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Los Angeles Times
December 3, 1954
The Los Angeles Times published this article in 1954 about the Senate's rebuke of Senator Joseph McCarthy for the controversial tactics he used while investigating Communist activity.
By Robert T. Hartmann
Washington, Dec. 2—Sen. McCarthy stood condemned by his colleagues tonight as the Senate adjourned the special censure session which split its Republican members into two angry camps.
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The final vote was 67 to 22 on a much-amended resolution in which the word censure nowhere appears.
Neither is there any trace left of the original second count condemning McCarthy's treatment of Brig. Gen. Ralph Zwicker as a witness in the Peress investigation. The Senate rebuked him only for his conduct toward Senators and two Senate committees.
There were 22 Republicans, including California's Senate Majority Leader Knowland and Sen. Kuchel, opposing censure to the bitter end.
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And there were 22 Republicans, including the instigator of the action, Sen. Flanders of Vermont, and all three GOP members of the Watkins committee, who joined with a solid bloc of 44 Democrats and Sen. Morse (Ind.) Or., in voting censure.
McCarthy, who with his vote might have kept a majority of Republicans on his side, merely voted present.
His last-ditch defenders took what comfort they could from the legislative legerdemain by which the Zwicker charge never came to a vote and the word censure wound up missing. But Vice-President Nixon, who presided over the climactic day of parliamentary maneuver, refused to rule directly on Sen. Bridges' inquiry contending that it was “not a censure resolution” as finally adopted.
Nixon said the printed title of the resolution used the term “relating to the conduct of the junior Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. McCarthy,” and that further interpretation was up to each individual.
Later, when asked if he felt censured, McCarthy laughingly said: “Well, it wasn't exactly a vote of confidence.”
Sen. Watkins (R) Utah, chairman of the select committee, said he doesn't know the difference between the two words and that some people think condemn is a stronger expression. The three previous censure actions in Senate annals did not invariably imply the word censure.
Watkins declined to comment on the outcome. Earlier, on the specific charge that McCarthy had abused the select committee and its 67-year-old chairman, the Senate had voted 64-23. On this preliminary roll call Sen. Case abstained as “a party in interest” but he later voted for the final resolution.
The galleries were crowded but orderly through most of the closing day of debate. McCarthy himself did not appear until 4:15 p.m., his arm still slung in a cast.
Final voting began at 4:35 p.m., after a futile delaying action by anticensure forces.
The pro-McCarthy forces did succeed, with the aid of a ruling by Nixon as the Senate's presiding officer, in preventing two Democratic-sponsored amendments affirming the Senate's abhorrence of Communism and intention to continue investigating it.
But the Vice-President, after ruling the subject-matter “not germane” to the pending question, made the same decision in reply to the suggestion of Sen. Dirksen (R) Ill., that the Senate might commend McCarthy for his anti-Red efforts in the same amendment.
Acrimony reached its highest pitch at this point. When Sen. Ervin (D) N.C., a member of the Watkins committee, and Sen. Daniel (D) Tex., tried to attach their anti-Communism declarations to the resolution, they were blocked by Sen. Jenner (R) Ind., one of McCarthy's stanchest supporters.
His arms flailing the air and his voice rising, Jenner shouted his objection to the unanimous consent required and cried:
“Now my Democratic friends on the other side of the aisle want to fight Communism, do they? Well, the record's made and you're going to have to live with your record—you're not going to gild the lily!”
Another fervent McCarthy defender, Sen. Welker (R) Ida., blocked an effort after the vote was taken to expunge the record of remarks made against McCarthy by Sen. Flanders (R) Vt. Flanders arose to apologize for likening McCarthy to Hitler, although McCarthy had already left the chamber.
Earlier, Welker had hinted that he will seek the censure of other Senators on the basis of the precedent set in this case.
The two charges on which McCarthy was formally condemned were (1) his failure to co-operate with and abuse of the elections subcommittee which investigated him during the Democratic-controlled 82nd Congress and (2) his contemptuous attitude toward the Watkins censure committee in public statements and during the current session.
Tentative approval was given the first censure count yesterday by a 67-to-20 vote, and the final roll call differed little from the first. The only switch was Sen. Millikin, (R) Colo., who voted for the first count but against the whole resolution today. Two Senators who did not vote yesterday, Chavez (D) N.M., and Cordon (R) Or., voted respectively for and against the final condemnation.
The Zwicker matter never came to a clear-cut vote. A motion by Bridges to table (kill) it was defeated, 55 to 33, but it was then completely replaced by an amendment, actually a substitute, offered by Sen. Bennett (R) Utah, condemning McCarthy for his conduct toward the Watkins committee including his undelivered “unwitting handmaidens of the Communist Party” speech.
Sen. Watkins himself, on behalf of the censure group, had offered to modify the Zwicker charge by deleting the “censure” phraseology and substituting disavowal of McCarthy's words. He conceded that “it appears there may be some doubt about passage of the final censure resolution as a result of this charge” although he said he still supported it.
The select committee's move to soften its second censure recommendation came after several influential Democrats, including the prospective chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Sen. Russell of Georgia, and the author of some of the original censure charges, Sen. Fulbright of Arkansas, announced they would vote against censure over the Zwicker affair.
This was the only break in the Democratic ranks during the two days of voting and the necessity for recording it was obviated by Bennett's parliamentary device.
Several Republican Senators who otherwise supported censure also balked on the Zwicker count, from which one member of the Watkins committee, Sen. Case (R) S.D., withdrew near the outset of the debate. Among them were Sens. Ferguson of Michigan, Thye of Minnesota and Saltonstall of Massachusetts.
The Senate reached adjournment sine die at 7:10 p.m. and the Republican 83rd Congress passed into history.
The last speech was a farewell by retiring Sen. Hendrickson (R) N.J., who figured in the censure debate as the object of McCarthy's “living miracle with neither brains nor guts” remark.
Only about six weary Senators remained on the floor as Sen. Knowland moved the adjournment and signalled the probable end of his term as majority leader. The GOP majority on hand had actually disappeared just after the censure vote when Nevada's newly elected Sen. Bible, a Democrat, had been sworn in by Nixon, succeeding Republican Ernest S. Brown.
Source: Los Angeles Times, December 3, 1954.
Appears in
Senate, United States; McCarthy, Joseph Raymond (politician)
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