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I've seldom been more tempted to actually delight in a man's death as I am right now.

Jesse Helms is dead.

As recently as April, this deeply bigoted man was still at it, this time targeting Barack Obama:

The North Carolina Republican Party -- forged by the hand of Dixiecrat segregationists like Jesse ("White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories?") Helms -- has never been cautious about playing the race card. When North Carolina Democrats nominated Harvey Gantt, an exceptionally-qualified moderate African-American candidate against Helms in a 1990 U.S. Senate race, the North Carolina Republican machine countered with a series of ads that emphasized Gantt's race and played on fears and prejudices.

Because the media tends to be afraid of calling racists out, Helms and the North Carolina Republicans had no trouble running a blatantly racist campaign. And, when Helms was reelected over Gantt, a powerful lesson was learned.

Under the guise of opposing the a pair of Democratic gubernatorial candidates who have endorsed Barack Obama for the party's presidential nomination, the state party is airing a commercial designed to do exactly what the Helms campaign's anti-Gantt ad did back in 1990: scare white voters away from an African-American candidate they might otherwise support.

If the material in the current ad was accurate in its portrayal of Obama, the North Carolina Republicans might have a defense. But it's not.

Man, I'd have loved to have heard a quote from Helms the day Obama's inaugurated in January. This about sums it up:

Unlike many of his Republican counterparts, Helms has changed little over the past 50 years. Long before Rush Limbaugh, Helms pioneered the use of television to rally public sentiment. While Ronald Reagan was losing primaries to Gerald Ford, Helms mobilized the religious right and built one of the most profitable political fundraising machines ever. And long after die-hard segregationists like George Wallace and Strom Thurmond began courting black voters, Helms fueled white fears by opposing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whistling "Dixie" while standing next to Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, and supporting apartheid in South Africa.

"His racial politics are deeply held convictions, not simply politics of convenience," says Christopher Scott. "He has a view of a fundamentalist Christian society in which everyone is not welcome. If you could pick up the South Africa of 20 years ago and transplant it to America, that's what he would do."

I need to pray on this. No one should be cursed in their death.

But that doesn't exactly mean anyone should be shedding tears, either.

As I said, I need to pray on this.