The Senescent Man

I recall coming in late for a breakfast hosted by Senator Jesse Helms during the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit.  My brother and I walked by the podium as he was speaking.  We felt like we had committed a sacrilege.  "Give 'Em Helms - Jesse" was the cry at the time. 

The Senator died today in Raleigh, NC at 86 of natural causes.

"It's just incredible that he would die on July 4, the same day of the Declaration of Independence and the same day that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died, and he certainly is a patriot in the mold of those great men," said former North Carolina GOP Rep. Bill Cobey, the chairman of The Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University.

RIP.

// posted by The Senescent Man @ 1:08 PM