Dead On The Fourth Of July: Jesse Helms (1921-2008)

If God is in heaven, and we will all stand before him as traditional faith holds, I'll have plenty of sins of my own to answer for.

But I definitely wouldn't want to swap shoes with the former North Carolina Republican senator, who passed away on Independence Day. Perhaps it's a sin in itself to reflect poorly upon the dead. But I wouldn't want to have to answer for the legacy of racism and chauvinism that Mr. Helms would have to.

Here's the Associated Press obit. Some of you may be amused over a former GOP congressman's comparison of Helms to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both of whom died on July 4, 1826. -- MJ