Jesse Helms biggest fear?
Bill Clinton running the United Nations
By PAUL NOWELL
Associated Press
February 1, 2005, 12:24 PM EST
CHARLOTTE, N.C -- Bill Clinton in charge of the United Nations?
That's the image former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms is dangling in front of his ardent supporters in a letter aimed at raising money for his senatorial library.
Would it even be possible for an ex-president to do this? IS a position like that beneath an ex-president?
Personally, I would love to see it.
In the letter, the 83-year-old Republican, who left office in 2003 after five terms, worries that the former president has aspirations to lead the U.N. after Kofi Annan retires next year.
``I'm sure you might agree that putting a left-wing, undisciplined and ethically challenged former President of the United States into a position of such power would be a tragic mistake,'' Helms writes.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter Tuesday. It contains a petition that asks President Bush to ``rebuke all efforts by Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and every other liberal in Congress to push for Bill Clinton to become Secretary-General of the United Nations.''
A spokesman for Clinton did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday and the former president has said nothing publicly about wanting to lead the U.N.
Still, Clinton, who often butted heads with Helms when the archconservative headed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, remains the ultimate bogeyman for Helms and his supporters.
``Senator Helms thinks it would be a disaster if President Clinton went to the U.N.,'' said John Dodd, president of the Helms Center in Wingate, 30 miles southeast of Charlotte. ``With all the baggage he would bring, there's no telling what conservatives would want to do.
``I'm hearing more and more people saying we need to kick the U.N. out and de-fund the United Nations,'' Dodd said. ``I think this would be a big mistake and the senator agrees it would be a big mistake.''
The Helms Center opened in 2001. It is known for a lecture series that has attracted speakers such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Helms, a native of nearby Monroe who attended Wingate University, was a Raleigh television commentator before he was elected to the Senate in 1972 and went on to became one of the nation's most prominent conservatives.
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