ALS signed “Dick,” one page, 7.25 x 10.25, personal letterhead, April 13, 1989. Letter to Louise Tinsley (Tinny) Steinman. In full: “Your letter of April 8 brought back many pleasant memories of the years Pat & I have had the privilege of knowing you. I am sure you will recall that dinner at the Sulgrave Club when I prevented Joe McCarthy from knocking out Drew Pearson! Some of my friends think it was one of my greatest mistakes—Pat joins me in sending our warm regards.” In fine condition.
Tinny Steinman was a 27-year Washington socialite when she invited Senators Nixon and McCarthy, as well as columnist Drew Pearson, to a dinner at the exclusive Sulgrave Club on December 12, 1950. The journalist had been a thorn in McCarthy's side for months, pointedly challenging the senator's claims that communists had infiltrated key positions in the State Department, the military and American Institutions as well as jabbing him about his tax troubles in Wisconsin. Pearson's criticisms made an implacable enemy out of the Republican and earlier in the year at another Washington dinner, the senator threatened the columnist that "Someday I'm going to get a hold of you and really break your arm.” When Steinman seated the two verbal combatants at the same table, it was only a matter of time before the two moved from trading barbs to something more physical. As the evening drew to a close, McCarthy confronted Pearson in the coat check room where he assaulted the veteran journalist. Nixon, a fledgling junior senator, stepped in and broke up the tussle and remembered in his memoirs that the columnist "grabbed his coat and ran from the room." The future president also noted that McCarthy said, "You shouldn't have stopped me, Dick."
The universally hated Pearson found little sympathy among the Washingtonians who found the columnist's tactics a bit too sleazy and below the belt. However, while the attack was overlooked and forgotten, the sparring continued and true to his word, McCarthy denounced the journalist on the senate floor, calling him "the voice of international communism" and "a Moscow-directed character assassin.” By 1954, McCarthyism waned and Vice President Nixon began attacking the Wisconsin senator under Eisenhower's instruction; McCarthy's influence ended as Nixon's political ambitions powered him into the White House. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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