John McCain’s Decency

Michele Bachmann appears to be sticking to her guns about Muslims infiltrating key government offices and positions. Well, I look forward to the terrible scene that comes at the end of this fight. I am old enough to remember the communist purges and blacklists of Senator Joseph McCarthy; and I remember the man* who shook a finger in his face and asked: “Have you no decency, sir?”
by Charlie Leck

John McCain is a very decent sort of man. I have a number of Republicans I think highly of and he is one. Senator McCain could try to run a dirty and mean campaign, but he can’t do it. He is a decent man who prefers honesty to scandalous lies and down-right dirty meanness. It’s probably why he wasn’t able to get elected to the highest office in the land even though he had the credentials and toughness to serve in that office.

Now don’t get me wrong. I voted against him. And, given the same circumstances I’d vote against him again. Yet, I’ve never failed to salute him as a genuine American hero, a hard working U.S. Senator and an honest and decent man.

What higher tribute can anyone pay to one than this: “He (she) was an honest and decent man (woman)?

When Michele Bachmann snapped in the last few days and began seeing Muslim Brotherhood representatives seeping into our federal government – and in nearly every quarter of it – John McCain faced her down and said: “No! You go too far! Don’t go there! Don’t harm innocent and good people!”

I got the clear impression that John McCain, as he spoke (it was in his eyes), was remembering the damage that Senator Joseph McCarthy did to so many people. If you’re of a generation that doesn’t understand about Joe McCarthy, I have a recommendation for you. Run! Don’t walk! Go to somewhere where you can rent or buy the Woody Allen movie called The Front. Put your feet up on your hassock and watch it and don’t let anything disturb you.

Senator Joseph McCarthy needlessly and recklessly destroyed the productivity and creativity of a great many American citizens. He destroyed them! Innocent people, with their lives in wreckage and with nowhere to turn, gave up their lives (killed themselves) because Joe McCarthy had poisoned the American public against them. Senator McCarthy was – with no exaggeration – a fool and an evil man.

Senator John McCain heard the chorus singing behind U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann and it worried him. He said it quite simply: “Stop!”

He knew it was a trail down which we must not go.

I salute you Senator McCain. I commend you and thank you.

And I? I want nothing more to do with the dirt and scum and lies that drive Representative Bachmann so recklessly within American politics.

Thank you, Senator McCain! Thank you.

*Joseph N. Welch, distinguished Boston lawyer, who was born in Primghar, Iowa, in 1890.

In 1994, before a nationwide television audience, Welch defended one of the young lawyers of his firm, who had been accused by Senator Joseph McCarthy of communist leanings because of his law school association with the National Lawyers Guild. On 9 June, the 30^th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings Welch stood his ground and dressed-down McCarthy.

“Until this moment, Senator, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is a young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came into my firm and is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us. Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do any injury to that lad. It is true he is still with Hale and Dorr. It is true that he will continue to be with Hale and Dorr. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty I would do so. I like to think I am a gentle man but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.

McCarthy, unaware of the deep historical power of the moment, renewed a rambling attack on the Guild and the young man. Welch interrupted him and spoke again.

“Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild. Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You’ve done enough. Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?”

McCarthy, totally involved in himself, at the center of the stage, tried to ask Welch another question. Welch, again, cut him off.

“Mr. McCarthy, I will not discuss this further with you. You have sat within six feet of me and could have asked me about Fred Fisher. You have seen fit to bring it out. And if there is a God in Heaven it will do neither you nor your cause any good. I will not discuss it further...”

Watch this dramatic and historic exchange on the American Rhetoric web site.

[NOTE 2]
Rumor abounds, and perhaps they are set in motion as a result of internal polling in the Bachmann camp, that shows she is not doing well against her new opponent, Jim Graves; and that is why she is trying to awaken her base and get them more stirred up about this election.

We wait with anticipation some of the official non-partisan polling that will soon be made available.


[NOTE 3]
Last night on the Glenn Beck Show, Michele Bachmann stood her ground and renewed her charges against Huma Abedin (Secretary of State Clinton's aide de camp). Then she opened up on Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison. If you wish, read a report of Bachmann's appearance on Beck's radio program.

  

_________________________

Why not become a follower?
If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.