Obituaries.

Few people noticed when North Carolina's hard-right TV commentator Jesse Helms rode into the Senate in 1972. Nicknamed "Senator No" for all of his "no" votes on bills he regarded as way too liberal, he was thought of as belonging on the fringe of the Republican Party's radical right wing at a time when Congress was a more cordial, less partisan body. Helms, though, wasn't interested in getting laws passed; he was more interested in pandering to his natural constituency of what would be later known as the religious right. Helms was creating a long-term political strategy with his "no" votes.

Little did people, especially Democrats, know Helms would help to create a far-right political network which would catapult itself to power during the Reagan years and largely remain in power ever since. Observers always write about the influence of Barry Goldwater on the right, but he was a minor influence compared to Helms.

Helms was also known as a world-class political backstabber. He had an "owlish" appearance, had a very cordial demeanor, but he could knife politicians in the back using third parties to do the dirty work.

Helms and one-time protege Lauch Faircloth were instrumental in the coup attempt against former president Bill Clinton when they got together with David Sentelle to ditch special prosecutor Robert Fiske in favor of Kenneth Starr to persecute both Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The attempt to oust Bill Clinton ultimately failed though costing the government millions of dollars, and Faircloth ended up getting beat for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 1998 by the upstart trial lawyer John Edwards.

Helms, 86, died early this morning from vascular dementia.