Evening star., 1952-08-03
Benton-McCo Feud
Destined to Drag On
The Two Principals Regarded
As Senote's Leading Bores
By Fronk R. Kent

The running dogfight which Senator
William Benton of Connecticut and Sem
ator Joseph Mccarthy of Wisconsin
have been conducting for great many
weeks, in the Senate and out, has
reached a disappointing stage to some
of their colleagues. Due to Senator Nc
Cart:y'S illness there is q temporary
lull in the bombardment. But it will
not last long. When the feud first
started there were quite few Senators
of both parties who thought, perhaps
they might kill each other of. This.
they would have regarded as an ideal
double murder.
However desirable this outcome may
have appeared. they have pretty well
lost hope now. At the moment there
seems no prospect at all that the Benton
resolution asking the Senate to throw
Senator Mccarthy out will be acted upon
until next year-if then. Also. there
seems slight chance the So million libel
suit which Senator Mccarthy has filed
against Senator Benton will come to
trial until after the election-if then.
This is the suit in which Senator Nc
Carthy, acting as his own lawyer, says
he hopes to prove Senator Benton a
perjurer. In brief, there appears no
prospect for either q court decision or
senatorial vote to end this extremely
virulent senatorial feud for long, long
time.
What does impend is a protracted
period during which these two explosive
gentlemen will make speeches and issue
statements denouncing each other-but
not getting anywhere. They will beat
their respective breasts, tear their thin
ming hair, proclaim the purity of their
hearts and the undiluted nature Of
their patriotism At the same time, they
will keep the air filled with the most
insulting and opprobrious epithets of
which they can think. This has become
such routine performance that even
at his most tempestuous best neither
OF these feudiStS any longer can COM
mand more than handful of Senators
as listeners.
Frankly. they have taken rank as
the two leading senatorial bores. When
one considers carefully the quality and
character of the present Senate this is
no mean distinction. Until this Benton
Mccarthy effort to throw each other
OuC VI IIIC OcIldL6 TeaCQeQ lCS present
peak most unbiased observers in press
gallery and on the Senate floor would
have agreed that in any contest for first
place among senatorial bores Senator
Wayne Morse, Republican, of Oregon
and Senator Hubert Humphrey, Demo-
crat OF Minnesota. should be given ton
priority. Now, there is a general feeling
that the Benton Nice Carthy combination.
in sheer ability to bore, has edged the
Messrs. Morse and Humphrey out of first
place.
The charge is made that the Messrs.
Benton and Mccarthy are the most in
Satiable and incurable publicity seekers
the Senate ever saw. Here again this is
an accolade not easily won in a body
where literally every Senator has a
more or less avid appetite for favorable
publicity. The outstanding thing about
the Messrs. Benton and Mccarthy is
that they not only have this appetite
more largely developed than most of
their colleagues but they are both so
constructed that they would rather have
unfavorable publicity than none at all.
This makes them almost unique.