Anti-McCarthyism

SENATE HISTORICAL MINUTE ^ | Jul 9, 2003 | Richard A. Baker

[Tailgunner Joe]

At the end of World War II, Congress passed legislation allowing all members and committees to hire professional staff members at government expense.

Committee chairmen were expected to select nonpartisan professionals who would serve all elected officials equally. Although chairmen made all hiring decisions, they customarily consulted their panels’ ranking minority members as a matter of courtesy.

Fifty years ago this week, a chairman ignored that custom and triggered a political firestorm.

When the Republicans gained control of the Senate in January 1953, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.) became chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Previous chairmen had used that powerful panel to probe government waste and fraud, but McCarthy employed it to search for communists working in federal agencies.

On June 18, McCarthy hired J.B. Matthews as staff director. He had held a similar position with the House Un-American Activities Committee. A former Methodist minister, he had years earlier converted from ardent Marxism to zealous anti-communism.

In deciding to hire Matthews, McCarthy neglected to consult the subcommittee’s three Democratic members — John McClellan (Ark.), Henry Jackson (Wash.) and Stuart Symington (Mo.). Their general frustration with the chairman’s increasingly high-handed tactics fused into real anger when they learned of a forthcoming article by Matthews in the magazine American Mercury. In that article, “Reds and Our Churches,” the former minister asserted that “the largest single group supporting the communist apparatus in the United States is composed of Protestant clergymen.”

They marched into McCarthy’s office and demanded that he fire Matthews.

McCarthy refused. As outraged preachers took to their pulpits and newspapers elevated the story to their front pages, the subcommittee’s other Republican members devised a face-saving plan. Matthews would resign, but the chairman would retain exclusive hiring authority.

Matthews quit July 9, but McCarthy refused the Democrats’ request to hire a minority counsel, a position that did not then exist in the Senate. Consequently, on July 10, the three Democrats boycotted its activities for the remainder of the year. Early in 1954, McCarthy relented because he needed a full panel to renew his appropriations. The Democrats returned and appointed as their counsel Robert F. Kennedy.

Although Senate Democrats agreed with party leader Lyndon Johnson that it would be suicidal to take on McCarthy in 1953, the three subcommittee dissenters set a course that would end 17 months later with McCarthy’s censure by his president, his party and the full Senate.

[Lazamataz]

Joe McCarthy is the closest thing to G-d in the last century. What a wonderful man! He singlehandedly exposed vast Communist infiltration networks. We need more men like McCarthy.

[Support Free Republic]

The former President disembarks from his airplane after a trip back to Arkansas. Although the hoopla is less now that he is out of office, Clinton still occasionally finds himself greeted by military personnel. This is one such occasion.

He climbs down the stairs, carrying two huge pigs, one under each arm. He gets to the bottom, and nods his head in return to the soldier's salute. "Son, what do you think about these?" he says. "Nice pigs, SIR!" comes the reply. Clinton gets mildly miffed and lectures, "I'll have you know these aren't just pigs but the finest of Arkansas Razorbacks. Top notch. I got one for Hillary, and one for Chelsea. What do you think about that?"

"Nice trade, SIR!

Free Republic

Your donations keep us laughing at liberals

[junta]

Yep it sure is a leftist reunion when it comes to bashing ol' Joe. All the neo-cons are on party line speak and all the out of the closet lefties are in full hate mode. Ann struck a nerve with this one I hope she has some money saved up because the neo-cons are gonnna see to it that she is driven out of Conservative Inc..

[Lazamataz]

Yep it sure is a leftist reunion when it comes to bashing ol' Joe. All the neo-cons are on party line speak and all the out of the closet lefties are in full hate mode. Ann struck a nerve with this one I hope she has some money saved up because the neo-cons are gonnna see to it that she is driven out of Conservative Inc.

Naw. Coulter ain't goin' nowhere. She is smart, pretty, and quite anorexic -- three success-factors in Murrica. Plus, she has done something incredible:

She has challenged a meme.

It was an unwritten truth drilled into me since childhood that McCarthy was a Very Bad Man. That meme has been shaken for a lot of Murricans.

When memes are challenged, you sometimes see a slow drift into the opposite mode of thought. For example, it was always considered A Good Thing to support people who are destitute with work-free welfare. That meme was challenged by Ronald Reagan in the seventies (in California) and in the eighties, and by the ninties, Clinton signed the bill that made workfare a reality. There are numerous other memes undergoing transformation lately, namely, that Social Security is a good idea; that there is such a thing as global warming; and that unfettered immigration builds America. There are, unfortunately, also some memes that are undergoing transformation that shouldn't, such as the American right to bear arms and so on.

Point is, the meme that Joe McCarthy was EVIL EVIL EVIL is now challenged. The meme will likely undergo transformation during the next decade. Thank you Ann!

[ClearCase_guy]

Matthews quit July 9, but McCarthy refused the Democrats’ request to hire a minority counsel, a position that did not then exist in the Senate.

Perhaps I'm too sensitive, but won't most people reading this misunderstand the bit about Democrats demanding the hiring of a "minority counsel"? Democrats in the early 1950's were not pushing for racial equality. I think "minority" here is a reference to "the other political party" -- but more readers are going to see this is racial terms and decide that McCarthy was a "typical racist Republican".

Careful wordsmiths do this, folks. They are not lying. They are not misleading. But they ARE hoping that the readers mis-interpret their words. Their hands are clean, and their agenda is advanced.

[Lazamataz]

Nice catch, but all the propaganda techniques in the world will not put the genie back in the bottle. Ann Coulter has shaken the foundation of a well-circulated meme.

[TheOtherOne]

McCarthy was an ass. He was not good for this Country.

[Common Tator]

Ann struck a nerve with this one I hope she has some money saved up because the neo-cons are gonnna see to it that she is driven out of Conservative Inc..

If her book sells 500,000 copies and her cut is 4 Dollars a book she will make $2,000,000 from this book. She gets speaking gigs at thousands of dollars each. I doubt if she will need money.

As long as news talk shows draw more viewers when she is on than when she is not, she will have no problems getting the TV exposure needed to get speaking engagements and sell books.

Why do you think Katie Couric puts Ann on the Today show? There is only one possible reason... The Today show needs the viewers Ann can bring to the show.

[MEG33]

I skipped a beat and then realized what minority meant in this context.Very well camouflaged.

[Lazamataz]

Read Ann Coulters book. You, like me at one time, have been indoctrinated into believing this. Ann, with footnotes and references, destroys this myth.

[Sangria]

McCarthy was very good for this country. We need more like him today. He hated communists and he was right.

[William Terrell]

Careful wordsmiths do this, folks. They are not lying. They are not misleading. But they ARE hoping that the readers mis-interpret their words. Their hands are clean, and their agenda is advanced.

My daddy always taught me that any communication, no matter what the form, intended to decieve is a lie, period.

[mr.pink]

Perhaps I'm too sensitive, but won't most people reading this misunderstand the bit about Democrats demanding the hiring of a "minority counsel"?

If he was writing for the NY Daily News or some similar media, you would be absolutely right about it being a sneakey technique, but when you consider what media oulet he was writing this for, it's entirely proper for him to use language relative to, and immediately understandable to, his audience.

[ClearCase_guy]

Good catch. You are probably 100% right.

Donning tin-foil hat: Perhaps I will now veer into outright paranoia, but I believe that some of these stories are virtually "planted" in innocuous spots, just so later writers (for the NY Daily News) can come along and quote respected sources like "The Senate Historical Minute" and reveal to the world that McCarthy was a typical racist Republican.

[Catspaw]

My mom detested McCarthy--but not for the reasons you think. During one of his campaigns, she ran into him in a small grocery store in Stephensville, Wisconsin. He shook her hand, asked for her vote--then reached out & patted her very pregnant tummy (with me inside). She didn't like the idea that someone she didn't know would do that without her permission.

[ModelBreaker]

He shook her hand, asked for her vote--then reached out & patted her very pregnant tummy (with me inside

My wife couldn't stand it when strangers did that (patting the pregnant tummy) either. It just made her furious. You really don't want to make her mad.

[Catspaw]

You really don't want to make her mad.

Well, I'm (mumble mumble) years old, and if the subject comes up about Tailgunner Joe, my mom's nostrils still flare & her eyes get wide--and those are the DANGER signals :-)

[wayoverontheright]

Nice catch, but all the propaganda techniques in the world will not put the genie back in the bottle. Ann Coulter has shaken the foundation of a well-circulated meme.

I agree. Everyone's attacking the author but this feeble attempt is evidence they are having trouble attacking the history and her premise.

As a recipient of a public school education long before they were known to be controlled by leftists, I feel duped, as just like everyone else I was led to believe that those who opposed McCarthy were the good guys.

Will anger cause this to be a significant emotional event for a lot of Americans, as it has for me?

[Dan(9698)]

>>>...McCarthy was an ass. He was not good for this Country.

It is obvious that you have not read the book.