Jesse Helms's America
BARNES, FRED
Jesse Helms's America The Senate's No. 1 conservative announces his retirement. BY FRED BARNES IN 1997, WHEN President Clinton named then governor William Weld of Massachusetts ambassador to...
...He failed to block ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention but won 28 of the 33 concessions he sought...
...But Helms was implacable...
...Politicians as firm in their beliefs and as willing to buck public opinion and the Washington culture don't appear very often...
...Members of the Foreign Relations Committee demanded a hearing...
...A number of conservatives weighed in, arguing Weld wasn't egregiously moderate and hadn't been as squishy, while a federal prosecutor, in pursuing drug cases as Helms thought...
...Wrapped in that episode are most of the elements of Helms's extraordinary success as a Republican politician and Senate powerhouse—elements that will be painfully missed when Helms retires in 2002 after 30 years in Washington...
...But his achievements are many...
...Of course Helms's greatest achievement was the Reagan presidency itself...
...The latest example is Republican senator John McCain of Arizona...
...He refuses to go on Sunday morning interview shows...
...Jesse Helms declared the nomination dead on arrival...
...Not only that, but Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he wouldn't even allow a hearing on it...
...His tactic is to get out in front on issues that are at least superficially popular, often championed by liberals, and stir the interest of the media...
...Both are unashamedly conservative and fearless in taking unpopular positions...
...But Helms and his ally Tom Ellis wouldn't quit...
...So he's jumped onto a liberal patients' bill of rights, gun control, and global warming...
...But when something clashes with his conservative Fred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...The media pounded Helms as high-handed and undemocratic...
...Ford was heavily favored...
...They raised money to televise Reagan's speech denouncing the Panama Canal giveaway...
...GOP senators who knew Weld, a Republican himself, lobbied Helms on his behalf...
...Nor does Helms woo reporters...
...He's single-handedly blocked numerous liberal appointees...
...He was savaged for this, then got only minimal praise when the U.N...
...And when he's lost, he's often won...
...gave in...
...Reagan won, then ran off a string of primary victories that nearly gained him the nomination...
...Well, when Reagan sought to wrest the GOP presidential nomination from President Ford in 1976, Helms saved him from a catastrophic defeat that would have doomed his White House dreams forever...
...Weld never testified and the nomination died...
...His "The Ascendancy of Jesse Helms" was the cover story of our August 11, 1997 issue...
...How's that...
...It's probably more than can be hoped for...
...During the Reagan years, he bolstered the president's inclination toward anti-Communist activism, especially in Latin America...
...He's totally inner-directed...
...He cares little for details or process...
...Reagan was 0 for 5 in the early primaries and his aides were negotiating his withdrawal with the Ford forces at the time of the North Carolina primary...
...Helms is an ideologue, and his unflinching devotion to conservative principles has made him a powerful figure...
...views—Weld, say, or the creation of a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King, or disproportionate funding for AIDS research—he steps up, no matter how unpopular that makes him...
...So might Sen...
...The result: He's not all that visible as a national politician...
...So far as I know, he's changed his mind on only one issue in three decades, dropping his criticism of Israel and becoming a strong supporter...
...He's oblivious to the buzz, the chatter, and gossip of the press, pols, and the permanent establishment...
...Will another Helms emerge in the Senate...
...The real effect, however, was to make Reagan the frontrunner in 1980...
...Phil Gramm of Texas, with his presidential ambitions gone, might fit the bill...
...He's thwarted steps toward normalization with Cuba...
...He's imposed reforms not only on the U.N., but also on the State Department...
...Washington was outraged...
...To understand Helms, it's useful to compare him with the Washington type who is deemed to have "grown" in office...
...But replace Helms...
...He has few friends in the press...
...Had Helms not played the role of savior in North Carolina, a Reagan without a primary victory in 1976 would have been finished as a national figure...
...Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, though he may be on track to become the next Senate GOP leader...
...Helms hasn't grown at all since his days as a conservative commentator on WRAL-TV in Raleigh in the 1960s and early 1970s...
...Helms gets out in front on hard-core conservative issues certain to prompt media harrumphing, and he's relentless in pursuing them...
...He wins some, loses some, but is always a player to be reckoned with, even when he's acting alone...
...McCain has also successfully courted the press and became one of the most highly visible figures in American politics...
...A good example is his refusal to approve payment of American dues to the United Nations until its lavish bureaucracy was reformed...
...BY FRED BARNES IN 1997, WHEN President Clinton named then governor William Weld of Massachusetts ambassador to Mexico, Sen...
...He's turned issues such as the cultural excesses of the National Endowment for the Arts into rallying points for conservatives...
Vol. 6 • September 2001 • No. 47
