Senator Helms was one of only eight senators to protest the new extension of the

Voting Rights Act, which put certain states and parts of states that had "historical patterns of discrimination" under special rules. He defends himself more than ably against charges that his motivation for doing so was racism. JH: "It's like Thomas Babington Macaulay said about the House of Commons back in 1852. He said, unfortunately too many members of this body are more interested in the security of their seats than in the security of their country. This was an illustration of it in the United States Senate and it was a sad spectacle."