July 6, 2008

Jesse Helms Obit in The Guardian

The Guardian gives Jesse Helms' life the full airing it deserves, in a treatment we are unlikely to see imitated in the States.

He became one of the most powerful and baleful influences on American foreign policy, repeatedly preventing his country paying its UN contributions, voting against virtually all arms control measures, opposing international aid programmes as 'pouring money down foreign rat holes', and avidly supporting military juntas in Latin America and minority white regimes in Southern Africa.

In domestic politics he denounced the 1964 Civil Rights Act as 'the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in the Congress', voted against a supreme court justice because she was 'likely to uphold the homosexual agenda', acted for years as spokesman for the large tobacco companies, was reprimanded by the justice department and the federal election commission for electoral malpractice, and compiled a dismal personal record as a slum landlord.

Posted by dham at July 6, 2008 7:44 PM | TrackBack