THE NATURAL HEIRS OF JOSEPH MCCARTHY

"McCarthyism" is a term popularized in the 1950's describing Joseph McCarthy's witchhunts and excesses against communism. According to Wikipedia, today the term is "used more generally to describe demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents."

Isn't it nice that the left and their slavish dolts in the Democratic Congress have taken up the mantle of McCarthyism?

Senator Leahy is holding his hearing today on his proposal to hold a series of show trials (oops sorry, a “Truth Commission”) on the Bush administration’s policies on terrorist detainees and other such matters. I wrote about it over at Politico yesterday. In essence, this is a push to criminalize his political opponents’ views on public policy and how to fight the war on terror. It is more reminiscent of a third-world banana republic than the United States of America. It reminds me of something Joseph Stalin was quoted as having said about education — that it is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed. To paraphrase Stalin, which seems most appropriate on this subject, this commission would be held in the hands of the radical Left and we know at whom it would be aimed. The intended effect is to provide a showcase for their inflammatory claims, polemical rhetoric, and predetermined judgments — and to intimidate anyone who could possibly disagree with the hard Left in the future on any of these issues.

Collectivists of both the communist and socialist persuasion must be salivating at finally having a chance at revenge and trying to wipe true liberals (i.e., conservatives) off the map.

This time, the clueless Hollywood types will cheer the "truth" commissions on. And, how appropriate that the show trials already seem like something that could easily fit into the mindset of old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics!