John Nichols on the GOP’s New McCarthyism and the 2008 Congressional Races

On Friday, Republican Congress member Michele Bachmann of Minnesota stoked controversy after calling Barack Obama “Anti-American” while urging the media to launch an investigation to determine who in Congress is pro-American or anti-American. Bachmann’s re-election now seems a bit less certain.

AMY GOODMAN: Election Day is two weeks from today. While all eyes are on the presidential race, a number of key Senate races are up for grabs, as well as congressional races, that could increase Democrats’ control. My next guest says the upcoming election favors Democratic Senate candidates more than any in recent decades.

Twenty-three Republican incumbents are up for re-election, compared to just twelve Democrats. Amidst the nation’s economic woes and the ongoing war in Iraq, disaffection with Republicans could help Democrats increase their two-seat advantage in the Senate and thirty-six-seat advantage in the House.

John Nichols is the Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine. His article on this year’s key Senate races appeared in last week’s Nation magazine. This week, he’ll write about key races in the House. John joins us here in the firehouse studio.

Welcome to Democracy Now!

JOHN NICHOLS: It’s great to be with you, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the key races.

JOHN NICHOLS: Well, the key races around the country are challenges to Republican incumbents both in the Senate and the House. That’s because most Democratic incumbents running this year, especially for the Senate, are people who survived the 2002 blowout, so they’re very strong Democratic incumbents. The Republicans, on the other hand, are that wave of people who came in in 2002 on the eve of the Iraq war, so they’re very vulnerable, people like Gordon Smith in Oregon, people like Norm Coleman who took the Wellstone seat in Minnesota.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to what is one of the most talked-about races right now. Before last Friday, it hasn’t been mentioned at all, not a contested race, particularly. I want to turn to Republican Congress member Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. She stoked controversy last week after telling MSNBC’s Chris Matthews the media should launch an investigation to determine who in Congress is pro-American or anti-American.

       CHRIS MATTHEWS: He’s one of the people you suspect as being anti-American. How many people in the Congress of the United States do you think are anti-American? You’ve already suspected Barack Obama. Is he alone, or are there others? How many do you suspect, of your colleagues, as being anti-American?


REP. MICHELE BACHMANN: Well, I think—what I would say—what I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would be—would love to see an expose like that.

AMY GOODMAN: That is Congress member Michele Bachmann. But before you comment, John Nichols, I wanted to turn to another man from Wisconsin. Her comments have stoked memories of Joe McCarthy. This is a 1954 clip of Senator McCarthy accusing CBS anchor Edward R. Murrow of links to what he called, quote, “traitors and terrorists.”

       SEN. JOSEPH McCARTHY: It is often said by the left wing that it is sufficient to fight communism in Europe and Asia, but that communism is not a domestic American issue. But the record, my good friends, is that the damage has been done by cleverly calculated subversion at home, and not from abroad.


I am compelled by the fact to say to you that Mr. Edward R. Murrow, as far back as twenty years ago, was engaged in propaganda for communist causes. Now, Mr. Murrow, by his own admission, was a member of the IWW—that’s the Industrial Workers of the World, a terrorist organization cited as subversive. Murrow is a symbol, the leader and the cleverest of the jackal pack, which is always found at the throat of anyone who dares to expose individual communists and traitors.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Senator Joe McCarthy in 1954. John Nichols, he’s from Wisconsin, so are you. And for especially young listeners and viewers, explain the echoes.

JOHN NICHOLS: Well, the echoes are very clear. Let me tell you that we did do better in Wisconsin than just McCarthy. We had the La Follettes and such. But McCarthy was a unique populist, and that’s an important thing to understand, populist anti-communist. He was actually on economic issues not all that right-wing. But he used the anti-communist fervor to win elections. He would not have been elected to the Senate were it not—and re-elected, were it not for this feverish talk.

And what he did was simply make things up. I mean, there’s no question that the history is quite clear. He claimed he had a list of all these subversives; they weren’t there.

Interestingly enough, and this is something that I would bring out with Michele Bachmann, is he was stopped by Republicans. Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican from Maine, stood up in the Senate and did a declaration of conscience saying he was wrong. And it’s striking to me at this point that so few Republicans have stepped up to say to this congresswoman from Minnesota, “What you’re doing is unacceptable.” John McCain should say it.

AMY GOODMAN: In fact, wasn’t the McCain campaign echoing this?

JOHN NICHOLS: Oh, my god. This is—

AMY GOODMAN: All weekend, the issue of calling Barack Obama a socialist.

JOHN NICHOLS: You know, the thing is that the word “socialist” is now more alive in the politics of America than it has been for fifty years. And not only was the bailout called socialist, wrongly, frankly—when you give banks money, that’s not exactly socialism—but the McCain campaign and its acolytes in talk radio, especially, it’s “socialism, socialism, socialism.”

And to understand—you know, Bachmann up in Minnesota is somebody who’s been on this for a long time. She is on the far fringe, even of the Republican Party. She and another congresswoman out in Colorado, who’s a little vulnerable this season, have been, you know, kind of the way—you know, they kind of scare Rush Limbaugh a little bit. And they’ve come into the limelight, because, frankly, the McCain campaign is echoing their themes and bringing them forward. It’s a very striking choice by McCain: instead of going toward the center, going to the extreme.

AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, you heard vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin continually talking about pro-America and anti-America regions of America.

JOHN NICHOLS: Well, and this is the incredible thing about this race, because we do see it bleed into the congressional races, as well, this notion that we are very different countries. And it is true. Different parts of the country are very different. But, I mean, that is—there’s a reason they’re doing this, because Barack Obama, love him or hate him, has had this message of unity, these themes of crossing partisan and even ideological boundaries. Many congressional candidates have picked that up. And so, you see the Republicans sort of going back; they’re trying to reinforce the old divisions, because the divisions are a political protection, in a sense.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about—this was not a contested race. She was pretty sure-seated, Bachmann. She says this.

JOHN NICHOLS: It’s a Republican-leaning district, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: And tell us who Elwyn Tinklenberg is.

JOHN NICHOLS: Well, he’s a pastor, a man of religion who pastored a church—I think it was a Methodist church—for a long time up in, you know, the outer districts of the Twin Cities. And then he got into politics, local politics, in Blaine, Minnesota—he was the mayor—and has been, you know, he’s kind of—he’s sort of the kind of candidate that you end up running against a safe incumbent, a good local guy who actually cares about issues, in this case, has, you know, some moral passions, including opposition to the war in Iraq, which is a big issue with him, and a real concern about healthcare reform and creating universal healthcare. That’s been a big theme of his campaign.

And the fact of the matter was, he was not targeted for a lot of help by even the national Democrats. But suddenly, because of this, something remarkable is happening. You know, this age of YouTube and instantaneous communication has changed the politics. You would not have been able to get the resources or the energy to a candidate like Tinklenberg, but when his opponent went on TV saying these things, suddenly, in his campaign office out in Blaine, Minnesota, the phones started ringing off the hook, the emails started coming in. They raised $150,000 in a day. Now I think it’s up to $750,000. He’s going to be a viable candidate, if he can find a way to wedge some ads into that Minneapolis-St. Paul media market against all the ads for Norm Coleman and Al Franken.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, let’s go to that race. These are two campaign ads from the Minnesota Senate race between the Democratic challenger, Al Franken, former Air America host and comic, and incumbent Republican, Norm Coleman. We begin with Al Franken’s.

       AL FRANKEN CAMPAIGN AD: Honest differences on the issues that matter to your family. The economy—Al Franken supports tax breaks for the middle class, a $5,000 tax credit to help families pay for college, stop giveaways to the special interests. Norm Coleman? He supported George Bush’s economic plan all the way, voting for budgets that have left us $10 trillion in debt. It’s Al Franken who will stand up for the middle class for a change.


AL FRANKEN: I’m Al Franken, and I approve this message.


SEN. NORM COLEMAN CAMPAIGN AD: He’s been called a watchdog. A former prosecutor, Norm Coleman saw the need for a special investigator in Iraq and then delivered. Norm directed investigations into the Oil for Food scandal, exposed dangerous holes in national security and uncovered billions in government waste and abuse. Leading newspapers say, “Kudos to Coleman,” “A valuable service,” “Highly praiseworthy oversight.” Norm Coleman, independent, effective, results for Minnesota.


SEN. NORM COLEMAN: I’m Norm Coleman. I approve this message.