THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 23, 1994 TAG: 9411230463
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 165 lines
Jesse Helms set off another furor Tuesday with a comment - later partially retracted - that President Clinton ``better have a bodyguard'' if he visits military bases in North Carolina, Helms' home state.
Returning to earlier remarks he had made about widespread disrespect for Clinton among the military, Helms said in a newspaper interview that ``Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here.''
Helms said Tuesday the remark was a ``mistake.'' But he did not apologize or back off his criticism of Clinton's handling of defense policy.
It was the third time in the two weeks since Republicans won control of Congress that Helms - the GOP conservative and incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - has stirred controversy and thrown GOP leaders off stride. Senate Democrats were quick to express outrage over Helms' comments, and President Clinton called them ``unwise and inappropriate.''
``The president oversees the foreign policy of the United States, and the Republicans will decide in whom they will repose their trust and confidence,'' Clinton said at a news conference.
For more than two decades, Helms has been outraging liberals with his firebrand conservatism and nettling even Republicans with his guerilla-warfare approach to lawmaking. But now his intensely partisan and conservative views have a new, official standing, since he is in line to ascend to the chairmanship of the prestigious foreign relations panel.
While Helms' incendiary words clash with the more conciliatory message that some Senate Republicans have been attempting to send, there have been no moves to deny him the chairmanship. Instead, many Republicans, including Majority Leader-to-be Robert J. Dole, R-Kan., and incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., have distanced themselves from his remarks without rebuking Helms himself.
Concern among Helms' critics is tempered by the likelihood of having a majority of moderate Republicans and Democrats on the committee to steer it from extreme positions. But there is also considerable support for some of Helms' efforts, such as overhauling foreign aid and maintaining a more cautious U.S. involvement in United Nations peacekeeping operations.
The uproar broke out after Helms attempted to explain Friday's controversial remark that he did not believe Clinton was ``up to the job'' of serving as commander in chief.
Helms' office issued a statement quoting the senator as saying he did not ``expect to be taken literally'' in what he described as ``an offhand remark.''
Throughout his 22 years in the Senate, Helms has taken on an array of opponents, focusing largely but not exclusively on real and perceived communism abroad and sex-related issues at home. [The following side bar appeared with this article.] SENATOR'S STATEMENT ON ``BODYGUARD'' COMMENT
Statement by Sen. Jesse Helms on Tuesday in response to his remarks about President Clinton.
I made a mistake last evening which I shall not repeat.
In an informal telephone interview with a local reporter I made an offhand remark in an attempt to emphasize how strongly the American people feel about the nation's declining defense capability and other issues in which the president has been involved and for which he is responsible.
Of course I didn't expect to be taken literally when, to emphasize the cost and concerns I am hearing, I far too casually suggested that the president might need a bodyguard, or words to that effect.
And let me say that President Clinton will of course be welcomed by me and other citizens of North Carolina and other states any time he chooses to visit us.
The reporter asked my opinion and I tried to be candid in my response. The president has serious problems with his records of draft avoidance, with his stand on homosexuals in the military and the declining defense capability of America's armed forces - the secretary of defense recently acknowledged that three U.S. Army divisions are not now combat-ready.
I reiterate that I now wish that I had engaged in a terse interview with the reporter. I did not. As is my custom, we had an informal conversation from which he extracted an informal quote that should not have been taken literally, let alone published.
I do not fault him. I fault myself. From now on, such contacts as I may have with the media will be entirely formal. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Jesse Helms
THE JESSE HELMS FILE
POLITICAL: Elected 1972, up for election 1996. Committees:
Foreign Relations, Rules and Administration, Agriculture, Nutrition
and Forestry.
PERSONAL: Age, 73; born Oct. 18, 1921, Monroe, N.C. Home:
Raleigh. Education: Wingate College, Wake Forest University.
Religion: Baptist. Married (Dorothy).
CAREER: Navy, 1942-45; newspaperman; congressional staff member;
state banking association president, 1953-60; city councilman; TV
station executive, 1960-72.
HELMS QUOTES
Some past comments by Sen. Jesse Helms:
Nov. 18, 1994 - Asked in a CNN interview whether he believes
President Clinton is up to the job of commanding the military: ``No,
I do not. And neither do the people in the armed forces.''
Nov. 4, 1993 - To Secretary of State Warren Christopher at a
hearing of the Foreign Relations Committee:
``It was well-known that (Haitian President Jean-Bertrand)
Aristide is a murderer. Yet somebody decided to return him to power,
if necessary, at the risk of American lives. Who is making these
decisions?''
He also criticized the mission in Somalia, saying of soldiers
buried in Arlington Cemetery, few ``died for less reason than those
Americans whose lives were destroyed at Mogadishu.''
Aug. 5, 1993 - Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., quoted Helms as
saying to her a month after they had debated on the Senate floor
over use of the Confederate flag:
``I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing `Dixie' to her
until she cries.''
May 7, 1993 - On the nomination of a gay-rights activist to a
Department of Housing and Urban Development post:
``She's not your garden-variety lesbian. She's a
militant-activist-mean lesbian, working her whole career to advance
the homosexual agenda.
``Now you think I'm going to sit still and let her be confirmed
by the Senate? . . . If you want to call me a bigot, go ahead.''
Oct. 30, 1990 - During a campaign stop for his 1990 Senate
campaign:
``People can do what they want in the privacy of their own homes,
but when they start marching in the street and say that
homosexuality should be given special privileges and be treated as a
normal lifestyle, you bet I say no.''
Oct. 24, 1990 - Talking about National Endowment for the Arts
funding to certain artists:
``What is really at stake is whether or not America will allow
the cultural high ground in this nation to sink slowly into an abyss
of slime to placate people who clearly seek or are willing to
destroy the Judaic-Christian foundations of this republic.''
May 15, 1990 - Speaking about a $600 million AIDS bill:
``What originally began as a measured response to a public health
emergency has become a weapon, frankly, for the deterioration of
America's Judeo-Christian value system.
``There's not a chance this bill will be stopped because there's
a powerful lobby out there in the media and in the homosexual
community, and senators are scrambling to put their names on
anything that has to do with AIDS.''
Aug. 6, 1986 - About a federal investigation of one of his
aides:
``That's nothing except the State Department trying to silence me
and intimidate me. One day, they're going to learn they can't do
that.
``The people of the United States are a lot smarter than the
yo-yos in the State Department.''
by CNB