But, in heaven, he sees the truth... And he is extremely embarrassed about most of his behavior back here on earth. He is so embarassed that he will spend millenia up in heaven, using his tongue to clean off the dusty heavenly feet of everybody else up in heaven. Then, eventually, Jesse will turn into a middling angel, just like the rest of us.

"Jesse Helms

"Sir,

"I am someone who grew up feeling the bitter lash of racism, and no one detests it more than I.

"I also hold a master's in Political Science, and have studied the careers o many prominent Cold War era US politicians.

"Your characterization of jesse Hel;ms as an unreconstructed raicsit is, bluntly, dead wrong.

"You strike me as aman who is not open to facts changing his opinions. . . .

One does not earn a Master's in anything without being able to write beyond beginner's level, and without learning to spell correctly, along the way.

Why is it that the racists, the loons, the lunatic fringe lie in effort to persuade that their view is both legitimate and worthwhile? Because such as Limbaugh and O'Reilly use that method of demagoguery? Don't they get it that "lie" is opposite to "truth," and that, therefore, "lie" is ILLEGITIMATE?

"the same old song

He's glib. He's knowledgeable. He's highly articulate. Yet beneath it all Michael Lind is your standard model lefty. A man whose political attitudes are expressed not as political attitudes but as immutable, self-evident verities, implying that Americans who demur from his righteous politics are either deluded, deranged, or arrant evildoers of the Jesse Helms stripe.

:Man, I get tired of this crap. Guys like Lind give the impression of believing that all of America's problems could be alleviated if only we all embraced his political mindset. His words would draw a smile from Plutarch, that savvy Greek who wrote "They are wrong who think that politics is like an ocean voyage or a military campaign, something to be done with a particular end in mind."

"He's welcome to his opinions. It seems unlikely that he will ever comprehend how officious his demeanor strikes those of different political beliefs, and that's probably just as well. Insights are not always beneficial.

"-- perthamboynj Friday, July 11, 2008 11:24 AM"

Now that you've exhausted yourself in personal attack upon the writer, I suppose we'll have to wait for any effort you might make to actually address the article, and in that effort attempt to refute it.

Until then, you only convince that your "political point of view" -- or "attitude" or "mindset" -- is a sham cover for sheer malice. But, as you put it, "Insights are not always beneficial" -- and they are avoided by use of out-directed ad homina and name-callings.

Helms used racism, homophobia, and phony outrage over "immorality" to get elected all in an attempt to distract the public from the real immoral behavior of himself and his party. I would love to see how all you "moralists" who want to see all gays rounded up and shipped off to death camps justify the fact that he was a whore for the tobacco lobby. Someone is always a saint when they share your enemies right? No matter what else they do.

While we're on the subject, what is your people's obsession with communism? I know your living in the past but even you guys must have gotten the memo that the cold war is over. And certainly I'm not the only one who finds it ironic that the same people who are so worried about being oppressed by fictional communists also support religous oppression in the form of the religious right. You guys really aren't seeing the similiarities here?

After reading your article. I guess I just don't "get it". To be honest, your article was quite boring to me. I see it as a standard liberal attempt to divide and conquer the traditionalist, conservative mind set.

Here's a tougher one for you Mr. Lind. My mother and father are from South America (yes, I'm "brown"). I'm from New York City. I went to Cornell. I served as an officer in the Army. I served in Iraq. Finally, I live in Alabama. And yet, I have more in common with the late Senator Helm's political philosophy than with your philosophy:

1. I am pro-life. Roe v. Wade was an unjust usurpation of the Constitution

2. I believe I have the right to self defense (yes, with a gun)

3. I believe the Constitution to be inspired of God

4. Oh, yeah, I believe in God

5. I believe communism to be a devilish, evil political philosophy designed to eslave men

6. I believe in Capitalism, Freedom, Liberty, and "the American Dream"

7. I want you and your liberal friends as far away from my local and state politics as possible

8. I think gay marriage is morally wrong; worse, it should not be imposed by judicial fiat

9. I think immigration must be controlled for the good of the Country

Ok. There I said it. I must be a stark raving mad KKK member who came from the post civil war south; clinging to my guns and bible! But, I'm a minority ... from New York! Try to figure that out smarty pants!

Try as you will, you cannot pigeon hole Americans who still believe in liberty from the tyranny of the state. Good day to you Sir.

Sir,

I am someone who grew up feeling the bitter lash of racism, and no one detests it more than I.

I also hold a master's in Political Science, and have studied the careers o many prominent Cold War era US politicians.

Your characterization of jesse Hel;ms as an unreconstructed raicsit is, bluntly, dead wrong.

You strike me as aman who is not open to facts changing his opinions. I will give you some anyways.

Fact:

Jesse Helms, while at WRAL TV, in 1965, promulgated an affirmative action policy for his station to help promote blacks.

Fact:

Jesse Helms was one of the first Southern Senators to hire black staffers.

Fact:

Jesse Helms gace amazing consituent service to his constiuents white or black.

Your character assassination of him is vile and shameful, doubly so because the man just died.

You may have good in you, but your actions are evil, and you have just attracted evil to you by them.

Shame on you for slandering a dead man.