This may be the best short defense of Joe McCarthy I have ever read. Thanks, Stacy.

It is imperative that the Truth get out because we face a similar situation today, with the only difference being: the subversives are being 'run' by an Ideology.

SIDENOTE: I suspect that Saul Alinsky learned a great deal from watching the successes achieved by the anti-anti-Communists.

A very salient point.

OTOH, McCarthy had some issues that are, or ought to be, educational to any modern conservatives (don't be a drunk, comes to mind). I hope modern conservatives learn to stand up to the left, but do it with exceptional resources, verified facts, and from a sense of statesmanship, rather than the scent of power. This last bit has ruined Republicans over the last few years.

We need more John Adams types in this fight. Ted Cruz is starting to look like that, which is amazing to see.

The key is not to associate with guys like Roy Cohn - ie: people who are committed to wielding power rather than to a noble cause. Tailgunner Joe was a good man, but not very bright in certain areas [oh, and he also was Irish Catholic, which is always a handicap].

Heh.

It's probably why Tom Coburn wants to get the heck out of there. Too many Roy Cohn types. I wish he'd stay on, but I can't blame him for wanting out.

Statesmanship is almost as dead as I am ...

Let's remember something else--as with Cruz, many of the establishment (East Coast) Republicans then failed to defend McCarthy, letting joseph Welch, among others, distort and slur almost at will

And we still have a wimp problem

These guys getting into congress and then worrying about re-election drives me crazy. The Dems don't care. Look at that sh*theel Grayson, in Florida.

One thing I'd love to see is bloggers ignoring Miss Lindsey Graham and Captain Queeg, and all of those other Prograssives with (R) after their name, and only talk to the guys like Cruz, Paul, Steve King, Trey Gowdy, and so on. We have enough of them in congress now to simply act like they are in charge.

Because we say so.

Joe McCarthy was partially right (the anti communist part), but he was a bully and managed to screw up the mission and give sympathy to the other side. BTW, was Roy Cohn totally right too? McCarthy was not a martyr, he was a very flawed politician who should be looked at objectively.

David Horowitz came to the conclusion that McCarthy ended up hurting the cause of anti-communism and certainly he was flawed and had personal problems. But to paraphrase Rumsfeld, you go to war with the Senators you have. McCarthy's work was absolutely essential and America is stronger because of it.

Actually, America was weaker for it. McCarthy hit a nerve at first and exposed how many commie stooges there were in Hollywood (but at the time they were still a minority). But he over played his hand and actually hurt the cause of freedom in the end. Because those bastards stayed and now they run the place.

I look at these type of issues with an ice cold eye, i.e. one is either an asset or a liability. In the fight against Soviet expansionism McCarthy was a clearly an asset despite his personal flaws. Whatever his vices they were outweighed by his virtues.

He was an asset...until he wasn't. That we have to defend McCarthy so many decades later is the point...we shouldn't have to be doing that.

But the main reason we still have to speak up for Sen. McCarthy is because we let the Left write the Narrative about him.

Persactly! Spaghetti Spines of the GOP have been doing it for years. They just want the power and dough that comes with it.

That is fine. And I am all for correcting the record.

But that is exactly the point, McCarthy went from an asset on Soviet expansion to a liability. My point is not to vilify McCarthy (I could think of far worse villians on the left such as the traitor father of Al Gore), but to caution against missing the lesson of hubris.

McCarthy simply didn't know when to quit. many of us cold warriors are of the opinion that is he had stopped early, especially after he corralled Hiss, it would have been great.

His speech on George Marshall was telling and is a classic in showing the role of useful idiots. The left raged and raved about it, but Marshall's behavior in China in '49 was inexcusable and cost the country enormously. I refuse to visit the museum at VMI because he has such a prominent place in it. Marshall so bemsirched himself by that his entire record is eclipsed by that piece of idiocy.

Yep. Joe was a very honorable and patriotic American who saw the incremental imposition of socialism.

You handled the Anti-Communism crusade with much more ability than Tailgunner Joe.

Thank you Bob. So few really remember. Most high-schoolers today believe I started the Vietnam war and only I was responsible for it. Such revisionist tripe.

My maternal grandfather, who arrived with his widowed mother from Italy at the age of eight, was a staunch McCarthy supporter and anti-communist. He graduated from Temple Pharmacy School in 1919 and went on to open his own corner pharmacy in their neighborhood. My mom used to share her stories of running home from school to watch the McCarthy trials, whom her father regarded as an American patriot and hero. Due to her father's influence, my mom has always been a conservative activist, which is where I received my early political knowledge.

Thank you Stacy for a great post, as I am sick of so-called conservatives jumping on the trash McCarthy bandwagon. He may not have been perfect (who among us is?) but his efforts on behalf of freedom are to be commended, not vilified. If only we had more Ted Cruz's following McCarthy's example in elected office.

Hear, hear!

There's the Little Red Church and the Red Diaper Babies, a number of whom are in the White House. Most interesting show on the TV today is "The Americans." It gets the idea that Soviet and Maoist agents were/are in America and intend harm to American freedom.

Senator Cruz could do America and the TEA Party a big favor by coordinating with FIRE, ACLJ and other organizations and use his floor time on the Senate to get the message out about the depth and breadth of Marxist-Maoist practices in academia.
One man or woman, one voice, is a mouseturd. Many men and women, many voices, are a mountain range.

We conservative bloggers had better become that mountain range soon.

http://www.trevorloudon.com...

Yes!!! And now, with 80+ elected representatives who are members of the Democratic Socialists Of America, yes Communists, a conflict of interest which should preclude them from even being allowed to take the oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the U.S. which they could not possibly intend to uphold. And now, with untold numbers of Muslims in high office and appointed positions, whose stated goal is overthrow our government to replace it with Islam and Shariah law, we continue to invite infiltration, subversion and destruction from within by advocates of different flavors of totalitarianism. Now, more than ever we need leadership which will expose and eradicate all those who are actively engaged in "fundamentally transforming" our constitutional republic into any damn thing else.

The left can't afford to allow Cruz to become a popular national political figure like they could not allow Miguel Estrada to be a Republican Supreme Court nominee.

Nice recounting, Stacy!

BTW, here's a link to the Sharon Statement, which is a very well-done effort, since it was brief, like the Constitution.

This effort by Ted Cruz, and the furor it is raising, is very important to recognize for its place in history—the history happening right now.

For example, the Europeans are now fully cognizant of the damage they have done to themselves, and are starting to be quite vocal about it in many places where such speech was considered intolerable only two years ago. Have a look at this speech by Lars Hedegaard (Feb 21, 2013), which is notable for its place, and for the applause he received by the attendees.

Ted Cruz might well be betting that NOW is the time to press this issue, and let the political chips fall where they may, because we are in such peril.

We need this man. He fights.

McCarthy was wrong about his "list of 200 names" of communist supporters in the State Department. He had no list, it was pure bluff.

Of course, after the fall of the Soviet Empire, KGB files showed the actual number was several times higher, and those were just the ones the USSR was aware of, not including the passive sympathizers.

Even today, if we were to hang every traitor in the State Department, there wouldn't be many left besides the secretarial pool and the cleaning crews.

Crap, we're gonna need a lot more rope.

LOL....hell yes, I'm there. Here's a plan. We call the site Habitat for Hemp or HolyRope (hey, it works when the Progressives name it something catchy) and plaster a big PayPal button on it.

Oooh, hemp! That will also bring in money from Libertarians. Good call.

Rope is re-usable.

I submit that the cleaning crews and secretarial pool would better represent the United States to other nations.

Eh...you should read Evans' book. The list began with a State Dept list (including a lot of FBI work) and grew from there. He wasn't claiming an exhaustive list, of course.

The "pure bluff" was coming from the people (like Tydings) who opposed McCarthy. He didn't want to name names in public, but Tydings, et.al., goaded him into doing just that by claiming that he didn't really have a list, that the list was old news discredited and any other convenient lie.

I suspect that DWS may have studied this campaign, as everything she says seems as coherent and credible as McCarthy's contemporary detractors.

A friend of mine, historian Thomas C. Reeves, wrote a thorough and fair biography on McCarthy ("The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy"). I profiled Reeves and the book for a university magazine I edited. The liberal faculty was in an uproar and wanted me fired for writing that McCarthy was not a monster. Plenty of fellow travelers in academia!

Obama was looking forward to an imminent social revolution, literally a movement where the working classes would overthrow the ruling class and institute a kind of socialist Utopia in the United States.

http://directorblue.blogspo...

I love these stories. I just have to find my Galahger-Style plastic cover. Libs Heads Always Explode when They Hear This. Same with Swift Boating. Every time I tell Libs that, to the "Vast Majority" of the country, "Swift Boating" means telling the truth about a Lib... the empty shell where their Brain was supposed to be, flies everywhere!Getting that Goo off is not easy!

God Bless America!

The daughter of Rep John Stephens Wood (chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee 1949-1953) lives down the street from me.
Interesting factoid: Rep. Wood appears (uncredited) in the John Wayne film "McLintock!".

O/T: Beretta To Bolt Maryland If Dem Governor’s Anti-Gun Bill Passes…

Well, if it means anything at all, I care for a man 86 yrs of age. A successful lawyer that built (government built) an established large law firm that employees 600 lawyers. He went to Harvard, and he told me directly the place was loaded with marxist professors. He is going to dig up some past paperwork for me to gander at!!!!If he lets me share, I will.

Oops, I miss typed. He is 81 years of age, not 86.

of course he was correct. can you do like a sunday night music thing too? in addtion to rule5? out of tunes here.

Just look what is going on today with Hollywood supporting this Administration and Obama's ties with with Franklin Davis CPUSA. I believe Joe McCarthy was a patriot.

I like Ted Cruz. I like his voting record too. He is a true conservative. You know he is good when the left and the moderate conservatives are threatened by him.