Tail-Gunner in the Pilot's Seat

[Wolfpaw]

Tricky Dick. That’s what we called him. Never to his face, though. Well, maybe a few times to his face; the man was one hell of a poker player. Back when he was in the Navy, Dick bluffed a senior officer out of $1,500…with a pair of twos! Can you believe that? Fifteen-hundred gone on a pair of twos! Still, that’s peanuts compared to what he did to us in Chicago.

Those of us working the Warren campaign had high hopes in ’52. We thought the Governor could get the nomination as a compromise candidate. Taft was too conservative, and Eisenhower…well, we didn’t know what to expect with Eisenhower.

“Eisenhower’s an unknown,” Dick would say. “You don’t even know where the man stands most of the time.” And as much as I hate to say it, Dick had a point. Hell, we hadn’t even known whether Ike was a Democrat or a Republican till a few months before the convention. And that Kraut name of his didn’t help.

All these years and I’m still not sure how Nixon managed to pull it off. Lots of backroom deals, I guess. You know; cigars and midnight phone calls and the like. Me? I was out on the floor the whole time, fighting hard for the Governor. So imagine how I felt when I heard California was throwing in with Bob Taft. And the second those undecideds heard...well, "avalanche" doesn't even come close.

You know, I almost feel sorry for Dick. I think he really thought that he was going to get the V.P. slot right then and there. But we’d just nominated Bob Taft, for crying out loud! I mean, the man made that egghead Stevenson look like Marlon Brando. No, no, we needed a running mate that could really fire the crowd up. And boy did we find one…

Tricky Dick. [Laughs] I tell you; by the time that convention was over, I was calling him a lot worse.

—James “Jim” McEvoy, quoted in Better Dead than Red: An American Memoir, by Studs Terkel

 

[Wolfpaw]

The New York Times
July 12, 1952

TAFT NOMINATED ON THE FIRST BALLOT;
SENATOR McCARTHY CHOSEN AS HIS RUNNING MATE;
"Mr. REPUBLICAN" PLEDGES "HONORABLE PEACE" IN KOREA
​

 

[Wolfpaw]

The New York Times
November 5, 1952​

TAFT'S VICTORY WON BY CLOSE MARGIN;
TAKES NEW YORK; IVES ELECTED;
REPUBLICANS GAIN IN CONGRESS​

 

[Wolfpaw]

The Cabinet of President Robert A. Taft

Vice President: Joseph R. McCarthy

Secretary of State: John W. Bricker

Secretary of the Treasury: George M. Humphrey

Secretary of Defense: Neil H. McElroy

Attorney General: C. William O'Neill

Postmaster General: Guy Gabrielson

Secretary of the Interior: Douglas McKay

Secretary of Agriculture: Ezra T. Benson

Secretary of Commerce: Sinclair Weeks

Secretary of Labor: Fred A. Hartley, Jr.

 

[Maniakes]

Great start! I'm looking forward to seeing where you're going with this. So far, I have just one quibble with the appointment of MacArthur as SecDef, as he hasn't been out of uniform for long enough to be eligable. Congress can remove the requirement, but the Department of Defense is too new and MacArthur too controvercial for this to be likely.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/10/113.html

(a) There is a Secretary of Defense, who is the head of the Department of Defense, appointed from civilian life by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. A person may not be appointed as Secretary of Defense within 10 years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force.

​

 

[Wolfpaw]

Of course, by then I had moved to Washington. I don’t know if I’d impressed Bill Knowland with my work out there on the floor, or if he just felt sorry for me after Nixon stabbed us in the back, but he offered me a spot on his staff. I would have had to be off my nut turning down a gig like that. Besides, I didn’t have a whole lot keeping me in California anyways. Well, not after Suzy left, anyways.

So I packed up and moved to D.C. I’ll be honest when I say that I was a little intimidated at first. Washington politics make California politics look like a tea party. But once I got into it, well…[Chuckles] I was like a pig in slop. I mean, working for the Senate Majority Leader is a pretty nice spot to be in when the GOP’s got the Congress and the White House.

Yeah, things were swell. For a while, at least. [Frowns] Then May rolled around. I remember the day. I was having lunch at the Mayflower with some buddies. Anyways, some guy runs in looking all out of breath and makes a beeline straight for our table. Turns out he’s in the press corps and is real buddy-buddy with one of the folks I was eating with. We ask him what’s the scoop and he says, “It’s the President! He’s got cancer!”

The table went dead. Then it exploded, everybody talking at once. “How bad is it?” “What’s going to happen?” “Did he know when he ran?” Every question you could think of. Then my pal Doug let out the big one; “What if he dies?”

There were two reasons we nominated McCarthy back in ’52. First, he could stir up a crowd in ways Taft and Stevenson could only dream of doing. Second, those of us who didn’t like him thought it would shut him the hell up. Old Jack Garner once said that the V.P. slot wasn’t worth a bucket of warm piss, and a lot of us took that to heart. I mean, who’d ever even heard of Harry Truman till Roosevelt keeled over?

Boy did we ball that one up. Since he’d been elected, McCarthy hadn’t missed a beat. Every day he was at the Capitol, except now he was President of the Senate instead of just some pain in the ass from Wisconsin. He’d been doing everything he could to turn the Hill into his own personal manor.

[Shakes his head] You know it’s funny in a nasty sort of way. We thought McCarthy and his little rat Cohn were bad back then. None of us thought…hell, none of us wanted to think what would happen with McCarthy in the Oval Office. And seeing as how things turned out…I mean, can you blame us?

—James “Jim” McEvoy, quoted in Better Dead than Red: An American Memoir, by Studs Terkel

 

[Wolfpaw]

Great start! I'm looking forward to seeing where you're going with this. So far, I have just one quibble with the appointment of MacArthur as SecDef, as he hasn't been out of uniform for long enough to be eligable. Congress can remove the requirement, but the Department of Defense is too new and MacArthur too controvercial for this to be likely.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/10/113.html

(a) There is a Secretary of Defense, who is the head of the Department of Defense, appointed from civilian life by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. A person may not be appointed as Secretary of Defense within 10 years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force.

​

Thanks for that tidbit! Well, I've got a plan for MacArthur anyways. I'll fix the Cabinet issue.

 

[Wolf]

Good TL. Keep it up. I love a good political TL.

 

[Wolfpaw]

New York Herald Tribune
August 1, 1953​

President Taft Is Dead;
McCarthy Sworn In as Successor​

 

[Wolfpaw]

Daily News

August 1, 1953​

TAIL-GUNNER IN THE PILOT'S SEAT!​

 

[Wolfpaw]

Perhaps one of the most unexpected things done by President McCarthy during his first weeks in office was his reshuffling of the Cabinet.

Unlike his predecessor Harry Truman, McCarthy asked for the resignation of several members of Taft's Cabinet almost immediately. Secretaries Weeks, McKay, Humphrey, and McElroy, along with Attorney General O'Neill, were dismissed. Secretary of State Bricker was bumped down to the position of Undersecretary, while Postmaster General Gabrielson was offered the position of Secretary of the Interior.

While historians still debate as to why McCarthy pursued such a radical change so shortly after the death of President Taft, many attribute it to the influence of Roy Cohn, McCarthy's newly-appointed Assistant to the President*.

—Excerpt from "Tailgunner: The Court of the American Nero" by P. J. Lykos


*This office later became the White House Chief of Staff

 

[Wolfpaw]

"And so I ask you, my fellow Senators, to make an exception to Paragraph 113 in the case of this esteemed member of our armed forces, so viciously and unjustly forced into retirement during the Truman Administration.

"In these turbulent times, our great Nation cannot afford such talent to be wasted. Fellow Senators, this man is a hero and a patriot who has only ever served his country with distinction. Do not deny the American people his wisdom, guidance, and strength."

—Excerpt from a speech made by President pro tempore Styles Bridges during the confirmation hearings of Sec. of Defense Douglas MacArthur

 

[Wolfpaw]

The Cabinet of President Joseph R. McCarthy c. October, 1953

Vice President: none

Secretary of State: John Foster Dulles

Secretary of the Treasury: Charles E. Wilson

Secretary of Defense: Douglas MacArthur

Attorney General: Herman Welker

Postmaster General: C. Wesley Roberts

Secretary of the Interior: Guy Gabrielson

Secretary of Agriculture: Ezra T. Benson

Secretary of Commerce: Owen Brewster

Secretary of Labor: Fred A. Hartley, Jr.

 

[Wolfpaw]

August 14, 1952

Seems things have gone busto between McCarthy and Hagerty. Barely two weeks and already McCarthy's showing Bobby Taft's press boy the door. That takes a lot of sand.

And who do they get to replace poor Jimmy? Adolphe Menjou! Unbelievable! I bet it was Cohn's idea, the Hollywood spin. That little nosebleed's always had a snoot for the limelight, and I'd bet dollars to dimes that Adolphe's going to do wonders for the Tail-Gunner's image.

Still, why a star like Menjou would give up Tinseltown and the silver screen to go be the Tail-Gunner's mouthpiece in Washington is out of this reporter's orbit.

—Excerpt from the diary of Mickey Schexnayder,AP

 

[Wolfpaw]

"I, Michael Angelo Musmanno, do solemnly swear that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as Chief Justice of the United States under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God."

—October 5, 1953

 

[TNF]

Sweet lord. This is a mighty right-wing cabinet and a crazily right-wing administration. Taft being President in itself is bad enough, but his successor is a much scarier man, if you love your civil liberties.

The most egregious spit in the face to the left, I think, would definitely be putting that union buster Hartley at Labor. Ouch.

 

[Wolfpaw]

Why thank you. Glad you like it

And believe me; it only gets better...

 

[Wolfpaw]

March 1st, 1954. That's the day it all started going downhill. Not counting Taft dying, I mean.

I'm not gonna lie to you; it scared the hell out of me when I heard. I mean, four spics—er, that is, Puerto Ricans—going into Congress and shooting people! Who woulda thought? I mean, there was the Truman thing back in '51, but we all thought that was a fluke.

But four congressmen plugged...Christ! We were terrified. We thought there was gonna be more. More shootings, bombs, maybe...

D.C. was a nuthouse the next day. Cops and Hoover's boys were everywhere. I remember seeing the Tail-Gunner's motorcade coming down Pennsylvania Avenue for the emergency joint session. Trucks filled with Marines, cops, federals, more motorcycles than you could believe...I was amazed there weren't any tanks.

I was one of the lucky ones; Senator Knowland made sure I got a seat in the gallery. I can still remember Joe's speech. You don't forget a speech like that. A speech that makes you feel so scared, so alone, so desperate...

And who was there in our time of need? [Laughs] Tail-Gunner Joe, that's who.

—James “Jim” McEvoy, quoted in Better Dead than Red: An American Memoir, by Studs Terkel

 

[Wolfpaw]

The New York Times
March 3, 1954

AMERICA UNDER ATTACK;
PRESIDENT ADDRESSES EMERGENCY JOINT SESSION;
ANNOUNCES PLANS TO HEIGHTEN STATE OF EMERGENCY​

 

[Wolf]

The New York Times
March 3, 1954

AMERICA UNDER ATTACK;
PRESIDENT ADDRESSES EMERGENCY JOINT SESSION;
ANNOUNCES PLANS TO HEIGHTEN STATE OF EMERGENCY​

Holy shit!

I think the only Presidents I have seen that were worse were James Eastland in 1973: A Very Bad Year and Jim Jones (yes that Jim Jones) in For All Time (and that was no where near the worst event in FAT)