I'm going to follow up on my own post with some commentary.  I generally
like to separate the commentary from the quote when I'm doing a long quote
of a source so that people can make their own judgements without having
to skip over mine.

Rich Puchalsky (richp@dgsys.com) wrote:
[...]

> According to _Nightmare in Red_ (Richard M. Fried, Oxford
> University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-19-504360-X, pg. 138)

> "For thirty-six days, from April until June, the Army-McCarthy hearings
> offered the nation an unparalleled spectacle. In their grip on the media,
> in their circus atmosphere, and in the emotions they churned up, they
> resembled the 1925 Scopes 'monkey' trial.  Neither side bathed itself
> in glory.  Evidence of the Army's slavish appeasement of McCarthy undercut
> its charges of cruel pressures.  The McCarthy camp's efforts on Schine's
> behalf, counterpointed by threats and investigations, were a squalid
> performance.  The hearings proved little, but they helped to destroy McCarthy."

Scopes, Army-McCarthy, now ... O.J.?  Is it a good sign that our famous
trials aren't political at the moment, or not?

> Joseph Welch was the Army's attorney during the hearings.  As a last 
> preliminary, I'll quote an article about the incident on page 1 of the New 
> York Times, June 10, 1954: "Welch Assails M'Carthy's 'Cruelty' And 
> 'Recklessness' In Attack On Aide; Senator, On Stand, Tells Of Red Hunt".  
> A large picture of Welch nearly weeping into his handkerchief is under the 
> headline.  Here are the first few paragraphs of this article (by W.H. Lawrence):

I thought Welch pulled this off really well.  He honestly showed emotion in
a way that is consistently derided by the Right as being only for "sissies".  
McCarthy tried to make fun of him for it, too.  Guess who cried last?

>      "The Army-McCarthy hearngs reached a dramatic high point today in an
> angry, emotion-packed exchange between Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and
> Joseph N. Welch, special counsel for the Army.
>      Irritated by Mr. Welch's persistent cross-examination of Roy M.
> Cohn, Senator McCarthy suddenly injected into the hearings a charge that
> one of Mr. Welch's Boston law firm associates, Frederick G. Fisher Jr.,
> had been a member of the National Lawyers Guild 'long after it had been
> exposed as the legal arm of the Communist Party.'

You could see that McCarthy expected this to be a stunning blow.  His
"opposition researchers" had undoubtedly been working on their "issues",
and you can imagine their glee when they turned up this way to get
Welch.

>      Mr. Welch, almost in tears from this unexpected attack, told the
> Wisconsin Republican that 'until this moment, Senator, I think I never
> really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.'  He asked Senator McCarthy
> if any 'sense of decency' remained in him.
>      'If there is a God in heaven, it [the attack on Mr. Fisher] will do
> neither you nor your cause any good,' Mr. Welch declared."

I have always thought that liberals whose ideals were based in religion
(like MLK) were particularly effective in the U.S.

> The article then notes that the audience burst into applause.

> OK, I think that the stage has been set.  My transcript of what was said
> is from page 15 of the same New York Times; I'll start after McCarthy
> has made his accusation against Fisher and claimed that Welch tried to force
> Fisher on the committee as one of the Army's counsel.  McCarthy has injected 
> this accusation into Welch's cross-examination of Roy Cohn.

>      MR. WELCH - Senator McCarthy I think until this moment--
>      SENATOR MCCARTHY - Just a minute.  Let me ask, Jim -- wil you get the
> news story to the effect that this man belongs to this Communist front
> organization.
>      MR. WELCH - I wll tell you that he belonged to it.

Presumptive confession almost always works.  Most modern pols are just too
cowardly to use it.

>      SENATOR MCCARTY - Will you get the citations -- order 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.
>      MR. WELCH - Senator, you won't need anything in the record when I
> finish telling you this.  Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really
> gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.

Note the use of repetition at the beginning and end of Welch's speech.

>      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.

Have you ever noticed that liberal appeals to the public on social justice
issues almost always work best when the subject of the appeal is upper-
class?   The public just doesn't care as much about poor people. 

> When I decided to work for this committee I asked Jim St. Clair, who sits
> on my right, to be my first assistant.  I said to Jim: "Pick somebody in 
> the firm to work under you that you would like."
>      He chose Fred Fisher and they came down on an afternoon plane.  That 
> night when we had taken a little stab at trying to see what the case was 
> about, Fred Fisher and Jim St. Clair and I went to dinner together.
>      I then said to these two young men: "Boys, I don't know anything about
> you except I've always liked you, but if there's anything funny in the life

Note the easy projection of likeability and Welch's own paternal status.

> of either one of you that would hurt anybody in this case, you speak up
> quick."
>      And Fred Fisher said: "Mr. Welch, when I was in the law school and for
> a period of months after I belonged to the Lawyer's Guild" as you have 
> suggested, Senator.

I wonder what eventually happened to Fisher.

>      He went on to say, "I am the secretary of the Young Republicans' League
> with the son of the Massachusetts Governor and I have the respect and 
> admiration of my community and I'm sure I have the respect and admiration of
> the twenty-five lawyers or so in Hale & Dorr [Mr. Welch's law firm.]"

One may only imagine just why Fisher decided to join both the Lawyer's Guild
and the Young Republicans. (I don't know, but it seems like an interesting
subject).

>      And I said, "Fred, I just don't think I'm going to ask you to work on
> the case.  If I do, one of these days that will come out and go over
> national television and it will hurt like the dickens."

Note the folksy phraseology.

>      So, Senator, I asked him to go back to Boston.  Little did I dream
> you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to that lad.  It

2nd time repetition.

> is true he is still with Hale & Dorr.  It is true that he will continue to
> be with Hale & 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'm a gentle man,

3rd time repetition.  Is it any wonder that "cruelty" and "recklessness"
were the two words highlighted by the _Times_?

> but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.

And another really good religious imtimation.  Conservative Bible thumpers
yell at their opponents and tell 'em they're going to Hell; liberals
do this kind of thing much more intelligently. 

>      SENATOR MCCARTHY - May I say that Mr. Welch talks about this being
> cruel and reckless.  He was just baiting -- he has been baiting Mr. Cohn
> here for hours, requesting that Mr. Cohn before sundown get out of any
> department of the Government anyone who was serving the Communist cause.
>      Now, I just give this man's record, and I want to say, Mr. Welch, that
> it has been labeled long before he became a member as early as 1944.

McCarthy is rather incoherent here.

>      MR. WELCH - Senator, may we not drop this?  We know he belonged to the
> Lawyer's Guild.
>      SENATOR MCCARTHY - Let me finish this.
>      MR. WELCH - And Mr. Cohn nods his head at me.  I did you, I think, no
> personal injury, Mr. Cohn.
>      MR. COHN - No, sir.

What was Cohn thinking?  Even he must have been shamed by McCarthy's tactic.
Can you beleive that any of our modern political operatives wouldn't have
answered "You bet!" to this question in this context?

>      MR. WELCH - I meant to do you no personal injury and if I did, I beg 
> your pardon.  

Welch _has already gotten_ a preemptive apology to and forgivesness from
the person that he has been attacking.  He has established himself on the
moral high ground.

> Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.  You've done
> enough.  Have you no sense of decency, sir?  At long last, have you left no
> sense of decency?

And he uses his position on that high ground for a devastating attack on
McCarthy's character.

Note: he didn't say anything about Constitutional rights or philosophical/
legal issues.  He simply destroyed the public conception of McCarthy's 
character.  Effective -- but ultimately insufficient.  Red baiting went
on long after McCarthy was gone.

But this was probably the absolute most that could be accomplished in this
situation.

>      SENATOR MCCARTHY - I know this hurts you, Mr. Welch.
>      MR. WELCH - I'll say it hurts.
>      SENATOR MCCARTHY - May I say, Mr. Chairman, as a point of personal
> privilege, that I'd like to finish this. 
>      MR. WELCH - Senator, I think it hurts you too, sir.

Slam!  I really wish I could hear a tape of Welch saying this last sentence 
-- and see if there was a gleam in his eye.  Isn't this the fundamental
situation of all the right-wing kooks on Usenet today?  Yes, their ravings
hurt.  But who do you think they're hurting most?

> I'll end the transcript at this point.  McCarthy raves on for some time
> further, till finally Welch makes his comment about "if there is a God
> in heaven it will do neither you nor your cause any good" then ends the
> session by ending his cross-examination of Cohn.

> My father told me that everyone was talking about the "Have you no sense of
> decency, sir?" comment for long afterward.  Public opinion had turned against 
> him; it was the beginning of the end for McCarthy.