Evaluating Three McCarthys

As far as I can remember, I have never personally known anyone with the name of McCarthy. But I have known about three “men” with that name, and I am posting a brief evaluation of those three here.

Charlie McCarthy was the name of a ventriloquist’s dummy. Beginning back in the 1930s, Edgar Bergen (who was an actor, comedian, and ventriloquist), made Charlie McCarthy a popular and beloved figure in American entertainment from 1937 on for decades. 

I probably heard Bergen and McCarthy on the radio in the late 1940s. During those years my birth family would often sit around the dining table in the evenings listening to radio programs. Surprisingly, Charlie was well known as ventriloquist Bergen’s dummy even though he couldn’t be seen.

Bergen (1903~78) was the father of the well-known actress Candice Bergen (b. 1946). In her early girlhood years, she was irritated whenever she was referred to as Charlie McCarthy’s little sister.*¹

A few years after I first heard of Charlie McCarthy, as a high school student I began to hear some about a Senator named McCarthy.

Joseph McCarthy (1908~57) was a U.S. Senator (R-Wis.), first elected to the Senate in 1946. He was relatively unknown until early in 1950 when he began charging that there was massive Communist infiltration in the U.S. government.

Margaret Chase Smith, Maine’s Republican Senator from 1949 to 1973, was a leader in the opposition to Sen. McCarthy’s spurious charges. Heather Cox Richardson wrote about that on June 1, 2022, noting that “once upon a time, Republican politicians were the champions of reason and compromise.”

In 1954 the Senate finally voted to censure McCarthy, and according to a Senate webpage, “Censured by his Senate colleagues, ostracized by his party, and ignored by the press, McCarthy died three years later, 48 years old and a broken man.”

But McCarthyism—and it is interesting that his name is one of the few names that became an “ism”—has continued to live on, most recently in Trumpism, another instance of a name becoming an ism.

Roy Cohn (1927~86) was Sen. McCarthy’s chief counsel in the 1954 hearings, and then he was Donald Trump’s lawyer and mentor for 13 years in the 1970s and ’80s. A Yale history professor’s opinion piece about the connection of McCarthyism to Trumpism was published on Dec. 4, 2020.

Kevin McCarthy is a current U.S. Representative (R-Calif.) and the top Republican in the House. First elected to Congress in 2006, McCarthy (b. 1965) was elected as GOP majority leader in 2014, the fastest-ever ascent to that pivotal leadership post.

McCarthy is a Southern Baptist, and his pastor in Riverside, Calif., flew to Washington to offer the opening invocation of the House on the day before McCarthy was installed as the majority leader. The next day, McCarthy told a D.C. group of religious conservatives that he was “proud to be a Christian.”*²

During the impeachment investigation in 2019, Cleveland Plain Dealer cartoonist Jeff Darcy referred to Rep. McCarthy as “President Trump’s ventriloquist dummy puppet.” He then added, “Out of respect to legendary ventriloquism puppet Charlie McCarthy, the two are not related.”*³

Soon after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, McCarthy was highly critical of Pres. Trump, rightfully calling it an "unprecedented attack on our nation." He said that Trump's words and actions "helped to encourage the actions of the rioters" and that the President's "betrayal of his office and supporters" was a "dishonor to the country."

However, before the end of that month, McCarthy backtracked his criticism and even went to Mar-a-Lago to visit with Trump. He seems to once again to be “my Kevin,” as Trump has referred to him through the years.

Now Rep. McCarthy is vying to become Speaker of the House when the 118^th Congress convenes on Jan. 3, 2023. Implying McCarthy’s lack of integrity, columnist Dana Millbank wrote on Dec. 2 that McCarthy “sells his soul to extremists in hopes of eking out enough votes to become speaker.”

Clearly, Charlie seems to be the best of the three McCarthys.

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*¹ I first remember Candice Bergen as the leading actress in Sand Pebbles (1966), one of my favorite movies.

*² Even though I was a Southern Baptist for 65 years, I have far more respect for Rep. Jamie Raskin (see my Dec. 10 post) who is a Jew, than for Rep. McCarthy. That is largely because of the latter’s hypocrisy or opportunism—and for his besmirching the good name of Christians.

*³ Here is the link to Darcy’s cartoon and article about Kevin and Charlie.

Note: The fourth paragraph about Rep. McCarthy was generated by ChatGPT, the new AI online program. I just slightly modified what it wrote from my prompt asking for McCarthy's criticism of Pres. Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Happy Birthday, Congressman Raskin!

Back in July 2015, I posted a blog article titled "Happy Birthday, Senator Graham!” That was on the occasion of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s 60^th birthday—but I thought more of him then than in the years since.

This post is about Representative Jamie Raskin, who celebrates his 60^th birthday next Tuesday. I do not expect to be disappointed in him as I have been in Sen. Graham. 

Jamin Ben Raskin was born on December 13, 1962, the son of Jewish parents and the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants to the U.S.  Raskin, who goes by the name Jamie, has B.A. and J.D. degrees from Harvard University.

For more than 25 years Raskin was a constitutional law professor at American University Washington College of Law. In 2006, he was elected to the Maryland Senate, where he served until 2016 when he was elected as Maryland’s 8^th district Representative to the U.S. Congress.

On July 1, 2021, Raskin was one of the seven Democrats appointed to the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. Last month with nearly 80% of the vote, he was re-elected as a Representative for the third time.

Raskin has long lived in Takoma Park, Md., a D.C. suburban city that is adjacent to Silver Spring (where my two sons live).

Rep. Raskin suffered an “unthinkable” week from the last day of 2020 to January 6, 2021. The tragic story of that week, and much more, is told in his book Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy (2022).

On December 31, 2020, Raskin's office announced that his son Tommy, a graduate of Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring and a second-year student at Harvard Law School, died at the age of 25.

(My younger son, Ken, has taught at Blair for more than 20 years now, but he didn’t know Tommy; currently there are around 3,600 students at Blair, the largest public high school in Maryland.)

On January 4, 2021, Raskin and his wife posted an online tribute to their son, stating that following a prolonged battle with depression, Tommy had died by suicide. That was an unthinkable tragedy for the Raskin family.

In a farewell note, Tommy wrote, "Please forgive me. My illness won today. Look after each other, the animals and the global poor. All my love, Tommy."

Tommy was buried on January 5. On the very next day, Rep. Raskin was in the Capitol with his daughter and son-in-law during the January 6 Capitol attack.

On that fateful day, Raskin had to experience the unthinkable attack on the U.S. Capitol—with the realistic fear that he could be killed along with many others gathered there on what should have been routine congressional business.

Hours later he began drafting an article of impeachment against President Trump, and six days later House Speaker Pelosi named Raskin the lead manager of Trump's second impeachment.

His book, Unthinkable, focuses on his son's life as well as his preparation for the impeachment trial. Whether you read all the book or not, I highly recommend reading the powerful 35-page Prologue.

(Raskin’s book should be available in most public libraries; I read the Kindle version checked out from my local library.)

Rep. Raskin is a man of intelligence, empathy, and moral integrity—at least that is my appraisal of him at this time.

We often hear negative things said about the top politicians in the country. I had a friend who regularly referred to the Congresscritters. And, sadly, there are some of Raskin’s colleagues in the 435-member House of Representatives who doubtlessly merit widespread criticism.

While I regret that there are many current House members who are of rather small caliber—and many of those have been re-elected for another two years—I am grateful that there are also many Representatives of high quality, and certainly Rep. Raskin is one of the best.

The House will likely be rather chaotic in the coming two years, but after the 2024 election I strongly hope for a better House with more exemplary members like Raskin.

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Note: I asked the Chat GTP online AI program (https://chat.openai.com/chat) to improve my concluding paragraph. I agree with their lengthier, and unaltered, statement, which was produced in less than ten seconds:

In the coming two years, the House of Representatives may experience a great deal of turmoil and unrest. However, after the 2024 election, I am hopeful that we will see a more cohesive and effective House, with members who are dedicated to serving the best interests of the American people. One such member who exemplifies these qualities is Representative Jamie Raskin, who has shown himself to be a thoughtful and principled leader. I believe that with more members like Raskin, the House will be better able to tackle the challenges facing our nation and work towards a brighter future for all Americans.