Striking Out

Another defeat fo Jesse Helms

The galleries of the ornate chamber were but two-thirds full, and the Senators chatted amiably and joked with one another as they filtered onto the floor last week. Yet if the mood seemed light and frivolous, the vote was decidedly not: for the fourth time in one week, Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina and sachem of the New Right, failed to end a liberal filibuster against his measure to allow organized prayer in public schools. With that defeat, his much vaunted agenda of social issues, ranging from banning abortions to prohibiting busing to imposing the death penalty, crumbled for the year. "This was a final rejection of the radical right in this chamber," intoned Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York. "May we now go forward with the business of the nation, the Constitution intact and our purposes clear?"

Two weeks ago, Helms was unable to choke off a similar filibuster against his bill to ban abortion. The school prayer legislation, like the abortion measure, was attached to a bill raising the national debt ceiling (from $1.143 trillion to $1.29 trillion). But before the Senate could vote on school prayer, Helms and his supporters needed to muster 60 votes to invoke cloture and shut off the talkathon against the bill spearheaded by Republican Lowell Weicker of Connecticut.

In the course of the four roll calls last week, Helms never got more than 54 votes in favor of ending the debate. At one point, the fight turned bitter, when Democratic Senator Dale Bumpers of Arkansas rose to speak against cloture. While accusing Helms of forcing embarrassing votes on liberal Senators so he can then lambaste them in their home states, Bumpers mistakenly referred to him as "the Senator from South Carolina." Complained Helms: "Now he has moved me across the line." Shot back Bumpers: "I apologize" (pause) "to the other state."

Bumpers is hardly the only Senator who dislikes Helms. "There's a lot of irritability about him trying to drag us through a lot of issues we just don't need to deal with," observes one moderate Republican. Neither is the North Carolinian considered an effective legislator by his colleagues: rather than focus on one issue, Helms decided to offer a passel of bills and amendments, thus muddying his own agenda. "He can block, but he can't pass," noted an aide to the Senate leadership. At least one conservative Republican who knows a little about lost causes feels that Helms has simply misjudged the popularity of his crusade all along. "As Jesse gets older, he'll understand that you only get what the people want," says Barry Goldwater of Arizona. "Right now, the majority doesn't want this at all."

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