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The unforeseen war of words the afternoon of June 9, 1954, marked the live-on-TV downfall of an era-defining demagogue, Sen. Joseph McCarthy. And it sealed a symbiotic bond between government and television that has grown only stronger in the half-century since.
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But Welch had been interrupted during his cross-examination of Roy Cohn, a key McCarthy aide. Butting in, McCarthy had accused Welch of trying to "foist on the committee" a young attorney from his own law firm who had communist ties -- or so McCarthy said.
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"Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator," said Welch, about to earn himself entry in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations: "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of honor?"
After Welch's dressing-down and a burst of applause from the gallery, the rattled McCarthy turned to Cohn and said, "What happened?
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/06/08/entertainment1258EDT0984.DTL&type=tvradioIt does give me hope to remember that America finally gave the boot to that POS.