As the nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg was being whistled through the Senate, a morose friend called, "Can you believe it? The vote was 96-3!" "Who were the other two?" I asked. We laughed. For we did not need to be told where Jesse Helms stood on elevating to the Supreme Court an ACLU activist like Judge Ginsburg. If one were to name the two elected leaders of the last third of the 20th century who best represented the conservative creed in national politics, they would be Ronald Reagan and Jesse Helms. It is a defining difference between a traditional...