Hate to rain on your liberal take on McCarthy, but what exactly defines him as paranoid?
Here's a google link to the Venona project. Note that NSA and the CIA both have public summaries about it, at the top of the google hits. To understand McCarthy, one must understand Venona. We're in a brave new world now. McCarthy bashing is on borrowed time. FRegards....
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=venona&num=10&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&as_rights=&safe=images
What defined his as paranoid? Simply put he provided a public display of the mental illness. Let us not be so supportive of the noble cause that we champion a sick man. Its not a "liberal" view, he was a drunk. As someone who has dealt with alcoholic family members I know what their suspicious minds are capable of, its sad and dangerous. Moreover as a cheap political stunt it showed a disturbing lack of faith in the correctness of the American system. Our founding fathers built a mighty body politic, one that was more than capable of shaking off anyone selling communism. Just as we overcome an illness when we are strong so to did American overcome any red fifth columists. That my friends is what it comes down to, how much faith do you have in America, I for one believe our system is true and its goodness so clear that it will prevail against any rival, Mr.McCarthy lacked such a faith.