She's a Grand Old Flag and So Long Helms

Happy 232nd Birthday America! Even if you don't always live up to your ideals, I'm still glad you've got 'em. Here's to brighter days ahead.

P.S. Anyway you look at it (left or right), it's ironic that ex-Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) chose July 4th to check out. The Senatorial afterlife just got a whole lot more interesting for sure. I was at his tribute party in Crystal City back in Sept. 2005, interviewing colleagues and friends about the so-called "Senator No" for a Roll Call story. The level of devotion from his admirers bordered on the religious -- there was a man there, a retired school teacher and hardly affluent, who earnestly told me: "I always gave him more than I could afford.”

I also thought former Helms chief of staff Jimmy Broughton's remarks provided an interesting insight into this most controversial of figures. As I wrote in Roll Call, "Broughton remembered his old boss as a stickler for grammar who 'didn’t like split infinitives,' as a thrifty money manager who once sent back a sheet of Senate letterhead with a note commanding 'order no more' on account of its expense, and as a good neighbor, who would postpone important Senate business to call a colleague and let him know he had a flat tire."