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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (424434)	7/8/2003 10:41:51 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

McCarthism The phrase 'McCarthism came from the senator's impatience for due process and the rights of witnesses. This impatience lead to McCarthy's use of "executive" sessions (the term was previously reserved primarily to debate treaties and other "executive" business) to question witnesses. These sessions were classified for a term of 50 years however were declassified on schedule in May, 2003. These sessions were not really closed as cronies and favored reporters of McCarthy were allowed in. The names of witnesses and McCarthy's associated interperatations were often, therefore, printed in the press. McCarthy also ignored Senate rules requiring a vote of subcommitee members in order to bring in whitnesses. Instead, he issues blank subpoenas which his staff members could issue at will. Generally witnesses were not given fair notice in advance. These hearings were often away from Washington and were therefore chaired solely by McCarthy with no peer-oversight. During these sessions McCarthy would inform witnesses of their right to refuse to answer questions. Later he'd contact their employer and have them fired if they did so. To this effect he coined the term "Fifth-Amendment Communists". While McCarthy was best known for his investigations of Communists, he also investigated other socially unacceptable groups. Among these groups, McCarthy conducted security investigations of homosexuals and produced a report entitled "Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government". As the investigations continued, press coverage became more and more hostile to McCarthy. The Army was by now engaged on a fightback, supported and aided covertly by Eisenhower. The final disaster of the investigation for McCarthy was the now famous riposte by Joseph Welch, the Army's chief attorney, to an attack by McCarthy on one of his team. Welch asked McCarthy "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you no sense of decency?" While it was not well known at the time, while this compelling interchange seemed a most impressive bit of "unrehearsed theater", it was actually rehearsed on Welch's part. Welch reached an agreement (probably with the full intention of having McCarthy break it) that in exchange for not bringing up Roy Cohn's draft dodging, McCarthy and his cohorts would not bring up the communist record of one of Welch's attorneys. Welch reportedly rehearsed his retort in advance and after leaving the room in tears winked at an associate and said, "How'd I do?". The hearings came to an ignominious close soon afterwards, and the whole affair prompted a Senate measure to censure McCarthy, passed by 67 votes to 22. This ended McCarthy's career and effectiveness as a politician. McCarthy was not the soley responsible for this era of communist "witch-hunting". In fact it predated his ascent by a few years with similar tactics being used in the House Commmittee on Un-American Activities. McCarthy, however, took this to new levels and thus rightly or wrongly took the fall perhaps in part for not only his own but the wrongdoing of the era. McCarthy had always been a heavy drinker, one of the things that had helped him develop amicable relationships with many members of the press. His discrediting in the Senate seems to have caused anger and depression which turned his heavy drinking into full-scale alcoholism. This seems to have aggravated his existing weak health, and caused serious diseases. He finally died of acute hepatitis in Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2, 1957. He was survived by his wife Jean and their adopted daughter Tierney. wikipedia.org