Alger Hiss.
It’s probably a safe bet that there are not many in today’s world beyond historians and political geeks (ahem!) who know about Alger Hiss.
For those in that audience, an explanation.
In the day (the 1930’s), Alger Hiss was a young rising star in President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Graduating from Harvard Law School, beginning as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Hiss’s career took off. He had jobs at various points in the Justice Department, the U.S. Senate’s Democrat majority on the “Nye Committee” investigating government cost overruns, and, eventually, he was signed up for the U.S. State Department. (RELATED: Whittaker Chambers’ One-Man War Against Communism)
As time moved on, Hiss was moving up, associating with the likes of the U.S. delegation to the FDR-led Yalta Conference, where FDR was meeting with U.S. World War II allies Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. He was appointed Director of the State Department’s Office of Special Political Affairs and served until 1946, when he left government to be President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. (RELATED: Forty Years Ago Reagan Began to Undo the Stain of Yalta)
So far, so good.
And then.
And then a State Department colleague, Whittaker Chambers by name, stepped forward and, in touch with Republican Members of Congress, fingered Hiss as a secret spy for the Soviet Union. At which point all h…e…double L broke loose.
Zeroing in on Chambers’ accusation was a young California Republican Congressman named Richard Nixon.
The bottom line?
Hiss was investigated and then tried and convicted of espionage. He was sentenced to five years in prison, in considerable part as a result of young Congressman Nixon’s relentless efforts to pursue and convict him.
In the course of all this, Hiss became a household name. And the once Democrat rising star became an untouchable for Democrats of the day, who had once taken him under their wing and promoted him.
To simply say his sudden household name was enough to terrify Democrats of the day, turning any connection to Hiss into a serious political liability.
Which brings us to the sudden appearance of Maine’s Graham Platner.
Not unlike Hiss all those decades ago, congressional candidate and Democrat Platner suddenly finds his name increasingly everywhere in the nation’s political playing field. And it’s not for the good.
Samples?
From The New York Times: “Platner Wins Maine Senate Primary After a Turbulent Stretch …”
From The Associated Press: “Maine Senate candidate Platner says tattoo recognized as Nazi symbol has been covered.”
From Politico: “Graham Platner is officially Democrats’ nominee to take on Susan Collins,” with the subtitle, “The scandal-plagued oysterman was the only serious Democratic Senate candidate left on the ballot.”
From The Hill: “Women romantically linked to Platner describe ‘toxic,’ ‘unsettling’ conduct: New York Times.”
From The Maine Monitor: “I’m a Maine reporter who went to high school with Graham Platner. Here’s what explains his success.”
From ABC News: “‘What else are we going to do?’ Maine Democrats divided over Platner, some stick with him reluctantly,” with the subtitle, “Some voters say there’s been too much focus on Platner’s personal life.”
There’s more out there on the sudden Democrat celebrity Mr. Platner.
None of it good.
Which brings us back to the long-ago Alger Hiss.
Once upon a time, Alger Hiss was a rising star Washington insider. And of a sudden, he was a household name — and not a good one. To have any association with Hiss was like Superman touching kryptonite. Democrats around the country who had never laid eyes on Hiss, much less had some sort of professional or personal association with him, were tagged by their GOP opponents with being associated with Alger Hiss merely because they shared the same political party.
The young California GOP Congressman Nixon became such a star based on his investigations of Hiss that in 1950, he was elected to a California seat in the United States Senate. A mere two years later, in 1952, his pursuit of Hiss led the 1952 GOP presidential nominee, General Dwight Eisenhower, to tap Nixon as his running mate for vice president. (And everyone knows the rest of the Nixon story!)
But the point here is simple. In today’s media-saturated world, out of the blue, Maine Democrat congressional candidate Graham Platner is well on his way to becoming a household name for Democrats — and not in a good way. Democrats from one end of the country to the other in this congressional election year could be tagged by Republicans as “Platner Democrats,” held responsible for whatever ill-gotten activities are credited to Maine’s Platner. (RELATED: How Long Will Democrats Keep Defending Platner?)
Just as decades ago, any Democrat who was seen as having merely crossed paths with Alger Hiss was negatively tagged and connected to Hiss and his shenanigans, real or alleged.
Is it fair? Unless there is a real tie to Platner, no. But hey. This is politics. And an election year for members of Congress.
So it is safe to say Americans may well be hearing more — lots more — about Maine’s Graham Platner. It may have started with photos of a shirtless Platner and his Nazi tattoo.
But where it goes from here — and Graham’s value to campaigning Republicans as a symbol of his party and, in particular, its far left activists — remains to be seen.
Suffice to say?
Democrats would be advised to buckle in.
And remember the tale of Alger Hiss.
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