National Affairs: Joe & the Law

Senator McCarthy picked last week to withdraw his $2,000,000 libel and slander suit against Connecticut's former Democratic Senator William Benton, who in 1952, after charging that McCarthy had engaged in deceit and was not fit to serve in the Senate, waived his senatorial immunity to Joe's libel suit.

In dropping the suit, McCarthy said his lawyers had been unable to find anyone who believed Benton's charges, and therefore Joe was unable to show damage. Within hours, came the inevitable. Walter H. Wheeler Jr. of Stamford, Conn., president of Pitney-Bowes Inc., and former president of the New England Council, wired McCarthy: "Your lawyers could not have looked very hard. I would be glad to testify for you that I believe what Senator Benton has said about you, and I am sure there are many millions of others in this country who would be happy to do likewise."