How we cite our quotes: (LastName.Line)
Quote #1
I may say I resent very, very much this attempt to connect the great American Army with this attempt to sabotage the efforts of this committee's investigation into communism... (McCarthy.4)
In response to Stevens' opening statement that he speaks for the Army, McCarthy already sees a nefarious motivation behind a point of Parliamentary procedure. He's accusing the Secretary of the Army of betraying the Army, by speaking for the Army at an anti-Communist hearing. Can't accuse the guy of not having chutzpah.
Quote #2
Mr. Chairman, let's not be ridiculous. Mr. Welch knows, as I have told him a dozen times, that the FBI has all of this information. The defense plants have the information. The only thing we can do is to try and publicly expose these individuals and hope that they will be gotten rid of. And you know that, Mr. Welch. (McCarthy.62)
Everyone is standing in McCarthy's way. First Communists, then the FBI, and finally Welch himself. Nothing but traitors everywhere you turn. Psychiatrists have a word for that.
Quote #3
Not exactly, Mr. Chairman, but in view of Mr. Welch's request that the information be given once we know of anyone who might be performing any work for the Communist Party, I think we should tell him that he has in his law firm a young man named Fisher [...]. (McCarthy.74)
The insinuation is that Welch is also being betrayed by a Communist lurking in his own offices. The horror!
Quote #4
I certainly assume that Mr. Welch did not know of this young man at the time he recommended him as the assistant counsel for this committee, but he has such terror and such a great desire to know where anyone is located who may be serving the Communist cause, Mr. Welch, that I thought we should just call to your attention the fact that your Mr. Fisher, who is still in your law firm today, whom you asked to have down here looking over the secret and classified material, is a member of an organization, not named by me but named by various committees, named by the Attorney General, as I recall, and I think I quote this verbatim, as 'the legal bulwark of the Communist Party.'" (McCarthy.74)
While McCarthy is outwardly absolving Welch of any connection to Fisher's Communist leanings, he's actually implying Welch's guilt as well. We'd call that "deniability."
Quote #5
The foremost legal bulwark of the Communist Party, its front organizations, and controlled unions, and which, since its inception, has never failed to rally to the legal defense of the Communist Party, and individual members thereof, including known espionage agents. (McCarthy.95)
The Lawyers Guild was, and still is, a progressive legal organization defending human rights and civil liberties. That sure doesn't sound to Shmoop like they were betraying any American ideals. Back then, McCarthy considered anything to the left of the John Birch Society as traitorous.