"I know people would call him 'homophobic' and a 'woman-hater' and a 'racist.' The Jesse Helms that I got to know, very close and personal, was a man who was very compassionate, very private in his charity."

Claude A. Allen served as Jesse Helms's 1984 campaign press secretary, and then as a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1985 to 1987. Having graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1982, Allen received his law degree from Duke University in 1990. He then clerked for a federal judge, practiced law in Washington, D.C., served in the Virginia Attorney General’s office, and became Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the State of Virginia.  In 2001, Allen was appointed by President George W. Bush as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He served as Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy in 2005 and 2006, providing advice on all non-economic policy issues including education, health care, labor, housing, veterans, HIV/AIDS, and other domestic issues.

Fred Barnes
Executive Editor, The Weekly Standard

"He would never sit down. He would never shut up. He would never swerve away from his conservative principles."

Fred Barnes is currently executive editor of The Weekly Standard and a well-known conservative political commentator. From 1985 to 1995, he served as senior editor and White House correspondent for The New Republic; he covered the Supreme Court and the White House for The Washington Star before moving on to The Baltimore Sun in 1979 where he served as the national political correspondent.

The 1990 "White Hands" Campaign Ad:

"It's a legitimate ad because it's a legitimate issue, and it might have been portrayed in a very explosive way that was even a little over the top and might appeal to racists in particular, but I don't think that made it a racist ad and it certainly played a crucial role in that campaign and helped get Helms reelected."

Conservative Principles:

Senator Joseph Biden
(D - Delaware)

"Dead wrong on Martin Luther King Holiday, dead wrong on a number of things. He did what he believed was the right thing to do and I think the longer he was here, the more open he became to other ideas.  Who would've said Jesse Helms would openly be emotional with Bono, an Irish rock star, about an issue like AIDS?"

Despite sitting on the opposite side of the political aisle from Senator Helms, Democrat Joseph R. Biden, Jr. became friends with his fellow senator when both were first elected to Congress in 1972. Biden is currently serving his sixth term and is the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Senator Biden is also a candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2008 presidential election.

Going to the United Nations:

"Jesse Helms going to the United Nations, Jesse Helms putting together with me--I mean I’m a Democrat--Helms-Biden, to quote 'pay what we owed' at the U.N. and get in return reform, that legitimized the U.N. in a way that was beyond anybody’s capacity to understand. The right wing from that point on had almost no legitimacy in some of the hyper comments they were making about the United Nations. Now, does that mean United Nations doesn’t need a lot more work? Oh, it does need a lot more work. But Jesse legitimized it. And that was a big deal."

Not Trusting Russia:

Bono
U2 Lead Singer and Activist

"Anyone can cry 'crocodile tears,' right? Anyone can say, 'Yes, I understand.' You leave the office and that’s the end of it. This man went to work. He really went to work."

Born Paul David Hewson in Dublin, Ireland, Bono is the lead singer of Irish rock band U2 and a well-known activist in the fight against AIDS and poverty in Africa. In 2002, he co-founded DATA (debt, AIDS, trade, Africa) to raise public awareness of these issues. On behalf of DATA, Bono has lobbied U.S. presidents, congressional leaders, and heads of G8 nations. In 2001, Bono met with Senator Jesse Helms to discuss the African AIDS crisis and retirement of Third World debt.

Discussing International AIDS Relief with Helms:

"I said, 'It's extraordinary that outside of personal redemption, the second most important through line of all the Scriptures is how we deal with the poor.'  And I remember talking to him about judgment and how Christ only speaks of judgment once, and it’s not about sexual immorality, and it’s not about the usual sort of classic, shock-horror conservative stuff. It’s about the poor--how we deal with them. I talked about the passage from, I think it’s Matthew 23, where Christ says, 'I was naked and you clothed me. I was a prisoner and you visited me, and I was hungry and you fed me.' And they say, 'Christ, you were never any of those things.' And he says, 'No, I wasn’t, but as much as you do this unto the least of these, you do it unto me.'"

Impact of Change on International AIDS Relief:

"That changed everything. I just want you to know that.  Because no longer was dealing with the AIDS pandemic an issue of the Left. It was now both sides of the Congress.  He worked the religious institutions. Conservative institutions started to wake up to their responsibilities to what is essentially the leprosy of this age."

Obligation to Help Homosexuals with AIDS:

"Even if you think it's misbehavior, sexually, that’s got people into this predicament, you still have to respond.  If there’s a car crash and a drunk driver's lying dying on the street, the only qualification you need is that you’re there. You call an ambulance. You assist. And if you don’t, how dare you stand in the church of God?"

African Women with AIDS:

"I was not there to speak to [Helms] or change his opinion about gay or straight. I was there to change his opinion about women in Africa. The largest increasing population of AIDS sufferers in Africa are married women. Shocking."