Gene McCarthy Dies

Eugene McCarthy, the former Democratic U.S. Senator from Minnesota and an unabashed contrarian liberal, died today in Washington, D.C.

McCarthy's moral sense and courage might be instructive to us as we live through a political crisis as severe as that the country suffered in 1968. In that year, McCarthy ran for president on an anti-war platform against Lyndon Johnson, a fellow Democrat and the sitting president. As this excellent obituary in the Times says, McCarthy's intrepid act derailed LBJ's re-election campaign, put the issues of presidential power and the war in Vietnam at the center of American politics, and triggered an agonizing series of political events: Robert Kennedy's own ill-fated campaign for the Democratic nomination, the party's disastrous convention in Chicago, and Richard Nixon's defeat of Hubert Humphrey for the presidency in November. That denouement, of course, probably lengthened the war, but McCarthy's willingness to speak truth to power and seek peace is, I think, admirable.

(Incidentally, McCarthy was a Minnesotan in many familiar ways: he earned his bachelor's degree at St. John's University, a master's at the University of Minnesota, and taught at both St. John's and the University (then, the College) of St. Thomas, as well as in high schools in the state.)

UPDATE: This morning's coverage on NPR/MPR clarified another salient point about McCarthy in 1968 - that, though he was an accomplished and prominent Democrat, he was nonetheless willing to challenge LBJ because he put patriotism over party loyalty. Where is the Republican willing to do the same now? McCain and Hagel make occasional noises in opposition to Bush, but can there be no GOPer who can stand up to the Oval Office?