Today's Chicago Tribune carried a New York Times News Service article on the passing of Eugene J. McCarthy. The story notes: "As a senator, Mr. McCarthy was an unabashed liberal unafraid to take on Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) and his alarmist warnings about the communist menace."

No doubt Senator Eugene McCarthy was an unabashed liberal on many issues. And it's very likely that he, at a minimum, questioned Senator Joe McCarthy's anti-Communist crusade. But, as a senator, he most certainly didn't "take on Sen. Joseph McCarthy."

According to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Eugene McCarthy was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1958. This was a year after Senator Joseph McCarthy had died.