Former Sen. Jesse Helms dies

If you want to see conservative, Jesse Helms was about as conservative as it got. The North Carolina Republican served 5 terms in the Senate from 1973 to 2003 and was one of the most controversial federal lawmakers.

Helms died this morning at the age of 86 of undisclosed causes.

If you don't remember ol' Jesse Helms, let me put it this way: He was a, um, conservative firebrand. He wasn't exactly my favorite senator.

Helms is the man who suggested building a wall around the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill so the supposedly liberal-leaning university couldn't influence the rest of the state. David Broder once called Helms "the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country." Helms's controversial nature kept him from ever winning a Senate election with more than 55%.

Jesse Helms also influenced the house rules I created for the board game Monopoly: I mocked the senator by using one of the pieces to represent him. Helms would move around the board and create trouble for the players.

I didn't focus much on Helms near the end of his career, because by that time, the country was in such a sorry shape that his brand of conservatism seemed anticlimactic. But he was influential in conservatism's unasked-for rise.

(Source: http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/1755723)