DURING THE LATTER YEARS OF
the Truman administration a few senators, never more than a
handful, rose to challenge McCarthy. They tried to turn the slow,
resistant wheels of political power, to trip the heavy balance which
afforded McCarthy his privileged position, and even to drive him
from the Senate. A few senators such as Herbert H. Lehman of
New York and William Benton of Connecticut spoke out against
McCarthy from the floor of the Senate itself.¹ Estes Kefauver of
Tennessee sought to restrain McCarthy by tightening the rules
governing senatorial conduct. Following McCarthy's August 9,
1951, speech "naming names" of those he charged were security
risks, Kefauver introduced two resolutions-the first designed to
protect the rights of citizens before congressional committees, the
second to allow persons attacked on the floor of the Senate to file
a reply for inclusion in the Congressional Record.² For the most

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