Jesse Helms Dead at 86

[Sam Spade]

RIP.  The death date could be viewed as symbolic by both sides.

I've always believed that in government you need one or two real firebrands from the extreme sides of the aisle, especially in the Senate, in order to maintain balance and stability.  Helms fit that persona quite nicely from the right (as Coburn does now).

[Sam Spade]

Helms was not decent. He built his entire career on hatred, bigotry and contempt for anyone different from him or anyone weak and vulnerable in society. I don't like seeing someone like that having their reputation whitewashed and sanitized.

You have to be careful when you start using words like these because they can often be found in members of the other side of the aisle too - though usually it happens on an individual to individual level, rather than on an individual to group level

I personally doubt that his career will ever be whitewashed and sanitized, much like Sam Ervin's was, as John Fund noted today, and it probably shouldn't.

[Sam Spade]

How could it be viewed as symbolic?

He was a FF and its the Fourth of July.  No necessarily everyone's take, but it could be for many.  Just as the eerie coincidence of Adams and Jefferson 7/4/1826

It could also be viewed as the ceremonious (or unceremonious) end of an era (whether you want to say race-baiting or hard-nosed conservatism is up to you), since that is what Adams and Jefferson's deaths are commonly viewed as nowadays.