POLITICAL NOTES: The Dipsy-Doodle Ball

Wisconsin’s Senator Joe McCarthy gets headlines by what might be termed the dipsy-doodle or slider type of accusation-charges which are so horrible, fascinating or so slick with the tobacco juice of half-truth that the victim often strikes out helplessly while trying to get a clean swing at them. But last week the Senator made headlines because a Columbus, Ohio real-estate man named Bob Byers threw the same kind of verbal trick-ball at him.

Byers told a bankruptcy court that the Senator had lost $5,500 shooting craps with the witness’ son, Bob Jr., but had brazenly welshed on the debt. He also said that he helped McCarthy write the famed pamphlet on housing regulations for which Lustron Corp., a now defunct outfit which set RFC back $37.5 million, paid the Senator $10,000. McCarthy never coughed up a cent of that, either, said Byers.

McCarthy reacted just like his own victims and immediately denied all—in one burst of inspired naivete, he said he didn’t even “play craps.” Next day, Byers corrected his story a little: McCarthy, after being behind $5,500, had made the last throw “double or nothing” and won. This seemed to clear Joe of welshing, except that Joe was still sticking to his story that he hadn’t shot craps at all.