The Man Who Brought Down McCarthy

[bondwooley]

This week in 1954, the U.S. Senate voted 67 to 22 in favor to “condemn” paranoid, communist-hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”

Because the resolution used the seemingly unenforceable term condemn rather than censure, McCarthy’s supporters on the Senate floor erupted into laughter. Within moments, McCarthy pledged to go on with his witch hunt – one that had already ruined scores of American lives and humiliated our nation.

In typical American fashion, after months of work, Congress failed to correct a situation that Congress itself created.

And in typical fashion, it was one lone, brave American who, ultimately, picked up the shovel that was going to put McCarthyism in its rightful grave: Joseph Welch.

Joseph Welch was an attorney who just got too damn sick and tired of the madness when McCarthy set out to destroy the life of an employee at his law firm. And this impromptu denunciation of McCarthy changed the course of history in ways that no politician ever could.

(Source: http://www.lesterandcharlie.com)

[PADemD]

1. Trivia

Joseph N. Welch played Judge Weaver in the 1959 movie Anatomy of a Murder, and his wife played a juror.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052561/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

[bondwooley]

2. That's astounding

but very fitting. Wow.

[PADemD]

3. Saw the movie recently.

The judge looked so familiar to me and I couldn't remember where I had seen him before, so I looked up the full cast.

[bondwooley]

4. Very cool. Thanks! n/t

[Jack Rabbit]

5. More trivia . . .

The "lad" to whom Mr. Welch was referring was James St. Clair, who would serve as President Nixon's attorney during the Watergate investigation and legal proceedings. Those of us old enough to remember and had nothing but contempt for Nixon still marveled at Mr. St. Clair's deftness in handling a case that was from the start a lost cause.

[bondwooley]

7. Whoa

That is a a strange turn in history.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. St. Clair believed any suspect in a criminal investigation deserved a lawyer

It seems a bit twisted to some, but those of us who believe in the ideal of American justice, if not always with its practice, appreciate that sentiment.

As a consequence of Mr. St. Clair's service to President Nixon, no one, not even Nixon's staunchest, most partisan defenders, could say that Nixon was railroaded. That just doesn't work.

[MyNameGoesHere]

11. Even more trivia

Godfather to Kathleen Kennedy.

[pacalo]

10. I forgot about that! Thanks for mentioning it.

[Cha]

6. To Joseph Welch~

May he be RIP~

[longship]

8. "At long last, have you no decency?"

I can recite it like it was yesterday. I hope I got it right and my memory is still intact.

[pkdu]

12. I am but a neophyte to American Politics of that era....but THAT looks and sounds like a

modern day Senator Ted Cruz ( with slightly less hair)

[patricia92243]

13. That is the very first thought that popped into my head. We survived McCarthy, so I guess we'll

survive Ted Cruz.

[bayareaboy]

18. Yes, both are legends in their own mind...

and both were loved by the big time jerkoffs of the GOP. If fact you will find today folks who think that tail-gunner Joe should be a saint by now. The only difference is that Cruz doesn't seem to drink as much.

[ellennelle]

15. mccarthy/cruz

you should look up a great article from last spring by james fallows on the comparisons; absolutely freaky.

plus, go to TPM now, and there's a side by side photo of the two; even more freaky! their eyebrows, the cock of the head, the jaw - just amazing.

[bondwooley]

17. You would think

if you looked like McCarthy, the last thing you might be successful at is politics.

[Left Coast2020]

14. On McCarthy, Edward R. Murrow was also a catalyst for bringing him down.

Just had name of show in brain and forgot it. But it was his show on the CBS network that ripped McCarthy a new one.

That concludes our television history class.

Class Dismissed.

[ellennelle]

16. the film

don't forget george clooney's great film of murrow's takedown of mccarthy: good night and good luck, murrow's signoff.