I never thought it possible that one day it would come to pass that each time I watched and listened to a presidential primary candidate that I would feel I needed to take a hot shower to get the stink off me.

I never thought the day would dawn when looking at Catholic bishops and other so-called Christian clergy literally made my skin crawl and my stomach flip.

I never thought it remotely possible that I could hold so many Congressmen, governors, and state legislators in complete contempt, or that, they could make me seriously consider flight to another country.

At this time in our history when Republican politicians, clergy, and right wing pundits feel they have license to say the most outrageous lies and distortions without being held to normal standards of truth, restraint, and certainly common decency, I cannot help but think about another time -- another black night in our history -- known as the McCarthy Era.

And I would suggest to everyone that America would do well to remember that terrible time in history but just as well to also remember one of the Era's few remarkable heroes, Joseph Welch.

Welch was a partner in the prestigious law firm of Hale and Dorr and served as head counsel for the United States Army while the Army was under investigation by Joseph McCarthy's Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for Communist Activities. McCarthy's public investigation of the Army is now famously remembered as the Army-McCarthy Hearings. On June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy Hearings, McCarthy publicly accused Fred Fisher, a junior attorney in Welch's law firm, of associating with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) when he was in law school. This was an explosive accusation in the red-baiting heyday of McCarthyism; this single accusation, which seems almost benign today, had the power to totally and completely destroy the young attorney's future --and Joseph Welch knew it.

McCarthy, as drunk with power as he often was with alcohol, was a contemptible man of unbridled hubris and reckless disregard for the lives of others. It's easy to look at him today and wonder whether there aren't more than a few people modeling their public careers after him. Through cunning and brains, but no integrity, McCarthy became one of the most powerful men in America in the early 1950's and at the time of the Army-McCarthy Hearings he was completely out of control. It was a time, very much like now, when fear mongering and hateful speech were the norm and the nation appeared to be in a shark feeding frenzy attacking itself from within. Few dared to show their contempt for McCarthy as openly as Welch and what Welch was about to say to McCarthy now stands in history as a moment of great moral courage.

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