INSIGHTS
‘Comey Day’ recalls the 1950s
and Senator Joe McCarthy
I
spent a whole day looking forward to the live
coverage of fired FBI Director James Com-
ey’s congressional testimony which began
at midnight. Historic or not, ten minutes in I
was snoring, knowing the story and
replays would be around for many
days to come.
Comey lived up to his billing,
propelling the Russian interference
investigation forward and activating
a chorus of shrieks from the usual
Trump surrogates, who then began
to urge the president to obstruct the
investigation by firing Special Coun-
sel Bob Mueller.
It made me think not so much
of the Watergate hearings which I
watched wall-to-wall back in the day,
as the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings
that historians view as the begin-
ning of the end for Wisconsin’s most
famous demagogue.
I have hazy memories of being dragged to
the neighbors to watch the spectacle, since at
the time we were hardly the only ones in town
without a TV. When I got older, I learned that
“Tailgunner Joe” had effectively opened himself
to national humiliation by his effort to tinker
with the U.S. Army and other institutions as yet
another publicity ploy.
McCarthy built his career by exploiting the
American media’s faults, particularly the newest
medium, television. Before the country was as
connected as it is now, he put out ever changing
numbers and lists of communists allegedly op-
erating in the U.S. State Department and other
parts of the federal government. Witnesses
McCarthy dragged before congressional commit-
tees were bullied and humiliated. Major parts of
his home state and national media exposed the
lies and distortions and rather late in the day,
CBS reporter Ed Murrow—uniquely for network
TV—took up the cudgels against Joe. Back home
in Wisconsin though, the majority of his constit-
uents seemed just fine with their man in Wash-
ington.
Then as now Washington people on all levels
were intimidated by the evident political pop-
ularity of this red-bashing lawmaker and were
6
slow to call his bluff, encouraging him to charge
recklessly forward.
A covert effort to help a McCarthy staffer avoid
being drafted into the Army failed. The office lat-
er continued its efforts to get special
privileges for Private David Schine by
pressuring Army brass by accusing
them of allowing communist infil-
tration in that military branch. The
legal advisor who came up with this
strategy was Roy Cohn, who later
tutored young Donald Trump on how
to approach the world— lessons he
clearly never forgot.
In the widely televised hearing that
followed, the two-edged sword of TV
cut McCarthy badly. James Reston of
the New York Times observed: “One
cannot remain indifferent to Joe
It made me think
not so much of the
Watergate hearings
which I watched
wall-to-wall back
in the day, as the
1954 Army-McCarthy
hearings that
historians view as
the beginning of the
end for Wisconsin’s
most famous
demagogue.
Army-McCarthy Hearings, Washington, D.C., 1954.
Senator McCarthy and his legal staffer Roy Cohn
confer (lower right).
Associated Press photo
McCarthy in one’s living room. He is an abra-
sive man. And he is recklessly transparent. The
country did not know him before, despite all the
headlines. Now it has seen him.”
Then TV critic Jack Gould offered a media
assessment some years later: “That coverage
did him in. People started to laugh at him. He
became a joke, then a bore. He got tiresome.
You can blame TV for a lot of things, but that is
to its credit.”
If some of this sounds familiar, it should,
though President Trump has for reasons known
only to himself at this point, decided make
friends with Russia and Vladimir Putin, rather
than scoring political points by attacking them.
As Trump may eventually learn, the populist,
anti-institutional agenda he’s following may be
very popular for a time. Until it isn’t.
Joe McCarthy, once considered on track to
seek the presidency, went on to be censured by
the U.S. Senate and to an early, alcohol-fueled
death.
(Send feedback to editor@pacificislandtimes.
com)