Sublime

advance, he thundered against Marshall’s detractors but never mentioned Jenner or McCarthy by name. Ike was experienced leading coalitions. Jenner and McCarthy were Republicans and by definition members of his coalition. Both were up for reelection, and Indiana and Wisconsin were critical states.

McCarthy wants to be president,” Ike told James Hagerty. “He’s the last guy in the world who’ll ever get there if I have anything to say.”

In 1896 McKinley had won 51 percent of the popular vote. In 1900 he won 52 percent, meanwhile increasing his share of the electoral college from 61 percent to 65 percent.

Instead of attacking McCarthy directly, Eisenhower deployed what Princeton politics professor Fred Greenstein called “the hidden hand,” and his defeat of McCarthy, culminating in the Senate’s vote of condemnation, represents what may well be the most adroit use of the indirect approach by any occupant of the White House.

After Charles Murphy’s death, Tammany had returned to its old ways of doing business, and corruption was rampant in New York City. But Roosevelt relied on the votes of Tammany Democrats in the legislature to enact his program, and he was reluctant to call the organization to task.

FDR’s view of Tammany eventually caught up with the times. When Charles Murphy died in 1924, Roosevelt said feelingly, “In Mr. Murphy’s death, the New York City Democratic organization has lost probably the strongest and wisest leader it has had in generations.… He was a genius who kept harmony, and at the same time recognized that the world moves

Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson sprang to Ike’s defense. McCarthy’s proposal “placed a loaded gun at the President’s head,” said LBJ.6 Johnson immediately recognized the opportunity McCarthy had provided to put the Senate on record supporting Eisenhower and to embarrass the GOP’s Old Guard at the same time. With Senator George’s cooperation,

Reform was in the air when Murphy took control of Tammany, and he put the organization at the head of the parade. As he saw it, reform had too many ramifications to be left to the reformers. Under Murphy, Tammany became the most potent force for effecting economic and social change in New York.