RIP: Eugene Mccarthy

One of my earliest political memories is anger at Robert Kennedy cutting in on Eugene McCarthy. McCarthy had the guts to challenge an incumbent president and, to my sixth grade mind, he had earned the right to the Democratic nomination. Of course, those were my liberal republican days, so I was committed to leading my homeroom for Richard Nixon. Still, I admired McCarthy far more than most politicians I read about. He seemed generally concerned with issues, more concerned with seeing justice done by his lights than getting elected.

I thought about McCarthy last night when watching commentary over whether Tookie Williams's death sentence should have been commuted. The central issues, according to CNN, was whether commutation or execution would better help Governor Schwarzenegger's sagging popularity ratings. At least that was the basis on which the talking heads presumed the clemency decision was made. All this invoked then Governor Clinton flying home to Arkansas in a great show of toughness on crime to execute a mentally retarded killer that I cannot believe Clinton really thought was an appropriate candidate for the death penalty (who knows about Schwarzenegger). Perhaps these are just images from a 12 year old mind, but I cannot imagine Eugene McCarthy doing the same. Our politics are impoverished by his absence.