MCCORNTHYISM
David Corn, 2006: "[The list] includes nine chiefs of staffs, two press secretaries, and two directors of communications—is that (if it's acucurate) it shows that some of the religious right's favorite representatives and senators have gay staffers helping them advance their political careers and agendas"
Joseph McCarthy, 1950: "A list of 205 people...who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department."
Obviously, for Podhoretz's comparison to work, David Corn would have to be a stark-raving homophobe spearheading a Democratic purge of homosexuals. The notion that homosexuality is something to be ashamed of, that homosexuals are "the enemy within", to be fought as Communists were fought, however, is entirely a conservative Republican one. A proper comparison would be to a journalist who claimed to have a list of Communists on Joe McCarthy's own staff.
Also, I'm guessing that Corn's list, unlike Joseph McCarthy's, is an actual list with actual names, and not simply a note to himself to "Remember to buy likker".
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