Jesse Knew

Not quite on the money. Jesse never went to college in Mississippi. He first attended Wingate College, near Monroe, NC, and then moved on to Wake Forest College. The Carol Moseley Braun incident did happen as described. I was a legislative assistant to Helms for four years, and I worked for his political action committee (and campaigns) – the National Congressional Club – for seven years.
Helms was indeed a treasure. Even I did not appreciate how much so – until he was gone.
Although not directly on point, since Helms is the topic of the post, I will briefly mention my favorite JH story; I think most here will enjoy it.
It was August, 1984 and Helms was engaged in the toughest election battle of his career, against then-governor Jim Hunt. The Helms campaign was set up for fundraising at the Republican National Convention in Dallas; it was operating out of the very upscale Plaza of the Americas Hotel. Helms, a legislative assistant, and I (a campaign aide) flew to Dallas from Raleigh, and arrived at the hotel at 12 noon. We went into one of the hotel’s restaurants for lunch. Helms opened the menu and beheld a Club Sandwich for $17 ($17 was a lot for a sandwich in 1984); he could not believe his eyes. The legislative assistant spoke up and said just the wrong thing: “Don’t worry about it Senator; the campaign is paying for lunch.” A dark cloud settled over Helms’ face as he leaned in close to the assistant and said: “Now you listen to me! I don’t have little old ladies sending me their Social Security checks so you and I can sit here and eat like this.” Helms got up and told us to follow him. We followed him outside and down the sidewalk, to a hot dog cart. We got and ate our lunch at the hot dog cart.