Jesse Helms: An Addendum

Would you believe it? I found two more reasons not to sentimentally eulogize Jesse Helms:

He told another Senate member in 1993 that he wanted to sing "Dixie" in the presence of Illinois senator Carol Moseley-Braun, than the only black member of the Senate and the first black woman to serve in that chamber, and sing it until she cried.

Two weeks to the day after the Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress in 1994, and 31 years to the day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, that President Bill Clinton was so unpopular in North Carolina that if he wanted to visit the state, he'd "better have a bodyguard." Senate Republican leader Bob Dole was appalled at the remark.

I come to bury, not praise, Jesse Helms.