A Lugar at Helm's Head?
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News from senate back rooms confirm that Republican senators are tiring of Helms and his dogmatic approach to the serious responsibilities of governance.
Senator Richard Lugar, (R-IN) threw out a tidbit designed to send a message to Helms and the message was not exactly a veiled threat. Lugar, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, mentioned that his committee will begin tobacco hearings this Fall and that his committee also had jurisdiction over peanut programs important to voters in Helm's North Carolina.
The threat? Lugar might hold tobacco and peanuts hostage unless Helms brings Weld's nomination to the fore.
The response? The kind of laugh you might hear in the untreatable geriatric ward of a down-state North Carolina psychiatric hospital. Helms spokesfool Marc Thiessen (never trust a guy who spells Mark, Marc) told the press, "We are puzzled by his suggestion. Senator Helms would never say or do anything harmful to the farmers of Indiana. We think once Senator Lugar thinks about what he has suggested he will reconsider. I don't think endangering the farmers of North Carolina for an extraneous issue is something he will favor doing in the end."
Bill Weld 
Extraneous? As one widely read pundit remarked last week, Helms is the kind of guy who would be wearing blue paper slippers and a drool cup if he wasn't a United States Senator. Since when is appointing ambassadors extraneous?
Lugar, a moderate Republican, was once often mentioned as presidential material by the more intelligent wing of the GOP. But Helms, a card-carrying right-winger hasn't missed a chance to deny Lugar the respect he's earned. Helms denied Lugar a place on the Senate conference committee re State Department reauthorization -- a seat Lugar wanted. Now it's Lugar's turn to tweak Helms.
Senator Lott 
Lott, the majority leader and Senator from the state with the highest illiteracy rate in the nation, is also feeling the heat. Already besieged with sly challenges to his ability to run the Senate, Lott, who irons his own shirts -- to be neater? -- is skating on thin ice supporting Helms.
The bottom line for Helms is whether he wants to continue losing whatever respect his colleagues still retain for him. And that ain't much. Senators tend to band together to protect each other, but Helms is pushing the envelope with his outrageously adolescent conduct. Republican senators are quietly fuming at Helms and Lott for publicly supporting him. You may not hear them attack Helms, but their public silence is deafening. Meanwhile the White House is chuckling, loving the rift.
There's only one logical excuse for Helms' behavior -- the onset of Alzheimers. If that's what it is, I wish him God's speed.
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