From Mean-Mouthed to Menacing

For most of his 22 years in the Senate, Jesse Helms of North Carolina has been an embarrassment to fellow Republicans. He once complained that President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, George P. Shultz, was “playing footsie” with Communists by opposing South Africa’s apartheid. He called a Clinton nominee a “militant-activist-mean lesbian,” decried “perverted” homosexuals and, posing as art critic, condemned the “slime” supported by federal funds. The topper came last year when he said President Clinton “better have a bodyguard” when he visited military posts in North Carolina.

At one time, such intemperate comments could perhaps be dismissed as bluster from a cantankerous member of the minority party. Now, however, the senator is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and he can cause more damage.

In the minority, Helms often could influence foreign policy by obstruction and filibuster. Rising to chairman after the Republican sweep last year, he showed some initial encouraging signs of statesmanship, but now he is back to old form. He has essentially shut down the committee, blocking 30 ambassadorial nominations, holding up hundreds of State Department promotions and action on numerous key treaties on arms control and trade.

The reason for sabotaging American interests abroad? Helms is unhappy that the Clinton Administration has not yet responded favorably to his plan to fold independent foreign aid, arms control and information agencies into the State Department. There may be merit to this proposal, but not at such destructive cost.

If Helms, 73, runs again in 1996, it’s up to North Carolina voters, but the nation will be better off when the Senate is rid of this intolerant ideologue.