Journalist Dan Rather. (photo: USA TODAY)
30 June 17
ou have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?"
These are the immortal words of army lawyer Joseph
Welch in response to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the communist witch
hunts of the 1950s. They are sadly just as apt today.
I do not like rising to the bait of the tweets of
President Trump. But this morning's demeaning, sexist, and scurrilous
attack on Mika Brzezinski cannot go unmentioned.
I have known Mika for
many years. We were colleagues at CBS News and she is a fearless and
fair journalist. I also knew her late father, Zbigniew, who was
President Carter's national security advisor. The fact that this attack
comes while Mika is still mourning his death only adds to the outrages
and disgust.
For years we heard sanctimonious and cynical attacks
on President Obama by many in the GOP about how he was demeaning the
office of the presidency. Really? Check your twitter feeds folks, for I
fear we have a demeanor in chief in the White House now. This is not
about policy or even politics. This is about a common decency.
Senator McCarthy once was powerful, and then the fever
broke and much of the country saw a small, vile, hateful man. His name
is now an epithet for an era of shame in our country's history.
In that 1954 testimony, the army lawyer Welch added:
"Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty
or your recklessness." Imagine if McCarthy had Twitter. There can be no
more surprise about the level of cruelty or recklessness we are
witnessing today.
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