The word for Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy was “Demagogue: which happens to be the title of Larry Tye’s excellent new biography.  The context in which Tye sees the anti-Communist crusader and bully is clear in the book’s sub-title: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy.  That 75 year old shadow, Tye says, is on today’s White House. 

The key moment of McCarthy’s demise wasn’t when he was challenged by lawyer Joseph Welch, but when the audience at the Army-McCarthy hearings cheered Welch on.