Senator No, the 86-year-old conservative stalwart from North Carolina, has died, on July 4 of all days. This obituary is reasonably fair. I wish I could say all of them were. Helms was far from a flawless figure, but he is arguably the most consistently consequential legislator associated with the conservative movement. Dave Weigel reviewed William Link's Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism for us here; I reviewed it here.