Joe McCarthy's relationship with Bob Kennedy was minimal. Kennedy was not a politician at the time. Fresh out of law school his very rich father got him a job working for the Senate committee chaired by McCarthy. McCarthy's right hand man and main enforcer, Roy Cohen and Kennedy became life-long bitter enemies. To suggest that Kennedy was somehow responsible for McCarthyism is a distortion of the facts.
The relationship of RFK and McCarthy wasn't nearly as personal and close and mysterious as say the relationship between Jack Abranoff and the current resident of the White House.
The early fifties was a tough time for the U.S. The consolidation of the Soviet eastern bloc and the rise of Mao in the east, combined with the proliferation of nuclear weapons, put a hard edge on both parties. Democrats and Repulicans both were staunch anti-Communists. It was the right thing to be at the time. However, Joe McCarthy took it a step further. Communism had not always been a direct threat to the US or US interests. McCarthy decided that being anti-Communist meant destroying the lives of anyone who had flirted with Communism as a concept 20 years before or had expressed support for the Soviet Union (our staunch ally) during WWII. McCarthy was an alcoholic demagogue who took advantage of the fear of his times (I will not draw comparisons and take this topic off track). However, lets be clear that Joe McCarthy was a Republican baby. He had the support of his party and for political reasons, the Republican party embraced him until he totally lost control. Then they turned their back on him but never had the cojones (hey! I live in Mexico now!) to condemn him. Don't try and pawn McCarthy off on us liberals.
Come on now PDS, admit that all you conservatives have a shrine to Tail Gunner Joe in the basement next to your Ann Coulter pin-ups.
-Tony