John McCain, Joe McCarthy and a Code of Honor

What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward the sad end of this presidential campaign? It is the shade of the late Joseph R. McCarthy, who bequeathed his name to an "ism" John McCain has clumsily exhumed. McCarthyism asserted that if you ever met a Communist, you must be a Communist. Updated version: if you ever met a terrorist, you must be a terrorist.

The essence of McCarthyism was guilt by association. Joe McCarthy would happily chattered about whether, and therefore how often, William Ayers would "pal around" with Barack Obama.

On February 9, 1950, at the zenith of American anxiety about a newly nuclear Soviet Union and with the U.S. vulnerable to extremism, the Republican senator from Wisconsin went to Wheeling, West Virginia for, alas, a Lincoln Day speech. "I have here in my hand a list of 205 that were known to the Secretary of State (Dean Acheson) as being members of the Communist Party," he said, describing "a spy ring."

Today, amid economic trauma which he does not seem to understand, McCain has conjured up the Stygian gloom of ultraconservatism's darkest hour. McCarthy never revealed any names, but for four years, the Right made him a hero, admiring how he intimidated witnesses, scoffed at civil liberties, sneered at the Fifth Amendment and trashed the patriotism of anyone who disagreed with his methods.

His reckless ride ended on June 9, 1954, during the televised Army-McCarthy hearings. The pivotal moment evokes McCain's revival of guilt by association. McCarthy interrupted Joseph N. Welch, a Boston lawyer representing the U.S. Army, which McCarthy had accused of coddling Bolsheviks. The senator announced to the Senate committee and the television audience that Welch "has in his law firm a young man named Fisher . . . . who has been for a number of years a member of an organization which was named, oh, years and years ago, as the legal bulwark of the Communist Party, an organization which always swings to the defense of anyone who dares to expose Communists."

The episode summed up McCarthyism and hastened its end. "Little did I dream you could be so reckless and cruel as to do an injury to that lad," Welch said, in quiet, measured outrage. "He shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty, I would do so. I like to think I am a gentleman, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me."

As McCarthy interrupted Welch, the lawyer's New England voice rose slightly. The dialogue transfixed a nation:
Welch: Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?
McCarthy: I know this hurts you, Mr. Welch. But I may say, Mr. Chairman, on a point of personal privilege, and I would like to finish it--
Welch:Senator, I think it hurts you, too, sir.
McCarthy: I would like to finish this.
Welch: Mr. McCarthy, I will not discuss this with you further. You have sat within six feet of me, and could have asked me about Fred Fisher. Now you have brought it out. If there is a God in heaven, it will do neither you nor your cause any good. I will not discuss it further. I will not ask Mr. (Roy) Cohn any more questions. You, Mr. Chairman, may, if you will, call the next witness.

The hearing room burst into applause. The confrontation unmasked the coward inside every bully. It also revealed the importance of a widely shared code of honor of face-to-face and man-to-man. In 1954, McCarthy violated the same code of honor that McCain has violated in 2008. If William Ayers is so important, why not ask Obama about him directly in a televised debate? As Joe Biden said in Missouri Thursday, "In my neighborhood, when you've got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him."

In 1954, McCarthy was finished. The Senate condemned him on December 2 for behavior "contrary to senatorial traditions." In 1957, the senator died of a liver ailment at 48. President Eisenhower, whom McCarthy suggested was soft on Communism, told his cabinet that the movement that so convulsed the country was now "McCarthywasm." So it was until this week.

Comments

[ratail]

Ayers/Terrorist is code for Muslim, Wright is code for black.

It's just more scare politics.. McCain's slick team are just doing their best to call Senator Obama a Black Muslim without having to use the words outright, and pay the heavy price they should be paying for their foul tactics.

I think everyone who thinks about this will know in their heart what the McCain/Palin race-baiting game is. The media should stop repeating it over and over, we get it.

[gopnot4me]

Putting words like HONOR and MCCAIN together is an oxymoron. He never had any honor (just check his record), and he nevered honored anything that didn't benefit him. He sure didn't honor his wedding vows did he?
Please, don't make me upchuck hearing honor and McCain in the same breath!

[pons1595]

McCain and Palin are saying things that are completely untrue; newspapers and other independent observers have made clear that they're completely untrue. Yet, knowing they are untrue, they have continued to repeat them. John McCain considers himself an honorable person; that concept, he says, is critically and centrally important to him. He's really given up his claim on being an honorable person. You can't go out there and lie day after day, week after week, knowing you're telling lies, and continue repeating them, and still look yourself in the mirror and say you are an honorable person.

[fromero]

John McCain claims to know how to win wars, but how many wars has he actually won?

Would he have been admitted to the Naval Academy if both his father and grandfather hadn’t been influential alumnae? And given the fact that he graduated fifth from the bottom of his class, how much did he actually learn about the art of warfare?

He had been serving in Vietnam for only three months before his plane was shot down, and then was held prisoner for five years. So how could he have known what was taking place on the ground, where the war was being fought? What was the extent of his actual combat experience?

Those injuries to his arms and legs, where they inflicted under torture by his North Vietnamese guards, as is commonly believed, or were the injuries sustained when his plane crashed? And once his captors realized he was the son of an important admiral, a prized propaganda asset, would they have risked subjecting him to the same ordeal as an ordinary prisoner?

[Biffmeister]

Great article. Several of us had also noticed the similarities. The Machiavellian behavior from McCain and Palin will be their downfall.
OTOH McCain's involvement in Keating was very real and he wasn't eight years old either. Palin acts like a programmed fool, but McCain is a man without honor.

[LeftRight]

As I've said elsewhere. I'm glad that the SCOTUS has recently determined that the Second Amendment to the Constitution is valid. Now I want my First, and Third, and Fourth, and Fifth, and Sixth, etc......

The fact of the matter is that it does NOT MATTER who Obama, or McCain, or Biden, or Palin hangs out with. My brother hangs out with many known (to me) Potheads. And yet, I still think of him as my brother, and I know that he's not a pothead. Just because Obama has served on a Charity Board with Bill Ayers does not make Obama a terrorist.

[schatsie]

The charity board has the name of ANNENBERG on it, it was funded by the ANNENBERGs who were great friends of Nixon and the Reagans..... Who also probably donated money to McCAin...

[egal]

Who McCain proudly names as supporters/donors even now.

[NicasioKid]

Funny - and no one mentions anyone else on that Board as being a "terrorist." We all get it - the guilt by association is BS. Take away the Board association issue, and the people who want to be angry will simply find another excuse to spew their venom. By encouraging this hate, McCain and Palin have dishonored themselves, and by association, our country. We need to shut them down by voting for Obama. Let Election Day be our referendum against intolerance and hate!

[radiclib]

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Yes, but this year's McCarthyism is different. They are making hate speech against a black candidate for President. Audience members shout ``Kill him!'' and they let it stand. Think of it this way: There are two people standing between Sarah Palin and control of nuclear weapons. Those people are Barack Obama and 71-year-old John McCain, a cancer survivor. Look at world history and political power. Is it far-fetched to conclude that people in history have killed or at least benefitted from the deaths of others to snatch power? Do you really want Sarah Palin anywhere near nuclear weapons? Someone on TV said the other day that Palin's church teaches that the end of the world will come in our lifetime. If Palin has control of nuclear weapons, she will have the power to end the world. Think about it.
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[schatsie]

I will never forget how Mr Byrd was murdered and mutilated, same thing for Matthew Sheppard... These people are inciting hatred and violence and are totally anti-democratic.... Welll what do you expect from the party that has the Supreme Court and Voter Fraud in Ohio to win the elections in 2000 and 2004.

[AlaskanToo]

While McCain makes me uncomfortable, you're right I think about Palin. She has a heart that is two sizes too small. It's frightening to me what she would do with so much power. To quote Pat Buchanan (though he was speaking of McCain) She'd 'make D!ck Cheney look like Gandhi.'