Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Salisbury Republican, introduced an amendment to add Helms, who died July 4, to the title of a $50 billion bill considered Wednesday in the Senate. Her measure never came up for a vote.

Helms, a deeply conservative Republican from Raleigh, was the frequent nemesis of gay activists. "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy," he once said.

* edit Incidentally and thanks to Sid, the bill was for global AIDS relief.

Now I get naming stuff after dead politicians, even recently dead politicians and especially recently dead unpopular politicians. Legacy is important to some. If you're going to do it though, shouldn't you pick something that makes sense?

While it's true that the quote comes from the 80's (which doesn't excuse it's ignorance) and that Senator Helms worked later in life to soften his opinion, this just leaves me scratching my head. Does it make sense to anyone else?