Ted Cruz WANTS to be the new Joe McCarthy

[cali]

Joe McCarthy is idolized by much of the wingnut teabagger community. Cruz surely knows this. His claim about the 12 Harvard Law "Commie" Professors isn't made out of ignorance. He did it deliberately.

Democrats and the major news media — but I repeat myself – have decided that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s opposition to the Chuck Hagel nomination makes him the “New McCarthy.”

And they say that like it’s a bad thing.

Sen. Joseph McCarthy has been unjustly and dishonestly maligned for so long that even many conservative Republicans nowadays use “McCarthyism” as a slur, without any real understanding of who the man was, or what he was trying to accomplish.

<snip>

http://theothermccain.com/2013/02/24/never-forget-joe-mccarthy-was-right/

If it achieves nothing else, the Senate Republicans’ filibuster of Chuck Hagel inaugurated the age of Ted Cruz. The day after the vote, the New York Times, Politico, and the Washington Post ran versions of the same Cruz profile. By accusing Chuck Hagel of lying on his disclosure forms and building consensus for a one-week delay—just a few more documents, please—Cruz had made enemies out of everyone on the conservative blacklist. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Cruz had acted “out of bounds.” Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, viewed by the right as an accidental senator who rigged the Republican primary to make sure she’d face Todd Akin, compared Cruz to Joe McCarthy.

That was exactly what Cruz wanted. All of it. Portraying his opponents as traitors-in-training has been Cruz’s shtick since he started running for Senate three years ago. On Friday, Jane Mayer dug into her 2010 notebooks and found Cruz telling an Americans for Prosperity crowd that Harvard Law School, in the early 1990s, employed 12 professors “who would say they were Marxists who believed in the Communists overthrowing the United States government.” Cruz’s old professors, reached by Mayer, had no earthly idea what he was talking about. The Huffington Post borg repackaged this story with the headline “TED MCCARTHY,” and the resultant comment thread outpaced the one beneath “LOOK: What Women Really Look Like Naked.”

<snip>

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/02/ted_cruz_s_rising_star_the_freshman_senator_from_texas_is_getting_rewarded.html

[hobbit709]

1. JuanitaJean's take on this

http://juanitajean.com/2013/02/24/when-you-find-yourself-in-a-hole-keep-digging-because-ted-cruz-is-somewhere-beneath-you/

And she has plenty of other comments about Cruz.

[Xipe Totec]

2. This is why we can't have nice things

Defending McCarthy? Really?

Sadly, the right has already dismantled the public education system to the point where this kind of revisionist codswallop can be published and not laughed off the internet immediately.

How 1984 can they get?

[catbyte]

3. Makes sense. The Republican party has no decency, so Joe McCarthy is the perfect role model.

[NoPasaran]

4. He should skip ahead a few chapters and find out how that story ends

[KharmaTrain]

5. Cruz Is Slicker Than Tail-Gunner Joe...

The difference between the 50s and today is the rushpublican entertainment complex. Cruz is the latest "big thing"...the next "great white hope"...and he's gonna take it to the bank. McCarthy flamed out and drank himself out of the Senate...while Cruz operates in an era where the bubble will reward him with money and fame.

The one thread with goons like Cruz, McCarthy and other zealots is they are reckless...and that opens up some character flaw that is their ultimate downfall. I suspect while Cruz act is playing well with the unhinged, we're already seeing he's pissing off his fellow rushpublicans and its just a matter of time until he's "put in his place". The fun will be when he bullies back...

[H2O Man]

12. Respectfully disagree.

At this point in time, to borrow one of my father's favorite LBJ quotes, Cruz ain't a pimple on McCarthy's ass.

It's important to understand how McCarthy -- before his spectatular decline -- had worked the media, to a point that journalists either: (a) supported him; or (b) were intimidated into silence. He also put together a talented, though problematic, team.

Cruz has the advantages of the current state of technology, in terms of 24/7 news, Fox, and the internet. But McCarthy made more effective use of the media in his day, and was thus, I believe, a far more talented, "slick" threat.

Cruz is an Elvis impersonator, at best.

[Javaman]

14. +1

cruz's failure is his wanna-be transparency.

[H2O Man]

18. Right.

It's one thing when a 13-year old boy attempts to model his behavior on a sports hero, or a musician. But when a grown man does, it's rather pathetic. Add Cruz's choice, and it is even worse.

[KharmaTrain]

15. And Elvis Hasn't Left The Building...

H20 Man...you bring to light the McCarthy team...and one can't note that era without the impact of Roy Cohn and Robert Kennedy in those days. Add to that the "Red Scare" of the USSR exploding its first nuclear and then thermonuclear devices...a backdrop not unlike 9/11 in the hysteria it would generate and McCarthy exploited. McCarthy was the first demagogue of the TV era...but was limited in exposure to nightly newscasts and newsreels.

Cruz has the luxury of a 24/7 media machine where his bullying is played and replayed...and his fame in the right wing netherworld has risen with each bullying act. He may be a pimple right now, but when not treated a pimple can turn into a massive infection or boil. My hopes are he follows tail-gunner Joe's model and flames out in spectacular fashion...

Cheers...

[H2O Man]

17. He also

played the press. Many of the most influential "print journalists" of the day were frequent guests of McCarthy. He had regular "get-togethers" with them (in his office, at public watering holes, and in private homes). His "off-the-recrd" comments were often the well-planned planting of seeds.

While his associate (and then wife) was a significant associate, you hit the nail on the head with Cohn and RFK. Roy Cohn was one of the seeds of McCarthy's self-destruction. And, although RFK is the politician I most admire, the McCarthy days are a blot on his record of public service. Indeed, even as Attorney General, RFK failed to stand up to another of our nation's sickest shitheads, J Edgar Hoover, when he attacked Dr. King as a "communist puppet."

As always, a pleasure talking with you!

[KharmaTrain]

19. The Role Of The Media...

You bring up Hoover and I really can't think of anyone in the history of this republic that comes close to the power, intimidation and total disregard for due process than this man. He provided the fear factor that McCarthy and others exploited.

Also, it's important to remember how much of a "lap dog" the beltway media was in those days. We'll hear Tweety wax nostalgia about how the politicians and the scribes drank together...but that also created the ability for a McCarthy and others to manipulate coverage. Dare I say that FDR was the real master in this area. I once heard Fred Friendly talk about those days and how he felt that having Murrow in New York insulated him from being sucked into the beltway myopia and how he could question and attack McCarthy without fear of losing access or credentials.

Thank you for all you contribute to DU and the world...

[The Wizard]

6. If Republicans want

to clear McCarthy's name, so be it. McCarthy was/is the model for all things wrong with American politics. Some argue that his red scare tactics were a major contributor to our military nightmare in Vietnam. American politicians were cowed by the anti commie effect McCarthy instilled in the American political psyche, and as a result feared being labeled soft of communism. After all, Harry Truman was blamed for losing China to the communists, as if China was an American possession. American exceptionalism ring a bell?
The only thing different now is we're fearful of the shadow of that other ism that begins with terror.
Ted Cruz is a hero to America's biggest whiners. He's also a certified asshole and talking smegma.

[GoCubsGo]

7. Fine with me.

If Cruz wants to go down in history as being another ugly stain on this country, he can have at it. McCarthy's craziness killed his political career, and this lunatic is going down that same road. One can only hope that it's a really short road, and that he self-immolates before he causes too much damage.

[spanone]

8. good, he can end up another asshole in the history books

[UTUSN]

9. Ted "Carnival" CRUZ

[marble falls]

10. And I want him treated like "Tail-gunner Joe" got treated.

[H2O Man]

11. Definitely.

Recommended.

[ProSense]

16. Ted Cruz's 'curious' defense

Ted Cruz's 'curious' defense

By Steve Benen

We talked Friday about Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) affinity for McCarthyism, including allegations he made a far-right event in 2010 when he argued that Harvard Law School harbored 12 secret communists -- each of whom supported "overthrowing the United States government" -- on its faculty during his time as a student there.

As the story gained attention, the Republican senator's office felt compelled to respond. So, Cruz aides contacted a website created by Glenn Beck -- I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried -- to explain that Cruz was correct and communists really did enjoy a role on the Harvard Law School faculty.

His spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told The Blaze website that the "substantive point" in Cruz's charge, made in a speech in 2010, was "was absolutely correct."

She went on to explain that "the Harvard Law School faculty included numerous self-described proponents of 'critical legal studies' -- a school of thought explicitly derived from Marxism -- and they far outnumbered Republicans."

<...>

In an amusing twist, the senator's office also said it was "curious" that Jane Mayer's New Yorker piece noted remarks Cruz delivered way back in 2010.

Why is that amusing? Because Cruz, as part of his smear campaign against Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel, has said Hagel's previous speeches are of critical importance -- includes remarks delivered before 2010.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/25/17087582-ted-cruzs-curious-defense

[MindPilot]

20. Hey Ted, the Fifties called....

they would to have their baseless accusations returned.

[pampango]

21. McCarthy (1950): "The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of

205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy

Cruz (2010): “There were fewer declared Republicans in the faculty (of Harvard Law School) when we were there than Communists! There was one Republican. But there were twelve who would say they were Marxists who believed in the Communists overthrowing the United States government.”