Alger Hiss
Bill McGurn ·
Sep 27, 2011 at 11:44am
Apropos of nothing in the news, I just heard a terrific line from Howard Dickman, a Wall Street Journal editor. He doesn't claim it as his own -- says he may have read it years ago -- but it sure is wonderful:
"If Alger Hiss is guilty, there goes daycare."
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May '10
Re: Alger Hiss
I'm not sure I get it.
Is it that if Alger Hiss is guilty, even something as benign as your local daycare must be complicit?
Re: Alger Hiss
I think it means the whole liberal worldview blows up.
Aug '10
Re: Alger Hiss
Maybe it should be:
" If they admit that Alger Hiss is guilty......."
Jun '10
Re: Alger Hiss
If Alger Hiss was guilty, then Whitaker Chambers was telling the truth, and if Whitaker Chambers was telling the truth, then several liberal bureaucrats in the US government were actually Communist spies, and therefore, "McCarthyism" is more properly defined as a reckless exaggeration than as some outright scurrilous lie. And, US Congressman Richard M. Nixon was on the correct side of something.
Edited on Sep 27, 2011 at 1:27pmJun '10
Re: Alger Hiss
I'm old enough to vaguely remember the Hiss affair. And it produced one of the greatest books in the conservative library: Whitaker Chambers' Witness.
The joke is a good one because the entire liberal and moderate establishment was all in that Alger Hiss was not a spy. Their entire worldview depended on it. And he was a spy.
Edited on Sep 27, 2011 at 1:43pmMay '10
Re: Alger Hiss
I read Witness a few years ago and was blown away. The last two weeks I've been listening to it as I fall asleep at night. It's an extraordinary book. Sobering and exhilarating all at once. Chambers was a man of profound sensitivity and thoughtfulness. More than just a national treasure, he was a great gift to 20th century humanity. Right up there with Solzhenitsyn and Vaclav Havel.
Dec '10
Re: Alger Hiss
It seems to me that the Lefties managed to adapt when the Venona transcripts proved that the Rosenbergs were in fact guilty as charged. They simply moved from claiming that the Rosenbergs had been framed to claiming that they should have been given a deal to spare them the electric chair. (Of course, Julius and Ethyl chose to refuse any deal that would have involved renouncing their allegiance to the Soviet Union.)
Never underestimate the plasticity of Leftists' belief systems. They are, after all, heirs to the people who were for Hitler (during the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) before they were against him. The example of Pete Seeger having to rapidly scribble new lyrics to turn his anti-war songs of 1939 into his pro-war songs of 1941 should disabuse anyone of the notion that Leftists hold any fixed ideas beyond desiring the ultimate victory of world Socialism.
Jun '11
Re: Alger Hiss
Ha. Love it. That Alger Hiss was a spy is up there with Mumia killing that cop. Its clear to everyone with a brain what happened...
Aug '10
Re: Alger Hiss
So can I say, "If Mumia is guilty, there goes gay marriage?"
Jun '10
Re: Alger Hiss
No, McCarthyism is a libelous mischaracterization of the last time the congress did its job against evil in our midst. It's not an exaggeration (meaning essentially correct but overblown) it is a smear. Ann Coulter places McCarthy in the pantheon of 20th century people who are true heroes of the Cold War.
Two important things to remember about McCarthy: 1) he was accused of "naming names" -- not true in the sense that he resisted doing so and was only forced to it by the Dem majority to discredit him and 2) he was accused of never getting anyone convicted but he didn't want them convicted (he was a senator not a prosecutor or cop) he simply wanted these obvious Commies out of government. Was it too much to ask the Dems to help him?
Jun '10
Re: Alger Hiss
All I can say "Amen." The man (sort of the definition of a "tragic figure") could really write.