That is a question readers will likely be asking about the yet-to-be-published novel by Carter Wrenn, a longtime political strategist for Helms and other Republicans.

In conservative circles, Helms is a revered figure -- a principled fighter who helped bring about the Reagan revolution.

But Wrenn, in creating a fictional Helms-like figure named Jubal Kane, paints a more nuanced and even critical portrait.

Wrenn gives the Helms-like figure his due. But he also portrays him as a flesh-and-blood politician who has few scruples about using racial divisions to advance his cause, and who became the leading light of the Christian Right not because he had a road-to-Damascus experience, but for more pragmatic political reasons.

"Jubal Kane is a really flawed figure," Wrenn said in a recent interview. "His virtues are that he is intelligent, he is courageous, and he's dynamic, and he's articulate. His vices are that he is deceitful, and he's vain, and he's mean-spirited.

"But at the end of the day, I say about Jesse as I say about Jubal at the end of the book. The things that he [Jubal] did contributed a really good thing in American history. I think that is very true of Jesse."

Few people know Helms and his politics as well as Wrenn, who ran Helms' Raleigh-based political operation, the National Congressional Club, for 20 years.

Wrenn was operating the levers of the Helms machine when it rescued Ronald Reagan's political career in the 1976 GOP presidential primary. He was there when the machine re-elected Helms in 1978, 1984 and 1990 and when it got John East and Lauch Faircloth elected to the Senate. Wrenn was present when the Helms machine mowed down Democrat after Democrat -- former Insurance Commissioner John Ingram, Sens. Robert Morgan and Terry Sanford, Gov. Jim Hunt, and former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt.

And he was there when the Congressional Club raised an estimated $100 million for the conservative cause, and Helms emerged as a national leader of what became known as The New Right. Wrenn was the No. 2 man in the Club, reporting to Raleigh attorney Tom Ellis.

What it was really like

Now Wrenn is telling the story of Helms and the political machine -- sort of.

Why now?

And why a novel?

Wrenn, 54, a slow-talking, cigar-chomping man, is largely retired from politics. So he no longer has to worry about offending his colleagues. The Helms machine fell apart amid internal feuding in the mid- '90s. Wrenn's last major campaign was in 2000, when he tried unsuccessfully to get former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot elected governor.

Wrenn does some consulting for interest groups such as physicians who oppose Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. That leaves him time to spend with his wife and two daughters and pursue two interests -- history and writing. He has completed two books -- the Helmsian novel and a biography of Stonewall Jackson, the legendary Confederate general.

Wrenn did well enough in politics and in business that he does not slave away in some poor writer's garret. His office, in a North Raleigh office building, is large and grand enough for a prime minister. It is lined floor to ceiling with well-thumbed histories.

Those looking for deep meaning in why he is writing the novel, Wrenn says, will be disappointed. His politics are still conservative. He doesn't regret his past life as a hard-nosed political operative. Nor is he trying to settle old scores, he says, although he acknowledges that some people may see it that way. Helms and Wrenn parted on bad terms when the Congressional Club dissolved, and they haven't spoken in years.

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