Bluey Blog - Official Blog of Robert B. Bluey

Jesse Helms, R.I.P.

I was never lucky enough to meet Jesse Helms, the great U.S. senator and conservative champion from North Carolina. But I felt a deep sense of loss this morning upon hearing the news that he passed away at the age of 86.

Helms and I had a bond that dates back to my junior year of college, where in professor Marty Brownstein’s Legislative Behavior class, I played the role of Senator Helms during the spring semester. The class was set up like the U.S. Senate — each student was entered into a lottery at the beginning of the semester, and based on the draft, picked a role. The top pick was usually the Senate majority leader (or some other powerful committee chairman), while those picking at the end were left with freshmen.

My lottery pick was pretty bad, but after negotiating with classmate Jon Byman, I managed to secure his selection. (I actually had to kiss his shoe, which was absolutely disgusting, but well worth it in the end.) When it came my time to choose, I got the senator I wanted: Jesse Helms. At the time, Helms was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But more importantly, his conservative views and values for freedom were perfectly in line with mine.

At that moment I became the rare conservative at Ithaca College willing to argue with an overwhelmingly liberal politics department. Even in a class that had to be divided roughly equally — given the Senate’s 55-45 Republican advantage at the time — many liberals were forced to play the role of Republicans. Still, the class was a fun exercise in how the U.S. Senate operated. We held hearings, debated legislation, gave floor speeches.

Together with my good friend Jason Subik, who played the role of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), we made the most of the class. It turned out to be one of my favorites in the four years at Ithaca. The final class was one of the happiest moments at Ithaca when Brownstein awarded me the Arthur Brown Award, an oil can, which reflected the Senate’s reputation as the world’s greatest deliberative body. I was a journalism major and editor of The Ithacan at the time, yet Brownstein chose me for the highest honor. I was humbled.

I tried to meet Helms during a trip to the U.S. Capitol in March 2000, when my then-girlfriend (and now wife) were in Washington for spring break. I saw his motorized scooter outside the Foreign Relations Committee hearing room, but never saw him. By the time I arrived in Washington in the fall of 2001, Helms was winding down his career. He retired in 2002.

In retirement, Helms wrote an outstanding book, “Here’s Where I Stand.” After speaking on a panel with John Dodd, president of the Jesse Helms Center, several years ago, I received an autographed copy of the Helms book in the mail. I will forever treasure it as a reminder of the great man and true conservative champion.

As Heritage’s Ed Feulner remarked today, “July 4, 2008, like July 4, 1826, and July 4, 1831, will long be remembered as a very special day in the history of American independence. On the Fourth of July 1826, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died. On the Fourth of July 1831, James Monroe died. On the Fourth of July 2008, another great American patriot, Jesse Helms, died.”

Political Junkies Will Love This Quiz

Kudos to my friends at the Sunlight Foundation for coming up with PoliQuiz. Give it a try.

links for 2008-07-03

• The ’60s Begin to Fade as Liberal Professors Retire - Patricia Cohen, New York Times

  When Michael Olneck was standing, arms linked with other protesters, singing “We Shall Not Be Moved” in front of Columbia University’s library in 1968, Sara Goldrick-Rab had not yet been born.

  (tags: academia liberal)

• Which way for liberty in the new world? - Mark Tapscott, Washington Examiner

  It’s not often that one gets the opportunity to be among and converse with several hundred of the smartest people in the world, but that is precisely what I was able to do last week as a participant at Personal Democracy Forum 2008.

  (tags: technology politics)

• Patriotism For (Democratic) Dummies - Danny Glover, The Next Right

  It says something about liberals that a tip sheet on how to behave in public on Independence Day is even necessary, but here’s a sampling from the guide posted at MyDD.

  (tags: democrats liberal)

• Why We Went to War in Iraq - Douglas J. Feith, Wall Street Journal

  A lot of poor commentary has framed the Iraq war as a conflict of “choice” rather than of “necessity.” In fact, President George W. Bush chose to remove Saddam Hussein from power because he concluded that doing so was necessary.

  (tags: iraq bush)

My Furry Friend

When I saw my friend David All at tonight’s American Solutions happy hour at Top of the Hill, I told him how impressed I was with his photography. As the owner of a new Nikon D300, David has taken some great pictures during recent trips to New York and Chicago.

His photography inspired me to break out my Nikon D50 this weekend to take some pictures around the house and at the Nationals game. I already showed you the latter. I also snapped several shots of a friendly squirrel who hangs out in our yard. I was using a 300 mm lens, but I was still amazed at how close I could get without him running away.

links for 2008-07-02

• Obama Got Discount on Home Loan - Joe Stephens, Washington Post

  Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust.

  (tags: obama 2008 housing)

links for 2008-07-01

• U.S. candidates’ health plans diverge - Nicholas Timmins, Financial Times

  The US is unique in tying health insurance for working age adults to their jobs. In countries with social insurance systems such as France and Germany, employers make contributions to the insurance pool. But the cover is not linked to the workplace.

  (tags: health_care obama mccain 2008)

• McCain’s Potential Running Mates: A Who’s Who - Peter Keating, New York Magazine

  It’s easy enough to pinpoint exactly who this year’s Republican vice-presidential candidate should be. Ideally, John McCain’s running mate would have executive experience, yet still seem like a new face on the national political scene.

  (tags: mccain 2008 veep bobby_jindal charlie_crist tim_pawlenty romney)

links for 2008-06-30

• Very Retiring Republicans - Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard

  Democrats John Conyers, John Dingell, and Charles Rangel were in the wilderness from 1994 to 2006, the years of Republican rule of the House of Representatives. They endured the shame of being in the minority.

  (tags: congress republicans)

• PG’s Male Athlete of 2007-08: Terrelle Pryor - Mike White, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

  Maybe the thing that ultimately defined Terrelle Pryor and his days at Jeannette High School is one word. Win.

  (tags: terrelle_pryor football basketball sports)

• Google’s Fight to Socialize Broadband - Erick Erickson, RedState

  I am increasingly convinced that the right is getting distracted by George Soros’s incompetent spending of his personal fortune and we should instead be looking at Google.

  (tags: technology google)

• Mortgages hook for taxpayers? - Matt Kibbe, Washington Times

  Shareholders of Countrywide Financial have voted for Bank of America’s estimated $3 billion takeover of the struggling mortgage company.

  (tags: housing)

• John McCain Is Way Behind Online - Catherine Holahan, BusinessWeek

  The polls aren’t the only place John McCain is trailing Barack Obama. Republicans also lag Democrats when it comes to using social media, such as blogs and social networks.

  (tags: mccain obama 2008)

• America’s evolving standards - Ben Domenech, Washington Times

  As the American people are finding out in 2008, thanks to the ever-shifting demands of modern political campaigns, they can now witness an incredibly accelerated Darwinian process before their very eyes in the person of Barack Obama.

  (tags: obama 2008 scotus guns)

The Week in Blog: Obama vs. the Netroots

My colleague Conn Carroll was away at the beach last week for a much deserved semi-vacation. (I say that because he still managed to work each day, producing the Morning Bell and other posts for The Foundry.) However, it gave my friend Bill Beutler of New Media Strategies and Blog P.I. another opportunity to show off his debating talents on Bloggingheads.tv. Enjoy the clip with Bill Scher of Liberal Oasis below.

Why Does It Rain Every Time I Go to a Nats Game?

For the second straight week and for at least the fourth time this season, I got rained on at Nationals Park last night. And let me tell you, it came down in buckets. Check out some of the photos I took on Flickr.

links for 2008-06-28

• Barack Zelig - Peter Wehner, Commentary

  Charles Krauthammer has a typically insightful column on “the ever-malleable Mr. Obama.” The earth’s landscape is now littered with former Obama commitments and his embrace of the conservative court’s views on the child rape and second amendment c

  (tags: obama 2008 conservatism)

• Housing bill provision rattles privacy groups - Linda Rosencrance, IDG News Service

  Senate legislation to address the housing crisis by helping homeowners who face foreclosure contains a measure that has nothing to do with housing, and could harm millions of small merchants, privacy and small business groups say.

  (tags: housing congress)

• Economy Still Growing Despite Energy Prices, Housing Bust, Weak Dollar - Andrew Moyland, NTU

  Somebody, maybe Kierkegaard, or Dick Van Patten, once quipped that “the media has successfully predicted 10 of the last 3 recessions.”

  (tags: economy housing energy)

• The Return of Dr. No - Phil Gramm, Wall Street Journal

  “They didn’t live up to what they promised to do. Power corrupted them. They spent lots of money and tried to buy votes. Republicans concluded that they could make voters love them by governing the way Democrats did.”

  (tags: mccain 2008 phil_gramm)