Helms looks at himself through history's eyes.

• Author: Cline, Ned
• Position: Capital

Jesse Helms still has fire in his belly, but the flames are flickering. Frail of foot, his mind mellowing, North Carolina's conservative icon seems at peace with himself and his critics. After 82 years of life, half of them as the vitriolic voice of right-wing causes while a TV pundit and a U.S. senator, he is settling in for the final roll call. As he writes his memories, he reviews how history might remember him. "My legacy will pretty much depend on how whoever is doing the contemplating felt about me going in," he says. "But that's OK." He says he's more concerned about what his wife, Dot, and his children think about him. "So far I've done pretty well with that."

He insists that he has not veered from his long-held, sharp-edged views on domestic and foreign issues for the sake of the history books. But something is stirring underneath. "I don't think I've changed much on the issues," he says during an interview in his Raleigh office, which he pays for himself. "But my sources of information on some issues have caused me to think about things I had not previously thought about. I had just assumed things were like I thought they were. I now know that is not always the case."

Whether that's a shift, his words leave little doubt that at the end of a long career some call meritorious and others label contemptible, Jesse Helms seems willing to go gentle into the good night. Much of the venom appears to have evaporated.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

He once called Medicare a step into the "swampy field of socialized medicine." Now he says that, while it was a risky venture, the result is acceptable and much better than he anticipated. He once described Social Security as "nothing more than a dole and handout." Now he says he would be "strung up at midnight" over such a comment and is well aware of the program's benefits. He once accused the civil-rights movement of harboring an "uncommon number of moral degenerates." Now he concedes that some good, sincere people were and are part of that effort.

Helms once called female anti-war protesters "stringy-haired, awkward young women who cannot attract attention any other way." Now he says that was "reaching pretty far and not something I would brag about." He once suggested AIDS victims brought it on themselves because of reprehensible conduct. Now he says the federal government ought to be looking closer at funding research. "Otherwise, the problem is not going to be solved. It's a fair assessment to say...