The New McCarthy: Bill O’Reilly

I was reading an old transcript of a piece about Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist witchunt hearings and I was surprised to find that some of his comments sounded awfully familiar. I did a little googling, and I think I figured out why:

MCCARTHY: A few days ago I read that President Eisenhower expressed the hope that by election time in 1954 the subject of Communism would be a dead and forgotten issue. The raw, harsh unpleasant fact is that Communism is an issue and will be an issue in 1954.

TONY SNOW (sitting in for O’Reilly): This morning, the president pounced on a quote in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine where Senator Kerry called terrorists a nuisance. (October 10, 2004)

MCCARTHY: You know the [American] Civil Liberties Union has been listed as “a front for, and doing the work of,” the Communist Party?

OREILLY: [T]here is no question the ACLU and the judges who side with them are terror allies. (July 25, 2005)

MCCARTHY: Now, you wrote a book in 1932. I’m going to ask you again: at the time you wrote this book, did you feel that professors should be given the right to teach sophomores that marriage — and I quote — “should be cast out of our civilization as antiquated and stupid religious phenomena?” Was that your feeling at that time?

O’REILLY: You can understand how people like me and maybe a lot of people watching think you are a loony lefty when your book, Fanatics & Fools […] is endorsed by the following: Molly Ivins; Bill Maher, Bill Moyers; and Larry David. Why don’t you get Che Guevara on that, oh, he’s dead. How about Fidel Castro? Come on, they are the far left fringe. That’s who you’re hanging with … (April 20, 2004)

MCCARTHY: If a stupid, arrogant or witless man in a position of power appears before our Committee and is found aiding the Communist Party, he will be exposed. The fact that he might be a General places him in no special class as far as I am concerned.

OREILLY: The only thing we can do is hold people who raise and give money to the ACLU accountable. In the weeks to come, The Factor will tell you who these people and organizations are, so you can decide whether or not you want to do business with them. (August 5, 2005)

MCCARTHY: When the shouting and the tumult dies, the American people and the President will realize that this unprecedented mud slinging against the Committee by the extreme left wing elements of press and radio was caused solely because another Fifth Amendment Communist was finally dug out of the dark recesses and exposed to the public view.

O’REILLY: Enter Hillary Clinton, who wants to sit in the White House. In her Newsweek column this week, liberal Anna Quindlen gushes over Mrs. Clinton, describing her as a moderate. … That’s what I mean about the left-wing media. To them, social issues like unfettered abortion, pro-gay instruction in public schools … [are] tak[en] for granted. (May 10, 2005)

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October 12, 2005