There is debate at the Volokh Conspiracy as to whether Ted Kennedy’s technique of guilt-by-association against Samuel Alito evokes a valid analogy to Joseph McCarthy’s disgrace at the Army-McCarthy hearings.
Here is Joseph Welch’s famous rebuke to Joseph McCarthy at those hearings on June 9, 1954:
“Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
What was Ted Kennedy attempting to do today, other than to assassinate Sam Alito’s character by charging him with responsibility for every statement made by Concerned Alumni of Princeton? Todd Zywicki’s analogy is chillingly apt: Kennedy’s clumsy accusation was entirely within the spirit of inquisition McCarthy was attempting to use against Fred Fisher, for having once been a member of the Lawyer’s Guild.