1.   In his long years as a foreign policy gadfly to the Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations, Helms has sometimes been a positive influence.

2.   It transcended sport, weathered the long years of retirement and still had enough stroke this week to move New Yorkers to tears.

3.   The long years he spent fighting crime and disorder became the platform from which he showed us how to fight terrorism and Osama bin Laden.

4.   The reason that he lasted so long this year was not his tax plan or his support from the fundamentalist right, but his cash.