Former North Carolina senator Jesse Helms is being remembered as a man who "stood by the things that he believed in." Helms, a long-time champion of conservative causes in the Senate, died today at the age of 86 in North Carolina. The chairman of the Jesse Helms Center in North Carolina, Former Congressman Bill Cobey, also says it's "just incredible" that Helms would die on the Fourth of July -- the same day that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died. He says Helms was a patriot, as they were. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says Helms was a "leading voice and courageous champion for the many causes he believed in." A White House spokesman calls Helms "a great public servant and true patriot." North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, a Democrat, says, "whether you liked his politics or not, Jesse Helms was a national force able to deliver for his constituents."

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