Today’s Wall Street Journal has a review of a new biography of Jesse Helms. Apparently, the book is neither a hatchet job nor a hymn of praise, but rather a balanced look at a man who had some excellent ideas and some bad ones, too.
The review doesn’t mention it, but Helms was crucial in the defeat of some horrible legislation that Big Labor wanted. In 1978, during his first term, Helms was one of the leaders in the filibuster against a “wish list” bill that Jimmy Carter wanted to give his union friends. Then in 1993, Helms again played a key role in the filibuster that defeated the so-called Labor Law Reform bill that Bill Clinton was pushing to reward Big Labor for having campaigned so hard for him in 1992.
If next year brings us a Democratic president and Congress, I we will undoubtedly see another effort by Big Labor to expand its power through federally granted coercion, particularly the “card check” method of roping people into unions. Will Dole and Burr fight as tenaciously against that as Helms did against the garbage union bills he helped beat? They should be strongly encouraged to follow his example.
