THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 25, 1994 TAG: 9412250055
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
A few hours after the November elections that swept Republicans into power, Sen. Jesse Helms wrote down his plans for steering U.S. international policy as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
As senior Republican member of the committee, Helms is first in line for the chairmanship when the new Congress convenes next month.
Helms' global agenda is expected to cause hand-wringing at the State Department; shock waves in the United Nations; roars of anger from Cuba's Castro, and new glitches in Middle East peace efforts.
But the conservative North Carolina senior senator insisted last week he will be doing only ``what is in the best interests of the American people.''
``As long as I am chairman there will be no vindictiveness permitted,'' he said. ``No getting even.''
Helms has already distressed the liberal Democratic establishment with his casual remark about President Clinton's need for a bodyguard if he visits North Carolina, and a comment that as a draft-dodger Clinton wasn't fit to be commander-in-chief of the military services.
But in spite of liberal demands that he not be named Foreign Relations chairman, Helms' has powerful friends in the new Senate leadership and is likely to get the job.
So far Helms' remarks are considered ``just Jesse-talk'' down home in North Carolina, where many of Helms' followers feel diplomats can be trusted only if they have gun racks and dog boxes in their pickup trucks.
A poll last week in the Raleigh News & Observer showed that Helms had lost mighty few points because of his remarks, and in beer joints around Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg some combat troops privately agreed they don't think much of Clinton, either, but that doesn't mean they won't fight for the president of the United States.
So, for all the flap, Helms is expected to be named to the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations committee soon after a new Congress goes into session on Jan. 4.
Helms sketched out his personal Contract With The World in notes for remarks he planned to give to reporters after the GOP upset.
``Nobody seemed very interested at the time,'' he said last week, holding six typewritten pages of his ideas on foreign policy.
Helms said that as part of his committee stewardship, he would ask that all Senate committees cut spending by 25 percent. by CNB