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Old 11-21-2005, 03:24 PM   #697
Spanky
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Quote:
Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Google the TV of what Welch said in response. It's quite compelling video.

Fisher wasn't brought into the hearing because Welch was afraid McCarthy would slam him and attempt to destroy him. McCarthy going out of his way to "name" someone unrelated to the hearings was seen at the time as a very clear example of what a shitty guy he was. His power died that moment. Within a month he was censured on the Senate floor.
  • MR. WELCH - Senator, you won't need anything in the record when I
    finish telling you this. Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really
    gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.
    Fred Fisher is a young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came
    into my firm and is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us.
    When I decided to work for this committee I asked Jim St. Clair, who sits
    on my right, to be my first assistant. I said to Jim: "Pick somebody in
    the firm to work under you that you would like."
    He chose Fred Fisher and they came down on an afternoon plane. That
    night when we had taken a little stab at trying to see what the case was
    about, Fred Fisher and Jim St. Clair and I went to dinner together.
    I then said to these two young men: "Boys, I don't know anything about
    you except I've always liked you, but if there's anything funny in the life
    of either one of you that would hurt anybody in this case, you speak up
    quick."
    And Fred Fisher said: "Mr. Welch, when I was in the law school and for
    a period of months after I belonged to the Lawyer's Guild" as you have
    suggested, Senator.
    He went on to say, "I am the secretary of the Young Republicans' League
    with the son of the Massachusetts Governor and I have the respect and
    admiration of my community and I'm sure I have the respect and admiration of
    the twenty-five lawyers or so in Hale & Dorr [Mr. Welch's law firm.]"
    And I said, "Fred, I just don't think I'm going to ask you to work on
    the case. If I do, one of these days that will come out and go over
    national television and it will hurt like the dickens."
    So, Senator, I asked him to go back to Boston. Little did I dream
    you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to that lad. It
    is true he is still with Hale & Dorr. It is true that he will continue to
    be with Hale & Dorr.
    It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear
    a scar, needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you
    for your reckless cruelty, I would do so. I like to think I'm a gentle man,
    but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.
    SENATOR MCCARTHY - May I say that Mr. Welch talks about this being
    cruel and reckless. He was just baiting -- he has been baiting Mr. Cohn
    here for hours, requesting that Mr. Cohn before sundown get out of any
    department of the Government anyone who was serving the Communist cause.
    Now, I just give this man's record, and I want to say, Mr. Welch, that
    it has been labeled long before he became a member as early as 1944.
    MR. WELCH - Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the
    Lawyer's Guild.
    SENATOR MCCARTHY - Let me finish this.
    MR. WELCH - And Mr. Cohn nods his head at me. I did you, I think, no
    personal injury, Mr. Cohn.
    MR. COHN - No, sir.
    MR. WELCH - I meant to do you no personal injury and if I did, I beg
    your pardon. Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done
    enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no
    sense of decency?
    SENATOR MCCARTHY - I know this hurts you, Mr. Welch.
    MR. WELCH - I'll say it hurts.
    SENATOR MCCARTHY - May I say, Mr. Chairman, as a point of personal
    privilege, that I'd like to finish this.
    MR. WELCH - Senator, I think it hurts you too, sir.
Why didn't you list what McCarthy actually said. All we have here is Welch's response. This is nice theatrics but what did the Senator say and why did he say it.
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