By Washington correspondent Jonny Dymond. Wednesday, 22
August, 2001, 00:50 GMT 01:50 UK
The veteran American Senator Jesse Helms - who has championed many
conservative causes in Congress for almost 30 years - is expected to announce
his intention to retire on Wednesday.
To outsiders Mr Helms may look like everything that they dislike about
America - outspoken, isolationist, anti-Communist, demanding that the rest of
the world conform to US standards.
Throw in what sometimes looked like a vendetta against publicly-funded arts,
allegations of homophobia and sexism, and Helms looks like a caricature of an
American right-winger.
He is expected to announce that he will retire in 2003.
Senator Helms' office would not confirm the Associated Press report, but
told BBC News Online he is planning to make a statement "about the
speculation" on Wednesday.
'Senator No'
Mr Helms started political life as a Democrat, albeit a
conservative-sounding one, who worked as a newspaper editor and a television
commentator.
Mr Helms began his career as a Democrat before switching to the Republican
Party
He switched to the Republicans in 1970 and first went to the Senate to
represent North Carolina in 1972. Arguably he has polarised voters in that
state, as he did opinion throughout the country; in each of his five contests he
has never won more than 55% of the votes.
He became known as 'Senator No' - a reference to his refusal to ratify
international treaties and his obstinate blocking of other executive actions.
Before he became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he
attacked accords such as the Panama Canal Treaty and the SALT II arms reductions
pact.
But it was as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he was
elevated to a position of international influence.
There he clashed with the Clinton administration. Its multilateral approach
to foreign relations did not fit in with his view of how America should operate.
He helped sink the administration's attempts to ratify the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty in 1999, and in 2000 made it clear that a modified 1972
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty would not pass the Senate.
Mr Helms also spoke out against Fidel Castro's rule in Cuba, sponsoring the
Helms-Burton Bill that attempted to levy sanctions on non-American companies
that traded with Cuba. And he was swift to criticise the United Nations, which
he believed overreached itself.
Favourite liberal target
On domestic issues he raises the wrath of liberals around the country with
his crusades against abortion, affirmative action and homosexuality. His
high-profile opposition to the nomination of some black Americans to judicial
and ambassadorial positions also led to accusations of racism.
Many also remember his campaigns against the National Endowment for the
Arts, a publicly-funded arts sponsorship organisation. When confronted by one of
its projects - a five foot high crucifix floating in the artist's urine, he said
that the designer of the work was "not an artist, he's a jerk".
But whilst Jesse Helms may have enjoyed playing up to the white middle-class
electorate that he understood so instinctively, he was also a backroom dealer
who knew the art of the compromise.
He agreed to support the payment of America's $1bn dollar debt to the United
Nations after the organisation promised restructuring. And he worked with his
Democratic counterpart Senator Joe Biden, now the chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee, to gain ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Rocking the free world
And there is a compassionate side to Senator Helms that few of his critics
might believe.
He was, it is reported, in tears when Bono, lead singer of rock group U2 and
anti-debt campaigner, told him of the suffering that debt caused in the
developing world.
He campaigned for the passage of a debt relief bill though Congress. It was
the relationship with Bono that brought the 79-year-old to his first ever pop
concert in Washington DC this year.
Mr Helms' departure could be bad news for the Republicans, battling to
regain control of the Senate in 2002. So-called open seats, where there is no
incumbent fighting to retain a position, are far more difficult to win.
With Senator Strom Thurmond retiring as well, the Republicans will find it
all the more difficult to take back control of the Senate. | 
