Sen. Jesse Helms, beacon of conservatism, whose hard-line conservatism helped craft the Republican social agenda.

While at the beach with my family for the July 4th holiday, my oldest daughter informed me that Jesse Helms had died. Do you know who he was, I asked. No, tell me she said.

I told her when I was a young man, about her age, he became a beacon for the right wing of American politics and a lightning rod for the left. In describing him I used words such as divisive, mean-spirited, and manipulative.

I told her he was one polarizing politician if there ever was one, even more so than Newt Gingrich. I also recalled how, like Tom "The Hammer" DeLay, he would go for the jugular in a political fight, and go after you personally if you opposed him.

I also recalled how he was a pioneer of negative TV attack ads, and told her about his hands ad that I will do as a separate post.

I was attending Davidson College and the University of North Carolina Law School when Mr. Helms was in prime in the broadcasting business. (Originally a Democrat, he switched to the Republican Party in 1970. Two years later, when he upset Democratic Rep. Nick Galifianakis, Helms became the first Republican elected to the United States Senate from North Carolina in the 20th century.)

Especially while I was at law school, it was hard to resist or even avoid watching Mr. Helms during his evening editorials, even when you did not agree with a word he was saying. As noted in The Washington Post:

Helms became a household name in North Carolina with his editorials on local news broadcasts. At 6:25 p.m. each night, he broadcast five-minute tirades against the likes of intellectuals, "the so-called civil rights movement," big government, high taxes, student protests and the Kennedys. The commentaries were rebroadcast the next morning and were carried on 70 radio stations, making Helms's observations staples of daily life in North Carolina. A newspaper column he wrote during those years ran in 200 papers.

The above link from The Washington Post is Sen. Helms' obituary, and in this obituary it notes:

"Next to Ronald Reagan," Fred Barnes wrote in the Weekly Standard in 1997, "Jesse Helms is the most important conservative of the last 25 years."

It also notes:

When Helms announced in 2001 that he would retire from the Senate, Washington Post columnist David S. Broder described him as "the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country."

And finally:

Helms was extraordinarily effective at highlighting issues that would provoke the media and raise the passions of his constituents. He appealed particularly to white, blue-collar, middle-class Americans who rallied to his championing of what he considered the timeless Main Street values of religion and family.

He supported prayer in public schools, free enterprise, a strong military, a balanced budget and what he called "decency, honor and spiritual and moral cleanliness in America."

Also see an article in The New York Times, and Newsweek has a very good and thorough AP story on Helms.