The good lord never rests

The obituary of ultra-right fruitcake Jesse Helms appears in todays Guardian. It says: "To echo this newspaper's memorable comment on the death of William Randolph Hearst, it is hard even now to think of him with charity". Helms, the paper reports "...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".

A pretty nasty piece of work. But, for all that: "The irony was that he was often seen as a relative moderate in his home state of North Carolina...".