On this day in 1954 the United States Senate condemned Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin by the vote of 65 to 22 for conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.

On February 9th, 1950 “Tail-Gunner” Joe made a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia where he claimed to have a list of communists working in the State Department. He said he had a list of 205. At the time in America there was a growing fear of communism and Senator McCarthy’s claims played right into those fears. They would call it “McCarthyism” Senator McCarthy would make a lot of claims, throw out a lot of numbers but the bottom line is he couldn’t produce the names. He finally met his match when he took on the U.S. Army in 1954. The Army-McCarthy hearings which were broadcast on television were his undoing. After that no one was listening to him anymore. He would die in 1957 of alcoholism at the age of 48, disgraced.  What a scumbag he was. There have been recent attempts to rehabilitate him but I am not buying it.  Here is a man who among other wild claims said that General George Marshall was guilty of treason. One of the few blemishes on President Eisenhower’s record was his failure to defend Marshall. Ike’s strategy was to not get into a pissing match with McCarthy. Anyway. McCarthy was one of the few Senator’s to ever censored-9 have been. Some people are beyond rehabilitation- Hitler, McCarthy, Walter O’Malley, Charlie Manson,  Jimmy Carter all come to mind.