For the nausea-inducing Helms’ tributes, you can’t do better than Rush Limbaugh.

Jesse Helms died on the Fourth of July, the very day that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson passed away. And of course with the media, like here’s the AP: “Jesse Helms, Polarizer, Not a Compromiser.” Jesse Helms, a polarizer, not a compromiser. Was Ted Kennedy a polarizer? Ted Kennedy doesn’t compromise. Chuck Schumer doesn’t compromise. And of course in every story about Jesse Helms, “whether you agreed with him or not,” it says, whether you agreed with him or not, Jesse Helms was XYZ. So Jesse Helms died on July the 4th, the same day as John Adams, whether you agreed with him or not, the same day as Thomas Jefferson, whether you agreed with him or not. But Jesse Helms, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, these three Americans had something more in common than the date that they left us. And that is, they believed in things. They said what they believed, and then they stood for what they believed. None of this moving-to-the-center stuff. None of this nuance stuff. None of this “on the other hand,” or “but.”

This is absurd. The entire second episode of the John Adams series — which Rush was praising recently — is about the back-door dealing to ensure that the Declaration of Independence was passed unanimously, not rammed down the throats of unwilling states. The entire sixth episode is about Adams trying to stay out of party politics and avoid a war. I could just imagine the Limbaughs of 1800 saying that Adams was weak for avoiding war with France. In fact, they did say that.

Adams, Jefferson (and Madison, who also died on the 4th) were not hate-spewing, opposition-crushing bigots, like Helms was. They weren’t even close.