Power

For Joe McCarthy, last week brimmed over with the kind of thing Joe McCarthy likes best.

Armored with the Senate's immunity from libel suits, the man from Wisconsin rose and fired a McCarthy wad at Philleo Nash, 42, Harry Truman's special assistant on problems of minority groups in the U.S. Said McCarthy: Nash was a member of the Communist Party in the early '40s, his home in Toronto once was a Communist spy rendezvous, and at one time he was "in close contact with the Communist underground in Washington." As his sources, McCarthy listed FBI and Loyalty Review Board files, which are supposed to be closed even to a Senator.

Nash, who owns a cranberry bog in McCarthy's own Wisconsin and was once a lecturer in anthropology at the University of Toronto, made a quick reply: "A contemptible lie." McCarthy, he said, apparently was stung by an anti-McCarthy ad in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune (circ. 7,952), signed by a group of citizens including Nash's sister, Jean.

Cold & Haughty. At his press conference, Harry Truman spoke up for the defense. This was just like all the attacks the pathological Mr. McCarthy has made on all Government employees he doesn't like, said Truman. "When he said he had information from the FBI," a reporter asked, "do you think he was telling the truth?" Countered Truman: Does he ever tell the truth? He doesn't need information to become a character assassin. Then the President glared and said that he was not talking with immunity from law suit.

When the reporters reached McCarthy, he assumed a cold and haughty attitude. "If I sued everybody who called me dirty names . . . I'd be suing every Communist paper, every leading Communist in the country for libel and slander," he said. "If the President wants to engage in name-calling, he can go right ahead ... I can't imagine anyone being damaged by the President calling him dirty names." A few days later, McCarthy repeated his charges against Nash in a Milwaukee speech. "There is no immunity here," he said.

That McCarthy has not been gravely damaged was apparent last week in Washington and Wisconsin. A Senate committee, fearing the McCarthy wrath, got ready to shelve an investigation demanded by Democratic Senator William Benton into McCarthy's fitness to sit in the Senate.

Magnanimous. The news from Wisconsin was even more impressive evidence of McCarthy's political power. Governor Walter Kohler announced that he will seek reelection, thus made it clear that he will not oppose Joe for the senatorial nomination in the Republican primary. Kohler had offers of support from the Wisconsin Federation of Labor and many newspapers, if he would try to rid the Senate of McCarthy. But he was afraid, he couldn't beat the man whose methods he has long deplored in private conversation. Following the more-ancient-than-honorable rule "if you can't lick 'em, join 'em," he will go on the ticket with Joe. Kohler's announcement left no strong opposition to McCarthy's bid for renomination and reelection. Joe was magnanimous about it all. "He [Kohler] would have made an excellent Senator," he said.

At week's end, a pleasant draught was poured into the McCarthy cup by Republican National Chairman Guy George Gabrielson. There was a time when Republican leaders seemed to have some doubts about McCarthy, but Gabrielson now seemed to harbor none. On a television program called "Youth Wants to Know," a teen-ager asked the Republican chairman about "Jumping Joe McCarthy." Gabrielson chided the boy, said he didn't "like that way of speaking." The American people, he went on, "should be proud of what the Senator has done." When the youth asked about McCarthy's "methods," Gabrielson said that McCarthy merely submitted his charges to the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, but instead of investigating the matter, the Administration "started persecuting McCarthy."

McCarthy as a victim of "persecution" was a somewhat startling picture of that two-fisted mudslinger, though the Republican national chairman was obviously ready to argue for the validity of his portrait. But on one other point there could be no argument: as of last week, Joe McCarthy's political power was greater than it had ever been before.

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