Posted on 09/11/2007 8:25:17 AM PDT by pabianice
IN THE SPRING of 1954, the US Senate convened hearings at the instigation of Senator Joseph McCarthy to press his anticommunist investigations into the Department of the Army. The hearings were broadcast live on television, and the American public was able to witness firsthand the tactics McCarthy used to intimidate his foes. At a critical moment in the hearings, a key governmental witness, Army lawyer Joseph Welch, rose to defend one of the junior Army lawyers whose career, Welch alleged, McCarthy had destroyed. Welch turned to McCarthy and memorably intoned: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"It was remarkable political theater and historians credit it with breaking the back of McCarthy's attack on the Army, which in turn broke the back of his anticommunist efforts. In short order, McCarthy's allies abandoned him, he was discredited, and he left the Senate in disgrace.
We may be about to witness a McCarthy-Army-Welch moment in the debate over Iraq. This time, the role of McCarthy is played by MoveOn.org, a liberal political group that launched its own attack on a respected US Army figure. In yesterday's New York Times, the day that General David Petraeus would give his long-awaited, congressionally mandated report on his military activities in Iraq, MoveOn.org ran a full-page advertisement that accused Petraeus of activities befitting a traitor. The advertisement alleges, without evidence, that Petraeus is not going to give his honest, professional assessment of the situation in Iraq but instead will be "cooking the books" to curry favor with the Bush White House. The heart of the advertisement is a juvenile pun on Petraeus's name: General Betray Us?
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Make that “defeat from the jaws of victory.”
There, fixed it.
Maybe you had it right to start. They want defeat, at least for the US military in Iraq. So maybe their stumbles will snatch victory from the jaws of their desired result defeat.
But I guess by 2008, you mean in politics not on the battlefield.
"Army lawyer Joseph Welch, rose to defend one of the junior Army lawyers whose career, Welch alleged, McCarthy had destroyed."
Said junior lawyer Fred Fisher was a member of a Communist front group, the National Lawyers Guild. McCarthy was badgered by Welch in the hearings to give up the name of anyone on his purported lists. After repeated badgering by Welch, McCarthy suggested Welch look closer to home, where Fisher was a member of Welch's firm. Quoting McCarthy at that moment:
"But in view of Mr. Welch's request that the information be given once we know of anyone who might be performing any work for the Communist Party, I think we should tell him that he has in his law firm a young man named Fisher whom he recommended, incidentally, to do the work on this Committee, who has been, for a number of years, a member of an organization which is named, oh, years and years ago, as the legal bulwark of the Communist Party, an organization which always springs to the defense of anyone who dares to expose Communists."
"Knowing that, Mr. Welch, I just felt that I had a duty to respond to your urgent request that "before sundown," when we know of anyone serving the Communist cause we let the agency know. Now, we're now letting you know that your man did belong to this organization for either three or four years, belonged to it long after he was out of law school. And I have hesitated bringing that up, but I have been rather bored with your phony requests to Mr. Cohn here, that he, personally, get every Communist out of Government before sundown. Whether you knew that he was a member of that Communist organization or not, I don't know. I assume you did not, Mr. Welch, because I get the impression that while you are quite an actor, you play for a laugh, I don't think you have any conception of the danger of the Communist Party. I don't think you, yourself, would ever knowingly aid the Communist cause. I think you're unknowingly aiding it when you try to burlesque this hearing in which we're attempting to bring out the facts."
"Jim, will you get the citation, one of the citations showing that this was the legal arm of the Communist Party, and the length of time that he belonged, and the fact that he was recommended by Mr. Welch. I think that should be in the record"
Regarding the National Lawyers Guild From Wikipedia:
"Sidney Hook described the individuals who founded the NLG as being as “not being capable of taking any stand that conflicts with the CPUSA”. Hook illustrated this point with the NLG’s repeated refusal to defend the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party members prosecuted under the Smith Act in 1941 but being one of the first legal defense teams involved in the defense of CPUSA membership prosecuted under the Smith Act in 1947.[6] Central to these critics' arguments is the claim that the organization is a supporter of communism, or, more recently, terrorism.[7][8] These claims have been repeatedly denied by the organization's leadership as “red-baiting”.
"For example, a controversy arose around the case of NLG member attorney Lynne Stewart, who was charged with transmitting "terrorist communications" from prison for Omar Abdel-Rahman, her former client and mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. Stewart was ultimately convicted of the charges and sentenced to 28 months in federal prison.[9] The NLG supported Stewart, condemning the charges and the conviction.[10] NLG Attorney Elaine Cassel stated that "Stewart never provided any financial support, weaponry -- or any other concrete aid -- for any act of terrorism. No act of terrorism is alleged to have resulted from her actions."[11]
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In summary, when pushed by Welch to disclose any member of the Communist Party so that he could be run out, McCarthy pointed to an apparent communist in Welch's firm who Welch had personally recommended for placement on that very government committee investigating communism!
That's pretty ripe. And, pretty true.
McCarthy was right.
What a ludicrous ad. Who in the world did MoveOn think they were going to convert with this garbage?
There is a homosexual activist who claims to have a list of 33 members of Congress who are homosexual. He claims that 30 of them are Republicans.
He doesn’t get called out by the media and denounced for his claims or attempts at possible blackmail.
O.K., so who's the treacherous slime ball here, Biden, Reid, Dodd, all of the above?
And, like you, I find it remarkable that the Boston Globe--which, after all, is a sister publication to the New York Times--would have run this generally right-on-target piece.
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