I am curious. Are all these comments about Jesse Helms genuine denunciations of his character, or is it a case of loudly praying (or braying?) in public so everyone around can see what "good" people we are? As a person who has leftist tendencies, the problem as I see it in the left is a tendency towards moral absolutism that is just as annoying as the clarity possessed by evangelical Christians. Perhaps it is a cultural trait, a shared holier-than-thou attitude found in many English speaking countries, associated with the Protestant Reformation. In any event, whether it is lowbrow online rants, or cutsy editorials. It gets way annoying, way quick.