Jesse Helms: Polarizer, not a compromiser

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"Senator Helms certainly was no bigot," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday. "He was a man however not into subtlety. You know what he thought about a particular issue. You certainly knew because he was not into the kind of nuance and subtlety that so often divides American politicians."

Helms' greatest political feat was not in the Senate, but in Republican politics. In 1976, he supported Ronald Reagan in the North Carolina primary — not only rescuing Reagan's political career but positioning Reagan for his successful run four years later.

Still, some of his antics in the Senate were legendary.

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He alone stopped the nomination of a Republican, then-Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, as ambassador to Mexico because Weld supported medical use of marijuana, abortion rights and gay rights.

In the debate over reauthorizing a domestic AIDS program, Helms tried but failed to prohibit any money from being used to promote homosexuality.

He repeatedly tried to kill the National Endowment for the Arts, but didn't succeed. He believed the agency funded pornography.

In blocking renewal of a health care program for AIDS victims in 1995, Helms railed that the disease was the result of "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct."

In his 2005 World AIDS Day Appeal, though, Helms wrote, "Each of us, all of our churches, must do something. We dare not avert our eyes. In the name of Christ, for the sake of his kingdom, please help."