Ten Worst Americans In History

Captains Quarters ^ | 12-29-2005 | Ed Morrisey

[rcocean]

At first, this attorney-cum-supercop only wanted to make America safer, but in short order, this bureaucrat re-enacted every Machiavellian nightmare while transforming a backwater investigative office into the free world’s most effective police force. He became the closest thing America has ever known to an emperor and managed to die before his empire came crashing down around him. The tragedy of his life can be seen in his contradictions: a gay man who persecuted homosexuals; his undeniable love of country getting consumed by his thirst for power; his desire to enforce the law giving way to his paranoid domestic-espionage activities designed to derail political opponents, such as Martin Luther King and others he deemed dangerous.

For the unfettered power he garnered through his Orwellian efforts and his reflexive use of blackmail to maintain that power -- a power which cowed presidents and Congresses alike for decades -- Hoover is, I believe, the obvious choice of worst American in national history.

[SunkenCiv]

Ping?

[noDixieCan]

I second that.

[Berosus]

For most of the 1980s and 90s, I would have put Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun on the list, because he is responsible for Roe vs. Wade, and the subsequent abortion of more than 40 million Americans. Then I read about the Roe Effect ( http://opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005277 ), the theory which says that America is becoming more conservative because the lion's share of those aborted would have become Democrats, had they lived. Now I'm not so sure.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

(Actually this is for the few)

From http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/006027.php

posted above explaining the list of ten worst,

I went looking for the people who sinned against America itself, or the ideal of America.

Look at what is going on today with "wire tapping."

Does anyone really believe that the Rat agitators are shocked and dismayed by "wire tapping?"

Does anyone really believe that the Rat agitators really believe that their administrations never did it?

How can anyone really believe that the Nixon administration was the first to bug opponents, cover up, have an "enemies lsit," and attempt to use government agencies in their efforts?

LBJ bugged Goldwater. LBJ did not cover up. He did NOT have to. The MSM agitators did it for him, they ignored it.

Was LBJ the first? NO!

Does anyone really believe that Rat agitators are exposing the sins against the ideal of America?

If so, I've got a bridge for sale near Sacramento. It's needed right now but you can have it next Spring, cheap.

How do you keep from voting Rat if you really, really believe them?

[SunkenCiv]

Between Roe v. Wade's "Roe effect" and the immigration (legal and illegal) from south of the border, the US will be predominantly Roman Catholic in about 40 years.

Of course, by that time, for all we know, the Pope might be an married Marxist atheist lesbian abortion doctor.

[that was the irony meter calibration for 2005]

[SunkenCiv]

Talk about someone who never answers a post...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?id=72791

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: All never responds

Perhaps if I rephrased what I attempted to say above I'll get him/her to answer.

So for the few within All,

Who were the leading agitators against McCarthy? It's alleged that CP/USA first started using the pejorative word, McCarthyism. Were we 1950s simpleminded, dumb-ass hillbilly Americans fooled by agitators? No.

Who were the leading agitators against Nixon, throughout most of his career beginning with his exposure of real Communists and communist sympathizers? There really was a Cold War, folks.

Why is it that Nixon and now Bush are singled out? Deja vu for me. "Illegal, immoral" war; liar; dirty tricks; corruption; crook; misuse of federal agencies. . . . Impeach! Impeach! cry the agitators. Soon some may want to put President Bush on the list of ten worst.

[SunkenCiv]

McCarthy wasn't one of the Ten Worst, but he isn't any hero of mine. He was after his own unfettered power, and it was the Army-McCarthy hearings that kicked over his house of cards on TV.

As far as McCarthyism -- the CP/USA had seen the same phenomenon in action, historically, in the much more grandiose and destructive show trials conducted by their hero, Joseph Stalin.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: "As far as McCarthyism -- the CP/USA had seen the same phenomenon in action, historically, in the much more grandiose and destructive show trials conducted by their hero, Joseph Stalin."

I won't argue about the possibility of his pursuit of "his own unfettered power" but are you suggesting that CP/USA recognized Stalinist tactics in what McCarthy was doing? That's one reason why they spoke out?

I watched some of the Army-McCarthy hearings live. I honestly do not recall much from that but I do remember the TV evening news highlights and I have seen film of those and other hearings. I believe that on the whole McCarthy did not intimidate very many. Mostly the witnesses showed a lot on contempt for the Senator and the committee.

People were jailed as I recall but only after being charged, tried by the justice system, and convicted of perjury.

As I recall Joe Stalin was still Uncle Joe to CP/USA card-carrying members and far too many other Americans. Wholesale disillusionment with Uncle Joe did not occur until after Krushchev's Duma speech in 1956 I believe. I don't think any leftist fretted about Uncle Joe's abuse of power. They simply hated McCarthy.

[dervish]

I confess my ignorance. Is it a done deal that Hoover was gay?

[SunkenCiv]

There were lots of problems for McCarthy. You may recall the Army's counsel questioning a woman (a black woman) regarding someone she supposedly knew, and when asked whether he was black or white (McCarthy's "suspected communist" was white), she replied that he was black. "Are you pretty sure?" Everyone laughed, and McCarthy looked (once again) like a buffoon. McCarthy wasn't the only one looking for commies at that time, he was just the one getting the headlines, and in the long run, giving the whole practice a bad name.

"are you suggesting that CP/USA recognized Stalinist tactics in what McCarthy was doing? That's one reason why they spoke out?"

No, they spoke out because they knew A) those tactics are sometimes quite effective, although generally they require a single party dictatorship and police state to succeed over the long term, and B) that no one would call them on their hypocrisy. Well, not until now, that is. ;')

[SunkenCiv]

I rather doubt it. It's just part of the character assassination carried out against Hoover. There's an old joke about a photo of Hoover in a sun dress or some ****, but I very much doubt that it's a real photo, if any such thing can even be found.

In any case, I'd think that the gays would want to distance themselves from Hoover, unless this is some kind of twisted ploy to make Hoover look like someone forced by intolerant straight society to oppress everyone. ;')

[FairOpinion]

Jimmy Carter should be close to the top of the list.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: Krushchev make that Khrushchev

In fact, as I recall Horowitz's "Radical Son" cited what some have called "Khrushchev's demythologizing of Stalin" as triggering large numbers of CP/USA members leaving the party -- and the disillusionment caused young Communists to reject the mainline communism and form their own more radical and violent, 1960s New Left. IMO, the New Left members are still with us in the form of the leadership and stalwarts of the Rat Party, formerly, the traditional patriotic Democrat Party.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: McCarthy and "those tactics"

I don't think that we are that far apart vis-a-vis McCarthy.

I simply remember the era of the Rosenbergs and the Hiss crowd's vehement denials -- and all their counter attacks, attacks, attacks -- including of course Edward R. Murrow signaling (in 1953), "Go get him! We'll destroy him. Fear not."

What some see as "those tactics" I saw and see as a man with little charisma, he was not telegenic and not eloquent -- though possibly drunk at times he still stood up to the abuse that is always the price one pays for going against the "intellectual" elite of a society and other enemies of the U.S. of A.'s sovereignty and strength.

We agree that "those tactics . . .require a single party dictatorship and police state to succeed." The U.S. Senate was none of that.

[SunkenCiv]

Hiss denied until his death (he is dead, I hope) that Nixon had made a case against him, but the fall of the Soviet Union led to the release of the records from the side he served showing that he was just a traitor to the US and a liar. He should have gone to the gallows, as far as I'm concerned.

Years ago I read the late Fawn Brodie's bio of Nixon (which is excellent, BTW) and in it she refers to a young colleague who had started to research a work (perhaps it was a book) on the Hiss case, coming at it from the angle that Hiss was probably innocent; and when he started looking at everything available even then (and that was before the USSR fell to pieces) he'd come to the conclusion that Hiss's testimony and denials were "a tissue of lies". :')

[vetvetdoug]

Please give me some documentation that Forrest formed the KKK, I must have missed something in reading history. I would also like to know who disbanded the KKK. Also I would like to know the primary source where it states that the KKK killed thousands of blacks.

J.Edgar Hoover investigated MLK because MLK had attended a school in Tennessee with Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party MLK's ties to the Communist Party were tight but the lamestream press seems to have missed the facts somewhere. One can see King's ties to Stanley Levison and Hunter Pitts O'Dell, both devout members of the Communist Party, the reason for JEH's surveillance of King.

[Ditto]

... in it she refers to a young colleague who had started to research a work (perhaps it was a book) on the Hiss case, coming at it from the angle that Hiss was probably innocent; and when he started looking at everything available even then (and that was before the USSR fell to pieces) he'd come to the conclusion that Hiss's testimony and denials were "a tissue of lies". :')

You may be thinking of this.

Tanenhaus (a typical academic liberal) started this biography under the impression that Chambers was a crazed cold warrior and that Alger Hiss was innocent. Several years of research including looks into the Soviet archives proved to him that Hiss was indeed an agent of Joseph Stalin and that Chambers was a true hero and a very courageous man.

It's a great read that I highly recommend. BTW. Chambers couldn't stand McCarthy and didn't think too highly of Nixon either.

[rcocean]

There is no hard evidence that Hoover was Gay. The man never married and kept his private life, very private. SO who knows? Maybe Ralph Nader is gay and wears dresses. Bascially, all the jokes about Hoover wearing a dress are liberal smears.

Like McCarthy, Nixon, and Hoover, the minute these guys started after the commies post-WW II, the liberal/commie smear machine went into operation.

They're still smearing these guys because the left-wing never gives up and never forgets.

You'll notice that Hollywood is still making movies (50 years later) attacking McCarthy, and lefties like Bill Maher make jokes about Hoover/Nixon, even though both of them left office 30 years ago.

[cbkaty]

Sweet Howey Dean?