Jesse Helms Dies

[KenP]

Jesse helms passed away early this morning.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,376389,00.html

Former Sen. Jesse Helms, a Capitol Hill icon who devoted 30 years in the Senate to championing conservative causes, died Friday morning. He was 86.

The Jesse Helms Center posted a brief statement on its Web site saying Helms died at 1:15 a.m. in Raleigh, N.C., on the Fourth of July.

"He was very comfortable," said former chief of staff Jimmy Broughton, who added that Helms died of natural causes.

"He's just a good, honest, decent man," former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole told FOX News. "Now his philosophy would drive some people up a tree."

Albright once said of Helms, he "was the kindest, most infuriating, politest, most aggravating and nicest politician I had to deal with in the United States Senate."