So George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck is not on anyone's lips to win Best Picture Sunday night. All the same, the response to Clooney's film demonstrates that the McCarthy myth still possesses considerable potency, even among people who think his name was 'Eugene' and that he died just last year.

The myth of Joe McCarthy has two distinct aspects, each reflecting opposite wings of the political spectrum. There's the commonly—accepted image of McCarthy as a would—be Hitler who unleashed a nationwide reign of terror in which hundreds of innocent people were imprisoned, thousands fired from their jobs, and a still larger number silenced, leaving an entire generation traumatized. That's the story accepted by Clooney, Hollywood at large, the media, the academy and the Left in general.

The other side is McCarthy as hero, the man who defied a government full of appeasers to confront an underground threat to the American way of life, a fearless figure who exposed secret Communists, broke up spy networks, and awoke a sleeping nation. Through a mix of tragic personal flaws and political chicanery, he collapsed in the very hour of his triumph, leaving a shining example for patriots to follow. That McCarthy is accepted by a much smaller number, including paleoconservatives of the 50s generation, political extremists like the Birchers, William F. Buckley (with considerable reservations), and, most recently, Ann Coulter.