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I never thought it possible
that one day it would come to pass that each time I watched and listened to a
presidential primary candidate that I would feel I needed to take a hot shower
to get the stink off me.
I never thought the day would
dawn when looking at Catholic bishops and other so-called Christian clergy
literally made my skin crawl and my stomach flip.
I never thought it remotely
possible that I could hold so many Congressmen, governors, and state
legislators in complete contempt, or that, they could make me seriously
consider flight to another country.
At this time in our history
when Republican politicians, clergy, and right wing pundits feel they have
license to say the most outrageous lies and distortions without being held to
normal standards of truth, restraint, and certainly common decency, I cannot
help but think about another time -- another black night in our history --
known as the McCarthy Era.
And I would suggest to everyone
that America would do well to remember that terrible time in history but just
as well to also remember one of the Era's few remarkable heroes, Joseph Welch.
Welch was a partner in the
prestigious law firm of Hale and Dorr and served as head counsel for the United
States Army while the Army was under investigation by Joseph McCarthy's Senate
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for Communist Activities. McCarthy's
public investigation of the Army is now famously remembered as the
Army-McCarthy Hearings. On June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy
Hearings, McCarthy publicly accused Fred Fisher, a junior attorney in Welch's
law firm, of associating with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) when he was in
law school. This was an explosive accusation in the red-baiting heyday of McCarthyism;
this single accusation, which seems almost benign today, had the power to
totally and completely destroy the young attorney's future --and Joseph Welch
knew it.
McCarthy, as drunk with power
as he often was with alcohol, was a contemptible man of unbridled hubris and
reckless disregard for the lives of others. It's easy to look at him today and
wonder whether there aren't more than a few people modeling their public
careers after him. Through cunning and brains, but no integrity, McCarthy
became one of the most powerful men in America in the early 1950's and at the
time of the Army-McCarthy Hearings he was completely out of control. It was a
time, very much like now, when fear mongering and hateful speech were the norm
and the nation appeared to be in a shark feeding frenzy attacking itself from
within. Few dared to show their contempt for McCarthy as openly as Welch and
what Welch was about to say to McCarthy now stands in history as a moment of
great moral courage.
Several months earlier, on
March 9th, Edward R. Murrow and his CBS news team produced a
half-hour See It Now special entitled "A Report on Senator Joseph
McCarthy." Murrow used excerpts from McCarthy's own speeches to criticize
McCarthy and expose his lies and contradictions. CBS, in a move that
foreshadowed the cowardice of commercial television, forced Murrow and his
producer Fred Friendly to pay for their own newspaper advertisements for the
program; they were also not allowed to use the CBS logo. CBS was quite
obviously afraid to tackle McCarthy. Nevertheless, Murrow's broadcast aired and
it certainly contributed to the beginning of a nationwide backlash against
McCarthy. CBS received thousands of letters, telegrams, and phone calls that
ran 15:1 in favor of Murrow's broadcast.
It was Joseph Welch, however,
who threw the punch from which McCarthy never recovered. McCarthy's bold and
reckless accusation about Fisher on that day in June stunned and infuriated
Welch. Welch fully understood that McCarthy had callously thrown Fisher under
the tanks of McCarthy's artfully contrived juggernaut. Welch dismissed Fisher's
association with the NLG as a youthful indiscretion but didn't stop there;
Welch turned on McCarthy for naming the young lawyer before a national
television audience without prior warning or previous agreement to do so.
Here are Welch's scathing words:
" Until this moment, Senator, I think
I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is a
young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came into my firm and is
starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us. Little did I dream you
could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to that lad. It is true
that he will continue to be with Hale and Dorr. It is, I regret to say, equally
true that I fear 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 that I am a gentle man but your forgiveness will have to come from
someone other than me."
When McCarthy tried to renew
his attack, Welch interrupted him:
" Senator, may we not drop this? We
know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild. Let us not assassinate this lad further,
Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last,
have you left no sense of decency?"
McCarthy tried to ask Welch
another question about Fisher, and Welch cut him off:
" Mr. McCarthy, I will not discuss
this further with you. You have sat within six feet of me and could ask-- could
have asked me about Fred Fisher. You have seen fit to bring it out. And if
there is a God in Heaven it will do neither you nor your cause any good. I will
not discuss it further.... You, Mr. Chairman, may, if you will, call the next
witness."
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