Circle the Wagons

I think the death of Jesse Helms has put the GOP requiem's in a tight spot. Sure, I can blame the MSM for making Helms famous for his stand against civil rights ... but at the same time that also looks to be what conservatives really liked about him! Now that he's died, GOPers have to walk a fine line whrn praising him for something that they can't really praise him for. So, you get something like the NRO's editorial obit this week. They mention civil rights last among the things he said "no" to ... make the claim that liberals were too sensitive when he used the loss of "white" jobs during a campaign to defeat a black guy ... praise him for not exploiting his "generosity" at adopting a child with cerebal pausly ... and of course when all else fails - he helped get Reagan elected.

I wish they would elaborated on what "version" of civil rights he was FOR ... instead they say he was for a "version" of them, and then skip to the next paragraph. I would have appreciated the insight, seriously, and would have liked to know what "version" was noble enough to offset his fillibuster against MLK day ...

UPDATE: It seems that when Helms retired from the Senate David Broder didn't think the MSM was giving enough attention to the race issue. Serves as a good counter-point to the NRO obit.