Senate like the great statesmen of the past. He has now joined those few Great Statesmen that have gone on to their reward who fought for the basic tenants of American freedom and exceptionalism that many of us have allowed to become so insignificant. If you ever met him, you felt his warmth and easily realized that he was a gentleman, almost chivalrous in his approach and interaction to others. He stood for state’s rights and for the ability that we so often forget that we can do anything we set our minds to as Americans. So, this Fourth of July, I will remember not only the greatness of our country not in exception to, but because of men like Senator Helms. May God bless his family, his state, and his country in this time, and the efforts that continue through today that he so often and bravely championed. The Ole North State forever...Hoorah, Hoorah, the Good Ole North State!
That little story confirms, even more, the fact that Senator Helms was a Christian gentleman of the first order. He was a caring, loving friend in time of need to many many people.
I think it is quite wonderful that WRAL gave “birth” to Jesse Helms’ popularity by hosting his editorials......and then, as WRAL became “taken over” by the corrupt leftists that run NC government now through the party of death, destruction and defeat - their reporting of the Senator’s death (see the story at wral.com) is so full of (expected) distortions and mischaracterizations of this great man (HE was polarizing, racist, backward).....
Yet, guess what, WRAL editorialists......news director....news writers:
WE LOVE JESSE HELMS in North Carolina!
He was elected to time after time after time - serving longer than any other Senator from NC in US History! The people of North Carolina LOVED Jesse Helms!
And through his service and his tenacious stands for what is right and good - leading to the election of President Ronald Reagan and the freedom for millions who suffered so long under communist rule among other victories for freedom - the WORLD LOVED SENATOR HELMS! Rather the good freedom loving people of the world loved him! While the enslaving totalitarians of the world loathed him....
And no rewriting of history you can do will change that!
So, thank you WRAL TV for GIVING THE WORLD JESSE HELMS!
i guess the lefties at du and kos now actually are happy to have something “positive” to celebrate on Independance Day.
NO SARCASM
Actually - they cannot be happy even about the death of Senator Helms - no matter what they spout. HE BEAT THEM!
Glad you posted. Indeed. Senator Helms was the most important and valuable (and beloved and hated) Senator of our time. What a privilege to have known him!
he was very sick for most of his last year in the Senate. He had to use a scooter to get around Capital Hill. I think you are right that he wanted to spend more of his final years with his family.
As for Jesse being a nice man on a personal level, the story about how he adopted his son really moved me. Not everyone is able to adopt a child with cerebral palsy. I think that says a lot about his character.
I remember campaigning for him when he first ran. He had a campaign sticker that said “Give ‘em Hell, Jesse”....and he won and continued to win.
May God rest a great patriot.
RIP, senator. If a man is defined by who he counts as his enemies Helms has earned a spot in the hall of America’s heroes.
I was always thrilled that I could call him my Senator. The best N.C. has ever produced. Its only fitting he died on July 4th.
How fitting for a great patriot ! He passed on the same day as Jefferson and Adams.
RIP Jesse.
Rest in Peace, Jesse.
On the Fourth of July. How fitting for a such great statesman! Rest in Peace Senator Helms.
For all I know, he may well have been a Southern ‘good ole boy.’
But he sure seemed to stand for God and right when no one else would risk it in case after case.
I think you’re right.
Have been wondering what ‘event’ we’d have today to . . . ‘mark’ the day in a special way.
I was living in Tega Cay, South Carolina at the time. Right next to Charlotte. Yes indeed, they were very supportive of Helms. As a general rule, the south is very supportive of all their natives regardless of their party affiliation. To be otherwise is being “ugly”.
However, they are ever pleased to ignore the fact that the left actually are 95% naive, stupid, and polarizing.
You could count on Jesse Helms NEVER to back down from what he thought was right. He never “went along to get along.” Wish we had 100 of ‘em in the Senate now.
Thanks for that quote! AMEN! ANd hope you have a very happy 4th of July celebration!
I am having company over tonight for the same purpose and must tear myself away to get ready!
Thank you Senator Helms. You were a bright star in a sea of grey. Prayers for his family and friends.
Sorry to hear of this. Kudos to Helms for his actions in the Senate.
Well - as a “general rule” you may be right. However, for Senator Helms, the voices of those who opposed him because he opposed their socialist/communist ideals - among his fellow North Carolinians - not to mention the communist toadies the world over - were very loud and influential - the point that I would wager that most young Americans have NO IDEA of this man’s tremendous contribution to bringing freedom to this world’s citizens!
Senator Helms was a great Senator. He really advocated for the true best interests of the country and its people, and stood against leftism at every turn.
There aren’t many like him left in Washington, if there are any left...
Monroe’s last words:
“Bob Ross survives.”
Jesse Helms has held my admiration for years - I will miss him.
Jesse was the best. I voted for him in the first election that I eligible, 1978. He never got caught up in the Washington social circuit and could care less what liberals thought He was totally independent because he never doubted his convictions.
He was also instrumental in Reagan’s 1976 presidential run. Reagan had lost every primary to date and pressure to drop out was mounting. Jesse opposed his own governor who supported Ford in heading up Reagan’s efforts in North Carolina. Reagan won North Carolina and went on to nearly win the nomination which set up the winning effort in 1980.
My wife and I also had the pleasure of meeting him once in 2003 at a fund raiser in Raleigh attended by the First Lady Laura Bush and his replacement Senator Elizabeth Dole.
He was quite the gentleman in every respect.RIP.
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