Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. (October 18, 1921 - July 4, 2008) is an American politician and a leader in the conservative movement. He was elected five times as a Republican to the United States Senate from North Carolina. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001 he has a great voice in foreign policy. Helms helped organize and fund a conservative upsurge in the 1970s, focusing on Ronald Reagan's search for the White House as well as helping many local and regional candidates.
Helms is the longest-elected senator popular in North Carolina history. He is widely credited with shifting a one-party country into a competitive two-party country. He successfully advocated the conservative movement of the Democrats - whom they consider too liberal - to the Republicans. The direct operation of the Helms-controlled National Congressally Club direct mail collected millions of dollars for Helms and other conservative candidates, enabling Helms to outperform his opponents in most of his campaigns. Helms is the most conservative politician of the post-1960s era, especially in opposing federal intervention into what he considers state affairs (including endorsing integration through the Civil Rights Act and enforcing suffrage through the Select Right Act).
Helms is credited by even his most critical opponents by providing excellent constituent services through his Senate office. As long-time chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he demanded a solid anti-communist foreign policy that would reward American friends abroad, and punish his enemies. His relationship with the State Department was often fierce, and he blocked many of the presidential candidates. However, he worked well with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
In domestic affairs, Helms promotes the development of industries in the South, seeking low taxes and some unions thus attracting northern and international companies to move to North Carolina. On a social issue, Helms is conservative. He is an obstetrician who enjoys his nickname, "Senator No ". He combines cultural, social and economic conservatism, which often helps his legislation to win wide public support. He fights what he perceives liberalism whenever on the agenda, opposes early civil rights, disability rights, feminism, gay rights, affirmative action, access to abortion, the Freedom of Religion Release Act (RFRA) and the National Endowment for works of art. Helms brings "aggressiveness" to his conservatism, as in his rhetoric against homosexuality. He uses racial language in his campaign and editorial. The Almanac of American Politics once wrote that "no more controversial American politician, loved in some quarters and hated by others, than Jesse Helms".
Video Jesse Helms
Masa kecil dan pendidikan (1921-1940)
Helms was born in 1921 in Monroe, North Carolina, where his father, nicknamed "Big Jesse", served as chief of firemen and police chief; his mother, Ethel Mae Helms, is a housewife. Helms is an English ancestor on both sides.
Helms briefly attended Wingate Junior College, now Wingate University, near Monroe, before leaving for Wake Forest College. He left Wingate after a year to begin his career as a journalist, working for the next eleven years as a newspaper and radio reporter, first as a sports writer and news reporter for Raleigh's The News & Observer , as well as an assistant city editor for The Raleigh Times .
Maps Jesse Helms
Marriage and family
Helms meets Dorothy "Dot" Coble, community page editor at The News & amp; Observer , and they married in 1942. Helen's first interest in politics came from conversation with her conservative father-in-law. In 1945, he and Dot's first child, Jane was born.
Early career (1940-1972)
Helms's first full-time job after college was as a sports reporter with The Raleigh Times. During World War II, Helms served in the United States as a recruiter in the United States Navy.
After the war, he pursued the twin interests of Democratic Party politics and journalism. Helms became city news editor of The Raleigh Times. Then he became a radio and television broadcaster and commentator for WRAL-TV, where he hired Armistead Maupin as a reporter.
Login to politics
In 1950, Helms played an important role as campaign publicity director for Willis Smith in the US Senate campaign against the eminent liberal Frank Porter Graham. Smith (a conservative Democratic lawyer and former president of the American Bar Association) describes Graham, who supported the school's desegregation, as a "victim of communist fraud" and a supporter of "mixed race". Smith's flyer says, "Wake up, White Man", in a campaign for the introduction of almost all whites. Blacks are still largely deprived of their rights in the country, since 1900 its constitutional amendments were passed by white Democrats with limited voter registration and electoral provisions that effectively and greatly reduced their role in electoral politics.
Smith won and hired Helms as his administrative assistant in Washington. In 1952, Helms worked on the campaign of Georgian Sen. Richard Russell, Jr. president. After Russell left the presidential election, Helms returned to work for Smith. When Smith died in 1953, Helms returned to Raleigh.
From 1953 to 1960, Helms was the executive director of the North Carolina Bankers Association. He and his wife set up their home in Caswell Street in the Hayes Barton Historic District, where he lived for the rest of his life.
In 1957, Helms won his first election as a Democrat - for the seat of the Raleigh City Council; he served two terms and gained a reputation as a conservative bully who "fought against everything from putting a centerline on Downtown Boulevard to an urban renewal project". In 1960, Helms worked on the principal governor's campaign I. Beverly Lake, Sr. which failed, which runs a platform of racial segregation. Lake lost to Terry Sanford, who ran as a racial moderate willing to impose federal school integration policies. Helms felt compelled to drive and impose racial integration led to hostilities on both sides and "proved unwise".
Capitol Broadcasting Company
In 1960, Helms joined the Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) as executive vice president, deputy chairman of the board, and assistant chief executive. His daily CBC Editorial on WRAL-TV, given at the end of local news every night in Raleigh, makes Helms famous as a conservative commentator throughout eastern North Carolina.
Editorial Helms features small anecdotes associated with the conservative view of the "civil rights movement, the liberal news media, and the anti-war church," among many targets. He refers to his former boss, The News and Observer, as "Disturbance and Disturber" for promoting liberal views and support for African-American civil rights activities. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which has a reputation for liberalism, is also a frequent target of Helms criticism. He is said to have referred to the university as "The University of the Negroes and Communists" despite the lack of evidence, and suggested a wall was erected around the campus to prevent the university's liberal view from "infecting" the rest of the country. Helms said the civil rights movement was compacted by communists and "moral decline." He described the federal Medicaid program as "stepping into the swampy field of socialized medicine".
Commenting on the 1963 and March protests in Washington during the Civil Rights Movement, Helms stated, "The Negro can not count forever on the kind of control that has so far made it free to block roads, disrupt traffic, and disrupt the rights of other men." He then writes, "The level of crime and irresponsibility among Negroes is a fact of life to be faced."
Although their editorials create controversy, they also make it popular among conservative voters. He was on the Capitol Broadcasting Company until he filed the Senate race in 1972.
1972 Senate Campaign
Helms announced his candidacy for a seat in the United States Senate in 1972. His main campaign was run by Thomas F. Ellis, who would later become instrumental in the 1976 Ronald Reagan campaign and also chair of the National Congressional Club. Helms took the Republican primary, winning 92,496 votes, or 60.1%, in the field of three candidates. Meanwhile, the Democrats resigned the ailing Sen. B. Everett Jordan, who lost his leading role as Congressman Nick Galifianakis. The latter represents the "new politics" of voters including young voters, African-Americans since federal legislation removes discriminatory restrictions, and anti-establishment activists, based in and around the urban Triangle of Research and Piedmont Triad. Although Galifianakis was a "liberal" by North Carolina standards, he refused to achieve integration in schools.
The poll put Galifianakis far ahead until the end of the campaign, but Helms, who faced all the defeats, hired a professional campaign manager, F. Clifton White, giving him dictatorial control over the campaign strategy. While Galifianakis avoids mentioning his party's presidential nominee, the liberal George McGovern, Helms uses the slogans "McGovernGalifianakis - one and the same", "Vote for Jesse, Nixon Needs Him" ​​and "Jesse: She's One of Us" , an implicit game suggesting his Greek opposite heritage made him less "American." Helms won support from many Democrats, especially in the eastern part of the conservative state. Galifianakis tried to seduce the Republican Party by noting that Helms had previously criticized Nixon as being too left-wing.
In the sense of things to come, money flows into the race. Helms spends a record $ 654,000, mostly aimed at careful television commercials that portray him as a cautious mainstream conservative. In the last six weeks of the campaign, Helms outperformed Galifianakis three to one. Although the year was marked by the Democratic victory in the Senate, Helms won 54 percent of the vote to Galifianakis' 46 percent. He was elected the first Republican senator of the country since 1903, before the senators were elected directly, and when Republicans stood for different traditions. Helms was aided by landslide victory of giant Richard Nixon in the presidential election that year; Nixon brings North Carolina with 40 points. The first Senate (1973-79) term
Entering the Senate
In the world where giving and receiving is the key to success, Helms refuses to play a compromise game. Rather than gather with opponents to find out their differences, Helms prefers to survive in defeat.
Helms quickly became a conservative "star" of the movement, and heavily on the issue of abortion. In 1974, following the decision of the US Supreme Court at Roe v. Wade, Helms introduced a constitutional amendment that would prohibit abortion in all circumstances, granting legal right to every fetus. However, the Senate hearing into the proposed amendment heard that both Helms', and James L. Buckley's similar amendments, would achieve their stated goals, and set them aside for the session. Both Helms and Buckley proposed another amendment in 1975, with countries' allowing Helms to take advantage of the application of the "right to life" constitution enshrined from the "moment of conception".
Helms is also a major supporter of free enterprise and would rather cut the budget. He is a strong supporter of his global comeback to the gold standard, which he will push at many points throughout his Senate career; in October 1977, Helms proposed a successful amendment that allowed US citizens to sign gold-related contracts, canceling a 44-year ban on gold-indexed contracts, reflecting inflation concerns. Helms supported the tobacco industry, which contributed more than 6% of country GSPs until the 1990s (the highest in the country); he argues that federal support programs should be maintained, as they are not subsidized but insurance.
In 1973, the United States Congress passed the Helms Ammendment to the Foreign Assistance Act. It states that, "no foreign aid funds can be used to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce people to have an abortion."
Foreign policy
From the beginning, Helms was identified as a prominent anti-communist. He proposed an act in 1974 that authorized the President to grant honorary citizenship to Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He remains close to the cause of Solzhenitsyn, and links his struggle with freedom around the world. In 1975, when the North Vietnamese troops approached Saigon, Helms was at the forefront of those who urged the US to evacuate all the demanding Vietnamese, whom he believed could be "two million or more in seven days". When the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to suppress critical reports of US strategic positions in the arms race, Helms read the entire report, and required it to be fully publicized in the Record of Congress .
Helms was not originally a strong supporter of Israel; for example, in 1973 he filed a resolution demanding that Israel return the West Bank to Jordan, and, in 1975, demanded that Palestinian Arabs receive a "settlement of their grievances". In 1977, Helms was the sole senator to vote against banning American companies joining an Arab League boycott against Israel, but that was mainly because the bill also relaxed discrimination against communist nations. In 1982, Helms asked the US to sever diplomatic ties with Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War. He preferred to ban foreign aid to newly detonated nuclear powers: this is aimed precisely in India, but also affecting Israel if it conducts trials nuclear. He worked to support the supply of weapons to the United States' Arab allies under the presidents of Carter and Reagan, until his views on Israel shifted significantly in 1984.
1976 presidential election
Helms supported Ronald Reagan for his presidential nomination in 1976, even before Reagan announced his candidacy. His contribution was crucial in North Carolina's main victory that paved the way for Reagan's presidential election in 1980. Helms' support, along with Raleigh-based campaign operation Thomas F. Ellis, played a role in Reagan's victory in North Carolina and then presented a major challenge for President Gerald Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention. According to author Craig Shirley, the two men deserve praise "for breathing life into the dying Reagan campaign". Going into primary, Reagan lost all preliminary elections, including in New Hampshire, where he was favored, and two million dollars of debt, with more and more Republican leaders calling for him out. The Ford campaign predicts a victory in North Carolina, but judges Reagan's strength in the state only: Helms Support. While Ford received the support of Governor James Holshouser, grassroots movement established in North Carolina by Ellis and backed by Helms gave a disappointing win of 53% to 47%. The momentum generated in North Carolina brought Ronald Reagan to a landslide victory in Texas, California, and other important countries, the night of the contest between Reagan and Ford, and forced an unannounced delegate to vote at the 1976 convention.
Later, Helms was unhappy with the announcement that Reagan, if nominated, would ask the 1976 Republican National Convention to make moderate Pennsylvania Senator Richard Schweiker his spouse for the election, but still refused it himself at the time. According to Helms, after Reagan told him about the decision, Helms clocked the clock because, "I want to record for posterity the right time I receive the surprise of my life." Helms and Strom Thurmond tried to get Reagan to drop Schweiker for a conservative, probably either James Buckley or his brother William F. Buckley, Jr., and rumors emerged that Helms might run for Vice President, but Schweiker was retained. In the end, Reagan narrowly lost to Ford at the Convention, while Helms received only token support for the Vice President's nomination, though enough to place it second, far behind Bob Dole Ford's choice. The Convention adopts a very conservative platform, and conservative factions out act like winners; except for Jesse Helms.
Helms vowed to actively campaign for Ford in the South, about the conservative platform adopted at the Convention to become the "mandate" promised by Ford to run. However, he targeted Henry Kissinger after the latter issued a statement calling Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn "a threat to world peace," and Helms demanded that Kissinger embrace the platform or immediately resign. Helms continued to support Reagan, and the two remained close friends and political allies throughout Reagan's political career, although occasionally criticized each other. Despite the defeat of Reagan at the convention, Helms and Ellis's interventions arguably led to the most important conservative major victory in the history of the Republican Party. This victory enabled Reagan to attend the 1976 Republican nomination, and won the next nomination at the 1980 Republican National Convention and finally the Presidency of the United States.
Menurut Craig Shirley,
Had Reagan lost North Carolina, apart from his public statements, his revolutionary challenge to Ford, along with his political career, would have ended without further ado. He will make a friendly outgoing speech, break the deal with Ford forces to wipe out his campaign debt, make a small speech at the Kansas City Convention later that year, and return to his ranch in Santa Barbara. She may just reappear to make speeches and cut radio ads to supplement her income. And Reagan will fade into political forgetting.
Torrijos-Carter Agreement
Helms is a long-time opponent of transferring ownership of the Panama Canal to Panama, calling its development a "historic American achievement." He warned that it would fall into the hands of "communist friends" Omar Torrijos. The issue of channel diversion was disputed in the 1976 presidential election, at which time President Ford suspended negotiations over the transfer of sovereignty to defuse conservative opposition. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter reopened the talks, appointing Sol Linowitz as co-negotiator without Senate confirmation, and Helms and Strom Thurmond leading the opposition against the transfer. Helms claims that Linowitz's involvement with Marine Midland is a conflict of interest, arguing that it is a bailout of American banking interests. He filed two federal suits, demanding prior congressional approval of any agreement and then approved by both houses of Congress. Helms also deployed Reagan, telling him that negotiations over Panama would be the "second Schweiker" as far as his conservative base is concerned.
When Carter announced, on August 10, 1977, the conclusion of the agreement, Helms declared it a constitutional crisis, citing the need for support of US allies in Latin America, accused the US of sending threatening letters to Panama, complaining that the decision threatened national security in the event of war Europe. Helms threatened to block the business of the Senate, proposed 200 amendments to the revision of the US criminal code, knowing that most Americans oppose the treaty and would punish congressmen who elect them if the vote of ratification comes ahead of elections. Helms announced the results of a poll showing 78% of the public opposition. However, the leadership of Helms and Thurmond of the opposition made it more politically easy for Carter, causing them to be replaced by soft-spoken Paul Laxalt.
1978 reelection campaign
Helms began campaigning for re-election in February 1977, giving himself 15 months at the start of the primaries. While he is not facing a major opponent, Democrat nominates Insurance Commissioner John Ingram, who comes from behind in the first round of the primary to win in the second round. Ingram is known as an eccentric populist and uses a low-budget campaign, just as he has won the main one. He campaigns almost exclusively on the issue of insurance rates and against "fat cats and special interests", where he belongs to Helms. Helms was one of three senators rated 100% by conservative Americans for Constitutional Action for 1977, and ranked fourth most conservative by others. The Democratic National Committee targets Helms, as did President Carter, who visited North Carolina twice on behalf of Ingram.
During the long campaign, Helms raised $ 7.5 million, more than doubling the second most expensive number worldwide (John Tower's in Texas), thanks to a direct email strategy from Richard Viguerie and Alex Castellanos. It is estimated that at least $ 3 million of Helms' contributions are spent on fundraising. Helms easily issued Ingram several times, as the latter spent $ 150,000. Due to lumbar being punctured, Helms was forced to postpone the campaign for six weeks in September and October. In low voter elections, Helms received 619,151 votes (54.5 percent) to Ingram 516,663 (45.5 percent). Celebrating his victory, Helms told his supporters that it was "a victory for the conservative and free corporate interest across America", adding, "I'm Senator No and I'm happy to be here!"
Secondary Secondary (1979-1985)
New Senate Terms
On January 3, 1979, the first day of the new Congress, Helms introduced a constitutional amendment banning abortion, in which he led a conservative Senator. Senator Helms was one of several Republican senators who in 1981 were summoned to the White House to express his dissatisfaction with Sandra Day O'Connor's nomination to the US Supreme Court; their opposition relies on the issue of O'Connor's alleged reluctance to overturn the decision of Roe v. Wade . Helms is also the conservative leader of the Senate on school prayer. An amendment proposed by Helms allowed voluntary prayers to be endorsed by the Senate, but died on the House committee. For that action, Helms also proposed an amendment that prohibits sex education without the written parental consent. In 1979, Helms and Democrat Patrick Leahy supported the federal Bill of Taxpayer of Rights.
He joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, becoming one of the four critical individuals against the new Carter in the committee. The pro-Taiwan congress lobby leader, Helms demands that the People's Republic of China refuse to use the power of the Republic of China, but, which makes him very surprised, the Carter administration does not ask them to rule over it.
Helms also criticized the government over Zimbabwe Rhodesia, leading support for the Internal Settlement government under Abel Muzorewa, and campaigned with Samuel Hayakawa for the immediate lifting of sanctions against Muzorewa's government. Helms complained that it was inconsistent to lift sanctions against Uganda soon after Idi Amin's departure, but not Zimbabwe Rhodesia after Ian Smith. Helms hosted Muzorewa when he visited Washington and met with Carter in July 1979. He sent his two assistants to the Lancaster House Conference because he did not "trust the Department of Foreign Affairs on this matter", thus provoking a British diplomatic complaint. His aide John Carbaugh is accused of pushing Smith to "survive" and take a tougher line, implying that there is enough support in the US Senate to lift sanctions without a settlement. Helms introduced legislation requiring immediate withdrawal of sanctions; When the negotiations went on, Helms was more obedient to the administration line, although Senator Ted Kennedy accused Carter of recognizing the construction of a new aircraft carrier in return for Helms' approval of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, which was rejected by both sides. Helms' support to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe Rhodesia may have been based on North Carolina tobacco merchants, which will be the main group benefiting from the unilateral lifting of tobacco-exporting Zimbabwe of Rhodesia.
1980 presidential election
In 1979, Helms was mentioned as a potential candidate for the Republican nomination for the 1980 presidential election, but had poor voter acknowledgment, and he lagged far behind the front runners. He is the only candidate to apply for primary Vice President of New Hampshire. Entering 1980, he was suggested as a potential presidential candidate for Reagan, and he said he would accept if he could "be his own person." He is one of three conservative candidates who run for nominations. However, his ideological deal with Reagan risked losing the electorate, largely because of the independent candidacy of Rep. John B. Anderson, and Reagan's camp are divided: eventually appointing George H. W. Bush as his chosen candidate. At the service, Helms fiddled with the idea of ​​running for Vice President despite Reagan's choice, but left him in return for Bush supporting the party platform and allowing Helms to overcome the convention. As expected, Helms was designed by conservatives, and won 54 votes, which came second. Helms is a "spiritual leader of conservative conventions", and leads a movement that successfully reversed the support of the Republican 36-year-old platform for the Equal Rights Amendment.
In the fall of 1980, Helms submitted another bill that rejected the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over school prayer, but this found little support on the committee. This was strongly opposed by mainline Protestant churches, and its partners were defeated in the House. Senators Helms and James A. McClure blocked Ted Kennedy's comprehensive criminal code that did not loosen federal gun bans, put in place the death penalty procedure, and restored current laws on pornography, prostitution, and possession of drugs. Following its success in reintroducing gold-indexed contracts in 1977, in October 1980, Helms proposed to return to the gold standard, and made it through an amendment commissioned commission to see gold-backed currencies. After the presidential election, Helms and Strom Thurmond sponsored the Senate amendment to the Justice Department Bill, denying the department of having the power to participate in the busing, due to objections to federal involvement, but, despite being passed by Congress, vetoed by a lame duck. Cartoon. Helms promised to introduce a stronger anti-busing bill soon after Reagan took office.
Republic takes the Senate
In the 1980 Senate election, the Republican Party unexpectedly won a majority, the first in twenty-six years, including John Porter East, a social conservator and a protagonist, soon dubbed "Helms on Wheels", winning another North Carolina seat.. Howard Baker is set to become Majority Leader, but conservative, angered by Baker's support for Panama's agreement, SALT II, ​​and Equal Rights Amendment, has attempted to replace him with Helms until Reagan provided Baker's support. Although, it is thought they will place Helms in charge of the Foreign Relations Committee, not liberal Charles H. Percy, he instead becomes chairman of the Senate Farming, Nutrition and Forestry Committee in the new Congress.
The first six months of 1981 were consumed by the hearing of the Foreign Relations Committee, held by Helms, who believed many of the people who were elevated were too liberal or too polluted by the association with Kissinger, and were not dedicated enough to the definition of the "Reagan program": support for South Africa, Taiwan, and the right wing regime of Latin America (as opposed to Black Africa and "Red" China), and active defense of human rights. These nominees included Alexander Haig, Chester Crocker, John J. Louis, Jr., and Lawrence Eagleburger, all of which were confirmed, while all Helms candidates were denied. Helms also, unsuccessfully, opposed the nomination of Caspar Weinberger, Donald Regan, and Frank Carlucci. However, he scored an important coup two years later, when he led a small conservative group to block the nomination of Robert T. Gray for nine months, and thus led to the shooting of Eugene V. Rostow.
Food stamp program
Opponent of the Food Food Program, Helms has chosen to reduce its scope, and is determined to follow this through the chair of the Agricultural Committee. At one point, he proposed a 40% cut in their funding. Instead, Helms supports the replacement of food vouchers at work costs. He then proposed that the benefits of a food coupon were dropped of $ 11.50 per month per child for every young person enrolled in the school lunch program. He maintains that the "free lunch" duplicate food coupons. The condemnation of his proposal was so strong that he was forced to retreat. Helms also challenges fraud in food stamp programs. He said that the public has "grown upset against the offenses that they have observed themselves".
As a new lawmaker in 1973, Helms tried to overturn the 1968 congressional vote that had allowed striking workers to qualify for food stamps. Although he failed to get a reversal, his position withdrew support from Minor Leaders and the Future Majority of Howard Baker of Tennessee and twelve Senate Democrats. Helms' position was upheld in 1988, when the United States Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that a law rejecting food stamps for strikers was constitutional unless the worker was eligible for a food voucher before the strike. Justice Byron White said that the government should maintain neutrality in labor disputes and not subsidize strikers.
As chair of the Agricultural Committee, Helms proposed the lifting of the amendment of 1977 which had removed the terms of purchase for food stamps. With that position, he collided with fellow members of the Republic Bob Dole, who claimed that the terms of purchase had contributed to fraud and administrative difficulties in the program. Helms cited a Congressional Budget Office report showing that 75 percent of the increased use of seals has occurred since purchase requirements were dropped. When Helms's ally, Steve Symms of Idaho, proposed to reapply the terms of purchase, the movement was defeated, 33-66.
The Helms block also failed to secure other boundaries for the program, including the movement to remove alcohol and residential treatment patients from the benefits. House and Senate conference participants drop provisions supported by Helms that require families to be disqualified from the program to pay double the amount of benefits received improperly. House Democratic Whip Tom Foley of Washington insisted that such a penalty would violate the Fifth Amendment right for legal proceedings. Instead, the family repay the actual amount of the gain obtained incorrectly.
Economic policy
Helms supports the gold standard through his role as chair of the Agricultural Committee, which exercises widespread power over commodity markets. During the 1981 budget crisis, Helms recovered $ 200 million for school lunches instead of cutting off foreign aid, and counteracting increased support for grain and milk prices, despite the importance of the dairy industry in North Carolina. He warned repeatedly against expensive farm subsidies as chairman. However, in 1983, he used his position to lobby for using the country's milk and grain stocks to subsidize food exports as part of a trade war with the European Union. Helms strongly opposed cutting food aid to Poland after martial law was announced, and called for grain exports to end (and weapons ceasefire talks) of the Soviet Union instead.
In 1982, Helms wrote a bill to introduce a federal fixed tax of 10% with a personal allowance of $ 2,000. He voted against the 1983 budget: the only conservative Senator who has done it, and is a leading voice for a balanced budget amendment. With Charlie Rose, he proposes a bill that would limit tobacco price support, but would allow the transfer of subsidized credit from non-farmers to farmers. He sponsored a bi-partisan step in 1982 to extend the duration of drug patents. Helms continues to be a hindrance to Reagan's budget plan. At the end of the 97th Congress, Helms led the filibuster against a Federal Reagan gasoline tax hike of 5 cents per gallon: reflecting his opposition to a 3 cents gubernatorial rise in North Carolina gasoline tax but alienating the White House from Helms.
Social issues
Although Helms acknowledged budget and nomination concerns as predominant, he rejected a call by Baker to move the debate on social issues into 1982, with conservatives seeking to discuss abortion, school prayer, minimum wage, and "fair housing" policy. With the new Congress, Helms and Robert K. Dornan once again proposed amendments that prohibit abortion in all circumstances, and also proposed a bill defining the fetus as a human, thus removing it from the hands of federal courts, along with Illinois Republican Henry Hyde and Kentucky Democrat Romano Mazzoli. More successful, Helms passed an amendment prohibiting federal funds used for abortion unless the woman's life was in danger. His support was key to the nomination of C. Everett Koop as Surgeon General, proposing lifting the age limit that should have ruled out Koop. He proposed an amendment to take school prayer out of the authority of the Supreme Court, which was criticized for being unconstitutional; despite Reagan's support, the bill was eventually rejected, after twenty months of disputes and many filibusters, in September 1982, by 51-48. Helms and Strom Thurmond sponsor other amendments to prevent the Justice Department's lawsuit in defense of a federal bus, which he considers wasting taxpayer money without improving education; was filmed by Lowell Weicker for eight months, but was adopted in March 1982. However, Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill blocked the move not to be considered by the House of Representatives.
In 1981, Helms started secret negotiations to end the deadlock for 11 years and paved the way for the historical desegregation of the black and white university of blacks in North Carolina. In response to a rival anti-discrimination bill in 1982, he proposed a bill prohibiting the granting of tax-exempt status to schools that discriminate against race, but allowing schools that discriminate on the basis of religion to avoid taxes. When the Voting Rights Act emerged for amendment in 1982, Helms and Thurmond criticized it for being biased towards the South, arguing that it made "second-class" citizens of Carolin by treating their country differently, and proposed amendments that extended the terms to the whole country, which they know will bury it. However, it was extended anyway, despite the philosopher Helms, who was promised to lead "until the cows came home". In 1983, Helms hired Claude Allen, an African American, as his press secretary. Despite his belief that he was one of the most favored senators among the black staff in Congress, it showed that he did not have his own African-American staff, encouraging the hiring of twenty-two-year-olds, who had switched sides when he became a press secretary to Bill Cobey in the previous year's campaign.
In 1983, Helms led a 16-day filibuster in the Senate opposing the proposed formation of Martin Luther King Day as a federal holiday. Helms and others claim, "other federal holidays will be expensive for the economy." Although the Congressional Budget Office cites a $ 18 million fee, Helms claims it will cost $ 12 billion annually. Helms "distributes a 300-page package claiming that civil rights leaders are political radicals who adopt" action-oriented Marxism "and specify Dr. King's supposed betrayal" where he accused the King "appears to welcome collaborations with the Communists," Stanley Levison and Jack O'Dell. Helms ended the filibuster in return for a new tobacco bill. President Reagan signed the bill on October 19, 1983. Helms later demanded that FBI surveillance tapes suspected of detailing adultery in the King's section be released, even though Reagan and the court refused. The conservative group sought to change the name of the day "National Equality Day" or "National Civil Rights Day", but failed, and the bill was passed. Writing in The Washington Post several years later, David Broder attributes the Helms opposition to the MLK holiday with racism in the Helms section.
Latin America
After the Republican takeover of the Senate, Helms became chairman of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, promising to "review all our policies in Latin America", where he was very critical under Carter. He immediately focused on increasing aid to the El Salvador government in his civil war, and in particular preventing Nicaraguan and Cuban support for the guerrillas in El Salvador. Within hours, the subcommittee approved military aid to El Salvador, and then led a push to cut aid to Nicaragua. Helms was assisted in pursuing a rearrangement of foreign policy by John Carbaugh, whose influence the New York Times reported "[rival] many more visible [Senate] elected members".
In El Salvador, Helms has a close relationship with the Nationalist Alliance of Rightist Nationalist Alliances and its leader and founder of the death squad of Roberto D'Aubuisson. Helms opposed the appointment of Thomas R. Pickering as Ambassador to El Salvador. Helms alleged that the CIA had intervened in Salvador's elections in March and May 1984, supporting José NapoleÃÆ'³n Duarte's center-left incumbent instead of D'Aubuisson, claiming that Pickering had "used diplomatic cloaks to strangle freedom at night." A CIA operator who gave testimony to the Senate of the Intelligence Committee was accused by Helms of admitting fraud in the election, but the senators present had stated that, while CIA operators acknowledged involvement, they made no such recognition. Helms revealed details of CIA's financial support for Duarte, getting a reprimand from Barry Goldwater, but Helms replied that the information came from sources in El Salvador, not the Senate committee.
In 1982, Helms was the only senator who opposed the Senate resolution in favor of pro-British policy during the Falklands War, citing Monroe's doctrine, although he managed to undermine the language of resolution. Nonetheless, Helms was a supporter of Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet, who supported Britain in the Falklands conflict. Helms vigorously opposed Castro's regime in Cuba, and spent much of his time campaigning against the lifting of sanctions. In 1980, he opposed a treaty with Cuba at the sea border except that it included the withdrawal of the Soviet brigade stationed on the island. The following year, he proposed a law establishing Radio Free Cuba, which came to be known as Radio MartÃÆ'.
1984 re-election campaign
In the midst of the Reagan administration, Helms was spoken of as a prospective presidential candidate in 1984 in the case of Reagan choosing to resign after his first term. There is also speculation that Helms will run for governor, vacated by Jim Hunt. However, the President stood for re-election, and Helms ran once more for the Senate seat - facing Governor Hunt - and was the main target among the ruling Republican Senate.
Unlike in 1978, Helms faced an opponent in the main, George Wimbish, but won with 90.6% of the vote, while Hunt received 77% in his book. During the election campaign, Hunt accused Helms of having "the largest anti-Israel record of members of the US Senate". Helms promised during the campaign that he would retain his leadership on the Agriculture committee.
In the most expensive Senate campaign up to that time, Helms beat Hunt, taking 1,156,768 (51.7%) to Hunt 1,070,488 (47.8%). Third_Senate_term_ (1985-1991) "> Third Senate (1985-1991) Terms h2>
In 1989, Helms hired James Meredith, best known for being the first African American to ever be admitted to Mississippi University, as a domestic policy advisor to his Senate office staff. Meredith noted that Helms was the only Senate member who responded to his offer.
In 1989, Helms successfully lobbied for amendments to America with Disabilities Act, a law that protects the rights of persons with disabilities who relieve pedophilia, schizophrenia and kleptomania from conditions that prohibit discrimination. Although the Helms amendment was deposited in the last ADA bill passed by Congress in 1990, Helms twice voted against the bill.
Foreign policy
Although Helms was returned to office, and became a senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar of Indiana became chairman, after Helms and Lugar broke a deal to keep liberals out of the committee's top position. Despite the pressure to claim the Foreign Relations chair, Helms retains the Agriculture chair, as he promised in his campaign.
A "purge" from the State Department by George P. Shultz in early 1985, replacing moderate conservatives, strongly opposed by the conservatives led by Helms. They failed to try to block Rozanne L. Ridgway, Richard Burt, and Edwin G. Corr's appointment as ambassadors, arguing that Shultz appoints unfaithful diplomats to President Reagan's philosophy, especially in Latin America. In August, Helms threatened to lead a filibuster against a law imposing sanctions on South Africa, delaying it until after the summer break.
In early 1986, the Panama dissident Winston Spadafora visited Helms and requested that the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs hold a hearing in Panama. Ignoring Elliott Abrams's request for a softer path toward Panama, Helms - a long-approved Noriega critic - and the hearing found a large degree of leeway that the US government, and in particular the Central Intelligence Agency, has given to Noriega. After the Drug Enforcement Agencies faced opposition from Oliver North in investigating Noriega's role in drug trafficking, Helms worked with John Kerry to introduce amendments to the Intelligence Authorization Act demanding that the CIA investigate the potential involvement of the Panama Defense Force. In 1988, after Noriega was charged with including drug trafficking, a former Panama consul general and political intelligence chief testified to the subcommittee, detailing the compilation of Panama evidence to his political opponents in the United States, including Senator Helms and Ted Kennedy, with help from the CIA and the National Security Council. Helms proposed that the government suspend the Carter-Torrijos agreement unless Noriega was extradited within thirty days.
In July 1986, after Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri was burned alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Helms stated that DeNegri and his friend Carmen Quintana Arancibia were "Communist terrorists" who had previously been seen burning barricades.. Helms also criticized the US Ambassador to Chile, Harry G. Barnes Jr. for attending DeNegri's funeral, said Barnes "planted an American flag in the midst of Communist activities" and President Reagan would send him home, he was there. The following month, the Justice Department disclosed information to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence linking Helms and sensitive intelligence issues from the Chilean government. Helms responded to the revelation by notifying reporters that the Justice Department "wanted to intimidate me and harass me, and it would not work" and said that neither the Justice Department nor himself knew that he "did not violate the classification rules." In a letter to Attorney General Edwin Meese, Helms made a request by the Department of Justice to investigate whether he or his staff members had been spied during a Chilean visit and called the charges against him "frivolous and false charges."
Helms became interested in the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue, and in October 1990, longtime staff and assistant James P. Lucier prepared a report stating that there may be American detainees still held in Vietnam and that the George HW Bush administration was involved in hiding facts. The report also alleges that the Soviet Union had detained American prisoners after the end of World War II and was more likely to have been moved there during the Korean War and during the Vietnam War. (Lucier also believes that the survivors of the 1983 Korean Air Line shooting in Flight 007 were being held by the Soviets.) Helms stated that the "deeper story" was "a deliberate attempt by certain people in government to ignore information or reports about live MIA-POWs ". This was followed up in May 1991 by a minority report of the Foreign Relations Committee, released by Helms and entitled US Policy Checks Towards POW/MIAs , who made similar claims and concluded that "any evidence suggests that MIA can live uniformly and arbitrarily rejected... "The publication of the report caused other Republican members to become angry, and accusations were made that the report contained mistakes, satire, and unproved rumors. This and other personnel issues caused Helms to dismiss Lucier and eight other staff members in January 1992. Helms later distanced himself from the POW/MIA problem. (His aides claimed justification later in 1992 when Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that the Soviet Union had detained several US detainees in the early 1950s.)
HIV laws
I do not come to Washington to be a 'yes man' to any president, Democrat or Republican. I did not come to Washington to get along and win the popularity contest.
In 1987, Helms added an amendment to the Supplemental Enhancement Act, which directed the president to use executive authority to add HIV infections to the list of non-exclusionary diseases that prevent both travel and immigration to the United States. The action was opposed by the U.S. Public Health Service. Congress restored the executive authority to remove HIV from a list of conditions that can not be excluded in the 1990 Immigration Reform Act, and in January 1991, the Minister of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan announced he would remove HIV from a list of conditions that could not be ruled out. A letter-writing campaign led by Helms ultimately convinced President Bush not to lift the ban, leaving the United States the only industrialized country in the world to ban travel based on HIV status. The travel ban is also responsible for the cancellation of the 1992 International AIDS Conference in Boston. On January 5, 2010, the 22-year ban was lifted after it was signed by President Barack Obama on October 30, 2009.
The New York Times states that Helms "strongly opposes" federal funding for AIDS research and treatment, which he believes is God's punishment for homosexuals. Against the Kennedy-Hatch AIDS Bill in 1988, Helms stated, "There is no single AIDS case in this country that can not be traced from origin to sodomy". When Ryan White died in 1990, his mother went to Congress to talk to politicians on behalf of people with AIDS. He spoke to 23 representatives; Helms refused to speak to Jeanne White, even when she was alone in the elevator. Despite being opposed by Helms, the Ryan White Care Act was passed in 1990.
In 1988, Helms convinced the congress to impose a federal funding ban on needle exchange programs, arguing that spending federal money on such programs was tantamount to "federal drug abuse support."
1990 re-election campaign
Helms ran for re-election in a nationally-published, angry campaign against Charlotte's former mayor Harvey Gantt in his "attempt to be the only black Senator" and "the first black man elected to the Senate from South Korea since the Reconstruction ". In the primary, Helms has two opponents, George Wimbish (as in 1984) and others; Helms won by 84.3% of the vote.
Helms aired a recent television advertisement entitled "Hands" that showed the white man's hand squeezing a rejection notice from a company that gave the job to "an under-qualified minority"; some critics claim that the ad uses a sub-textual racist theme. The ad was produced by Alex Castellanos, whom Helms will employ until his company was removed in April 1996 after running a remarkably loud advertisement.
Helms won the election with 1,087,331 votes (52.5 percent) to Gantt's 981,573 (47.4 percent). In his victory statement, Helms noted the unhappiness of some media for his victory, quoting the words of Casey at the Bat: "There is no excitement in Mudville tonight.For ultra-liberal formation, and liberal politicians, editors, commentators , and the columnist has attacked. "
Fourth Senate (1991-1997)
In the early 1990s, Helms was a vocal opponent of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Keating Five investigation
On August 5, 1991, Helms made a special advisory report report requesting California Senator Alan Cranston to be denounced by the Senate for alleged misconduct. The document was sent to members of the Senate Ethics Committee the previous month, Helms stated that his actions stem from the belief that the release would cause the panel to act sooner, also quoting panel members by dispute about how many reports should be released as an excuse not to close the investigation into Charles H. Keating Jr..
The Senate Ethics Committee later chose to investigate Helms for releasing classified documents, Helms issued a statement saying that some were "interesting suggestions that I might somehow violate some unspecified 'rules' when I released, over the weekend, I myself signed report on the Keating Five investigation. "Helms welcomed the investigation itself, together with one into the Keating Five case handling by the Senate Ethics Committee, called a" long, difficult and expensive "panel investigation and noted a potential public inquiry" could reveal that the committee worked and bringing back a mouse. "
National Endowment for the Arts
In 1989, the National Endowment for the Arts provided grants for retrospective photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe, some of which contained a homosexual theme, in addition to a museum in Winston, North Carolina supported an exhibit featuring images by Andres Serrano from a cross suspended in urine. These images caused a stir and marked the National Endowment for the Arts a "favorite target for Mr. Helms and other conservative senators who objected to the work of some artists who have received Government grants." In September 1989, Helms met with John E. Frohnmayer, President Bush who was appointed Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. While both refuse to release details about the contents of the meeting, Helms has reportedly confirmed that he considers his opposition to N.E.A. grants to certain images are important to his political capital and that the battle over what is considered appropriate for federal government funding has only just begun.
In September 1991, Helms indicted the National Endowment for the Arts with financial art that would change the "normal person's belly" while proposing amendments to the allocation bill prohibiting the use of grants for N.E.A. in promoting material that would be deemed to represent "sexual or excretory activities or organs" in an "offensive manner." On September 20, the Senate voted from 68 to 28 to support the amendment. On the same evening, Helms withdrew another amendment that changed the financing formula of N.E.A. to channel more than half of its grant money through countries that conflict with Washington's headquarters and will see a reduction in New York's fiscal appropriation from 26 million to just over 7 million.
Moseley Braun and Clinton remark
In a widely publicized incident on July 22, 1993, Carol Moseley Braun, the first black woman in the Senate and the only black Senator at the time, reported that Helms deliberately offended her by singing "Dixie" in front of her. After Moseley Braun persuaded the Senate to vote against Helms' amendment to extend the patent of United Daughters of Confederacy insignia, which included the Confederate flag, Mosely Braun claimed that Helms bumped him in the elevator. Helms turns to Senator Orrin Hatch and says, "Watch me make her cry I'll make her cry I'll sing 'Dixie' until she cries." He then went on to sing a song about "good life" during slavery to Moseley Braun. In 1999, Helms failed to try to block the nomination of Moseley Braun as US Ambassador to New Zealand.
In 1994, Helms created a sensation when he told broadcasters Rowland Evans and Robert Novak that Clinton was "unprepared" for the task of becoming supreme commander, and suggested two days later, on the anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, "Mr. Clinton should be wary if he comes here he should have a bodyguard. " Helms says that Clinton is unpopular and that he does not mean it as a threat.
The majority of Republicans
Republicans regained control of Congress after the 1994 elections and Helms eventually became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the first North Carolinian to lead the committee since Nathaniel Macon, a descendant of Martha Washington, in the first quarter of the 19th century. In that role, Helms pushed for UN reform and blocked the payment of United States dues. Helms secured sufficient reforms that a colleague, future Vice President Joe Biden of Delaware said that "As only Nixon can go to China, only Helms can fix U.N."
Helms passes some of its own laws in part because of the combustion style of this bridge. Hedrick Smith The Power Game describes some senators specifically blocking Helms' goals as a result of his harsh attitude, but still describes Helms as "a very effective power broker". Helms strongly opposed giving China the most favored status to China, arguing for human rights.
Helms attempted to block the return of the Ryan's Treatment Act in 1995, saying that those with AIDS were responsible for the disease, because they contracted him for "their deliberate, disgusting, disgusting behavior," and that the reason for AIDS was there. the first place is because it is "God's punishment for homosexuals". Helms also claims that more federal money is spent on AIDS than heart disease or cancer, although this is not covered by the statistics of Public Health Services.
Helms-Burton Invite
Soon after becoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in February 1995, Helms announced that he wanted to strengthen the spirit of the Torricelli Act 1992 with new laws. His co-sponsored through the House of Representatives by Dan Burton of Indiana, it will strengthen the embargo on Cuba: further codifying the embargo, instructing US diplomats to vote in favor of sanctions against Cuba, disarming the President of an option to end the embargo by the Agar executives until Fidel and RaÃÆ'ºl Castro abandon power the specified transition path followed. The bill, too, controversially explicitly overrides the State Law of Doctrine, allowing foreign companies to be sued in American courts if, in association with the Fidel Castro regime, they acquire assets previously owned by Americans.
Passing the House comfortably, the Senate is far more cautious, under pressure from the Clinton administration. The debate was fabricated, with the motion of dropping four short votes. Helms reintroduced the Bill without Title III and IV, detailing the penalty to investors, and it passed 74-24 on October 19, 1995. A conference committee was scheduled to convene, but not until February 28, 1996, by which time external events had been taken over. On February 24, Cuba shot down two small Brothers to a Rescue aircraft piloted by anti-Castro Cuban-Americans. When the conference committee meets, the harsher House version, with all four titles, wins in most substantive points. It was ratified by Senators 74-22 and House 336-86, and President Clinton signed the Helms-Burton Act into law on March 12, 1996. For years after his death, Helms criticized the interests of companies seeking to lift sanctions. in Cuba, wrote an article in 1999 for Overseas , in whose publisher, the Council on Foreign Relations, also attracted Helms's anger for his softer approach to Cuba.
1996 re-election campaign
In 1996, Helms withdrew 1,345,833 (52.6 percent) to Gantt's 1,173,875 (45.9 percent). Helms supports former Senate colleague Bob Dole to become president, while Gantt supports Bill Clinton. Although Helms is generally credited as the most successful Republican politician in North Carolina history, his largest proportion in one of five elections is 54.5 percent. In North Carolina, Helms is a polarized figure, and he freely admits that many people in the state strongly dislike him: "[Democrats] can nominate Mortimer Snerd and he automatically gets 45 percent of the vote." Helms is very popular among the older conservative constituents, and is considered one of the last "Southern Later" politicians serving in the Senate. However, he also considers himself the voice of a conservative young man, whom he respects in his autobiographical dedication. Under the banner of Helms, many conservative Democrats in eastern North Carolina switched parties and increasingly began to vote for the Republic.
0 Comments