Senator Jesse Helms is dead

When someone like Helms dies, I struggle with what to say. Part of me wants to go on an expletive dripping rant, tearing into him for his unreconstructed Jim Crow era racism and homophobia. But kicking around a dead guy, no matter how distasteful I find him, well, I just find that crass and off-putting. So let me say this: A giant in the conservative movement is dead. I neither celebrate his passing, nor will I miss him.