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Putting aside all the chit chat, McCarthy was a reckless, demagogic drunk, whose incompetence and ineptness with the facts, and penchant for overstatement, was the ultimate elixir for the Left, from which it profited handsomely until Reagan sucked the air out of it all. The attempt to rehabilitate McCarthy won't get a pass from this quarter.

...McCarthy was a reckless, demagogic drunk, whose incompetence and ineptness with the facts, and penchant for overstatement...
It is hard to know how much of that "classical" characterization of Senator McCarthy is liberal myth, and how much is grounded in reality, IMHO.

See also, from www.frontpagemag.com:

FP: Ms. Coulter, I completely agree with you on Ronald Reagan but, with all due respect, how could you possibly admire Joe McCarthy?
He was a hideous character. I don't think you can find many individuals more anti-communist than myself, but I detest McCarthy for how he discredited anti-communism. I can't think of anyone else in America that did so much damage to the anti-communist cause. What exactly do you see in McCarthy? Yes, he fought the right enemy, but the way that he fought it was extremely counter-productive. He armed our liberal enemies with powerful ammunition against us. What is your thinking here?

AC: I notice that you have just reeled off a slew of insults without a bare hint of a fact. And for good reason -- actually for no good reason. You're interviewing me, you should have read my book. Until Treason, that's all it ever was with McCarthy. Portraits of Kathy Boudin, Che Guevara, Ted Bundy, and Joe Stalin are more nuanced than portraits of McCarthy.
He is the only person in history for whom, apparently, there is absolutely nothing good that we can say. No nuance, no good side -- just invective, fake facts, myth, and anger. It's amazing that guy ever got elected to anything! I wrote my book, I made my case, and people decided not to argue with me on the merits. So now I guess we're back to fact-free invective against McCarthy.
When you start to sound like Molly Ivins talking about George Bush, you might want to entertain the possibility that you are a few tweaks away from the dispassionate truth.

So,I guess you don't think much of ole Joe.Have you had the opportunity to read Coulter's book?

"Putting aside all the chit chat, McCarthy was a reckless, demagogic drunk, whose incompetence and ineptness with the facts, and penchant for overstatement, was the ultimate elixir for the Left, from which it profited handsomely until Reagan sucked the air out of it all. The attempt to rehabilitate McCarthy won't get a pass from this quarter."

McCarthy had his flaws but SO WHAT. I can point to any number of politico's who were even worse AND are portrayed positively in the Liberal media and history books.

Who was worse -McCarthy who was careless with facts and was NOT the best spokesman - or all the Liberal Senators who knew about Hiss and his Commie Spies and tried to cover up for them?

Or all those liberal media types who told us the Stalin was good ol' "Uncle Joe"and that we should disarm and bring the home after VJ because Stalin was threatened by all those US troops in Europe? (Look at the progressive platform in 1948)

I've got news for you, every Politician that went after the commies was smeared and attacked. Nixon was actually a liberal at heart, but that didn't matter, he went after Hiss, and the Left spent the rest of his life smearing him at every opportunity.

"Putting aside all the chit chat, McCarthy was a reckless, demagogic drunk, whose incompetence and ineptness with the facts, and penchant for overstatement, was the ultimate elixir for the Left...."

Being a "reckless, demagogic drunk, whose incompetence and ineptness with the facts, and penchant for overstatement" ever hurt a Kennedy.