National Affairs: Joe & the Witnesses

Senator McCarthy, appearing as chairman of his Permanent Investigation Subcommittee, tried to give the impression that what he had up his sleeve was not really a dirk but only a funnybone.

McCarthy's humor was displayed during the testimony of Private Marvin Belsky, a doctor who was drafted into the Army, denied a commission when he refused to answer questions about Communist affiliations. Before McCarthy's committee last week, Belsky refused some 30 times to answer the same sorts of questions on grounds of the Fifth Amendment. When Washington's Democratic Senator Henry Jackson vigorously questioned the witness, McCarthy took occasion to ridicule the charge made against him by Army Secretary Robert Stevens. Said Joe: "May I say, Senator Jackson, I wish you'd refrain from browbeating the witness." Later, when Senator Everett Dirksen drew testimony that Dr. Belsky had to perform such mundane Army duty as cleaning latrines, McCarthy cracked: "Perhaps we have found the solution to what the Army should do with Communists." Dirksen was not amused. Said he: "That remark will be stricken from the record." Joe grinned happily.