Helms Staff Combats Illness Rumors

W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 8 -- In half a dozen ways, Sen. Jesse Helms is not ill, his staff is saying in response to numerous questions from reporters about the 79-year-old North Carolina Republican’s health.

Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, missed most meetings of the Senate in October and November with a bout of pneumonia but was back on the Senate floor this week.

Nonetheless, the unprecedented 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats resulting from the elections last month has focused attention on the health of some of the Senate’s elderly members. A retirement or death in either party could tip the balance of power.

Marc Thiessen, Helms’ press spokesman, got so many questions this week about the senator’s health, he put out a memo “to our friends in the media.”

“In answer to your manifold inquiries: Senator Helms is not sick. He is not in the hospital. He does not have terminal prostate cancer. He does not have pancreatic cancer. He is absolutely fine and will — God willing — be around to torment you for a long time. “Relax and accept it.”